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The Christmas Tree (of Life)

December 30, 2019

Merry Christmas! This has been the most special and most unique Christmas season I have ever experienced. It felt good focusing more on Christ and the needs of others instead of focusing on gifts and food. The blessings for that have been very prominent. Ironically, in the form of... gifts and food! The members of the ward and the mission presidency made sure to take care of us, and they were so nice in giving us meals and Christmas treats/gifts.

Christmas Eve!! In the morning we had a Christmas devotional with half of the mission. They served us a phenomenal breakfast and a bunch of missionaries shared their musical talents! Then we went to District Council. Since it was Christmas Eve, Elder and Sister Clark brought us homemade Christmas goodies like cookies and pumpkin bread, etc. It was amazing! Then, Elder Stanford and I had 2 dinner appointments! Oh man we were so full of food that day! One of the families went above and beyond and even gave us scarves, gloves, and candy! So incredibly nice! Our hearts AND bellies were full! Soooo so nice! Super grateful!

Christmas Day!! Oh what a great day it was! We opened presents and ate some leftover pizza for breakfast! Thank you SO much to everyone that sent me something for Christmas! I loved it all and I love you all! Then, I got to talk to family for a bit, which is always super nice! After that, Elder Stanford and I played some games that he got for Christmas in the church parking lot. We played a game similar to Tennis, and also some sort of reindeer antler ring toss game. It was fun! At the end of the night, I made us some SUPER good steaks for dinner. We put grilled onions, mushroom, garlic, and cheese on top, with a baked potato. It was very tasty, thanks dad for the steak as a Christmas present! Because we werent allowed to visit anyone, (unless they invited us over, which no one did haha) it was a super chill day of playing games at the church, eating, and talking to family. 

All those festivities were AMAZING, but believe it or not, that wasnt even the highlight of my week! We had a ward activity where we reenacted Lehi's vision in 1 Nephi 8 (give it a read, I rate it a 10/10). For those who dont know, this dream consists of people holding on to a rod of iron, leading them down a path that leads to The Tree of Life, which symbolizes happiness, exaltation, and the love of God. The tree of life is ultimately our goal, which we can achieve as long as we stay on the path that leads us there. So, for the activity, we made a maze in the church, with strings of lights showing the way to the tree at the end. But there were distractions and temptations trying to get them off the path. We also built a BEAUTIFUL tree with white lights and balloons to represent the tree of life. It actually looked really awesome and I have some pictures! 
ANYWAY, here is the crazy part! A guy we are teaching, named Eduardo, brought his dad, Eddie, to the activity! His dad was not interested in the church at all and was very closed off when we tried talking to him. And unfortunately, they were super late! So late that the activity was pretty much over! So, we just brought them to the tree of life to teach them about the story in the scriptures and how we can apply it in our lives. It ended up being a pretty long lesson with Eddie in front of AN ACTUAL TREE OF LIFE. It was so powerful! Eddie was originally like a brick wall and wouldnt share anything with us, but he opened up SO MUCH and poured his heart and soul into this discussion. He cried twice during the lesson! He wants to start meeting with us regularly now! We apologized to Eddie because he wasnt able to eat the food that was provided at the activity because it was all gone by the time he got there, and he said "Don't worry, you have fed me so much more than you realize."

Holy cow we have great experiences every single day! I could write a whole novel about it, but I wont! I could probably also write a novel about how hard missionary work can be, because we get wrecked! Every day! Haha, but its fun


Have a great week!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Webster

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