Light at Christmas & Into The New Year

Dear Family and friends,

As I begin writing this, I’m sitting on a little folding chair peering out of a paned window.  In the distance I can see a small farm, meadows, the edge of the Santa Clara river and a sage brush hill beyond.  Today, Elder Hancock and I are working at the historic pioneer home of Jacob Hamblin….. one of my favorite men in history and one of my favorite places to be!  In fact, today, it feels like a little slice of heaven.

It has been a magical month here in St. George.  Temple square and all of downtown has been draped in Christmas lights for thousands to enjoy.  On Christmas Eve we had more than 4,300 people tour the Temple Visitor’s Center and walk the beautiful temple grounds.  We hosted 23 December performances for the community at the Tabernacle, each one of them absolutely amazing.  While most of the performers were professional, my favorite was Tuacan High School’s performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.  Here is a short clip of part of their song…. you’ll be amazed:  http://youtu.be/nDt6kivd5oc

The last Sunday before Christmas, all of the missionaries, young and old performed during a missionary fireside.  Since I rarely sing in a choir, this was especially meaningful for me.  I think we all felt the support of heavenly angels as we sang our hearts out and bore testimony of the Savior to those in attendance.  

Christmas was wonderful as we were blessed with a visit from our youngest son, Billy.  He arrived Christmas Eve, just in time to help us with a crazy fun surprise we had planned for a local family.  The Hunters have 5 children, 3 boys/2 girls ranging from 1 ½ to 11 years of age.  They remind Denny and I so much of our own little family 30 years ago that we have adopted them as ours and thankfully they have adopted us.  Their children had been hoping and praying for snow, and one of them had apparently said to their mom….. “we can’t have Christmas without a snowman”.  So, we decided to bring some snow to them!  Late Christmas Eve we borrowed their dad’s big truck and drove 30 miles north to Pine Valley where there was plenty snow.  After loading the entire truck bed w/ that pretty white stuff we drove back to their home and sculpted a charming snowman in their front yard.  This was not the easy task we had planned for.  Unlike Seattle snow, this snow was as light as a feather, or it had crystalized in to ice chunks, so, it took a lot of patience to make our snow mound resemble a snowman.  We persisted though, and he eventually took form and brought lots of joy to at least the three of us that night!  See pictures above!

Christmas day we visited a rest home close by and spent several hours talking with and singing to the residents in their rooms.  I loved hearing Denny and Billy sing together.  It was a priceless experience and I am certain Elder Hancock and I will visit many more times.  I made Cornish game hens for dinner w/ all the Christmas fixings and left a giant mess in the kitchen which my good husband and son made disappear.  Then off we went for a late night viewing of Star Wars, Billy’s treat! 

The day after Christmas, Billy, Denny and I hiked in Snow Canyon.  Even though the sun was shining, it was perhaps the coldest, windiest day I can ever remember which of course added to the adventure.  We found shelter inside a Lava Cave.  It was a cave we’d hiked before but this time we went much deeper.  After 100’ in to the cave it becomes pitch black but with headlamps and flashlights you can  make out the edges of the cave and generally find your footing.  At one point, Billy found a hole not much larger than the width of our bodies, which provided access to an additional cave beyond.  He crawled through and insisted we come too.  Since I definitely didn’t want to be left behind, I went next.  It was quickly apparent that I lacked the upper body strength to pull myself through so they both resorted to pulling and pushing me from either end.  I was laughing so hard I was useless but then again, it made for another good story at least for Billy and Denny to share! Once inside, we found it incredibly warm…..keep in mind, we were probably 300’ in to the cave and 50’ below ground.  I got those numbers from Denny so you can trust them J.  Turned out it was the perfect spot for lunch!  Since I could only see about  12” in front of me, I tried not to think about the possibility of any creeping or crawling things and we ate our salami, cheese, crackers and dried mangos in style.

We found out this past Thanksgiving that holidays wo/ the kids are hard but we are grateful that we had Billy to hug for 3 days whenever we were lonely and we could skype with our other children and families.  We are looking forward to a big reunion we’ve planned with all of the kids and grandkids next Christmas.

This morning Elder Hancock and I arrived at the Visitor’s Center to find all the Christmas trees and lights down.  It felt strange and a little melancholy. In our training meeting, with the other missionaries, one of the sisters said, “We’ll just have to become the LIGHTS ourselves”!  I have thought about her comment all day.  We are taught that we were all given a little bit of Christ’s light at birth.  As we live our life we find we must take care of and nurture that light within, as we are really nothing without Him.  What is so exciting though, is that with His light, we can effect great change in our own lives and in the lives of others, in fact, we can effect greater change than we could ever imagine!  I have seen Christ’s light work miracles in the lives of so many of the missionaries here.  I am truly grateful for Jesus Christ, for his birth, his life, his atoning sacrifice, his perfect example and for the LIGHT he is in my life.  As we turn the corner to the New Year, I hope we can all find quiet moments to seek even greater light and truth in our own lives.

We love you all,

Denny and Leslie