Sunday Before Christmas

This past Sunday was powerful to me. It was a spiritual feast. I attended the Granite Ward, which is the sister ward to the Granite Ridge Ward, my growing-up ward. We were in our seats a good 20 minutes before the services began and was able to sit and listen to the opening Christmas hymns. Sitting there, I kept feeling so much love for everyone in the room; I felt peacefully overcome with love for the members of my parent's ward. After about 10 minutes of these goodwill-type feelings, it dawned on me that I was feeling The Spirit. The Spirit speaks to me differently at different times, and this spiritual feast is one I won't forget. After the services began, I realized that Elder D. Todd and Kathy Christofferson were our Sacrament speakers. Kathy spoke first and shared a story from living in Mexico. The Christofferson's gave four Hershey bars to another LDS family, and she spoke of it being the family's most coveted Christmas gift. She followed the Hershey experience by recounting how that same family spent ten times the cost of the Hershey bars given to them to attend LDS worship services. She spoke of the sacrifices members make to participate in the ordinances of the restored gospel, which is what they give the Christ-child. She shared how our will is truly the only thing uniquely ours that we can give to Christ. Elder Christofferson spoke on Jesus Christ and his life. At the end of his talk, he bore testimony as "One who Knows". I felt his Apostolic witness as he shared his testimony. The music was ordinarily sung from the congregation choir. The fact that it was a little off was actually more powerful to me. The whole program felt so real and the Spirit was incredibly tangible. One of the music numbers was sung by the Primary kids - "Picture a Christmas". This was one of my favorite Christmas songs from my Primary years. During the song kids were picking their noses, bobbing up and down, and giggling - there was so much life to the program. After the services, I went up and got to talk to the Christofferson's for a few minutes. Elder Christofferson gave me a hug and said some very thoughtful things to me. It was a Christmas memory I will never forget.