The Bingham6 Missionaries: Christmas in the Pines -- December 17, 2013

December 17, 2013

Maayong Pasco sa inyo!!

Kamusta kamo? excited ko para kining pasco! oh.... sorry... I mean, How is everyone?? I'm really excited about this Christmas! This week flew by super-fast! We have been getting ready 3 people to get baptized on the 27th. Their interview is on the 20th so we have been visiting them every day to get them ready. And they live super far away. haha But it's ok! Well worth the 15 pesos... that's like 20 cents. I think when I go home I will have a super easy time spending money because I'll still be thinking that everything is super cheap.

This week was our district conference, Christmas conference, and we watched the Christmas devotional, too! It was a good week. Really spiritual! And this might sound super obvious to everyone, but I've never really connected the atonement to Christmas since this year. I've also discovered this year that the real meaning of Christmas is missionary work. And even though I have no material gifts to give anyone, I have something way better!

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26) I really admire Nephi. He is so cool! His whole entire life and his whole entire focus what about Christ. Not just in December. Not just on the 25th of December, but he was a disciple of Christ during all days of the year. I'm sure he wasn't perfect, like the rest of us, but I'm sure he really tried his best.

During our district conference, one of the apostles from the 2nd quorum of the 70 came to our branch, Elder Adulu. He was hilarious! But one thing he said spoke about really stuck out to me. He said that there wasn't one of us who, if, was offered 1 million pesos (or dollars) for one week of work, anyone would do it. The catch is that we would have to work with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength all the time, or else we wouldn't get the money. I would totally do that! 1 million pesos is quite a ton more pesos than I currently have in my bank account, let alone 1 million dollars!

Then he said that the highest degree in the celestial kingdom makes 1 million dollars seem like 25 cents. So, why don't we live like we are working for the Celestial kingdom?
That kind of blew my mind. It really made me think about how often I serve my mission with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength. There are lots of times that I do and have, and most of the time when I come home after work I can barely stay awake through planning because I'm exhausted, but I would be lying to you if I said it was like that every single day of my mission. Which made me sad at myself. But, I really like President Uchtdorf's talk during the priesthood session, "You can do it now!"

In it he talks about one time when he was skiing and he fell down and he couldn't get up. He was sitting there for a while, and made sure that his mask and goggles were on so no one could recognize him. Finally, his grandson came and said, "Opa, you can do it now!" and simply pulled him up. The rest of his talk is about how even if we haven't been doing so great lately, or before, or ever, we can start today. I think that's the real beauty of Christmas. Christ came to this earth, taught his gospel, restored the priesthood, called new prophets, suffered comprehensible pains for the world, died on the cross, broke the bands of death and was resurrected so that we can be too; he is the advocate for us because without Him, our nothingness efforts would prevent us from returning to live in the presence of our Father.

You and I have all heard all of this millions of times before at church, or seminary, or we teach it as missionaries every day. But what does this really mean for us? Like honestly. Why does any of this even matter?

Because, without these events, and without our Savior, we would remain in a fallen state. You know when you have those dreams that you are falling and you get so scared that you wake up and spaz out all over the place? For me, that millisecond of fear is the worst thing in the world. I hate it. So much! I hate falling from high places (Not that it happens regularly or anything...) that’s probably why I haven't really enjoyed skiing in the past. Or those trust falls they make you do at girl’s camp.

Another thing that stuck out to me during Christmas conference was when they were talking about how one of Satan's tricks is to convince us that, "All is well in Zion." He convinces us that our lazy efforts are ok, and that in the end we will all be able to go to the Celestial Kingdom, even if we haven't done our best.

The truth is: we are not ok. All is not well in Zion. Our half efforts will only get us to the Kingdom that is half the glory.

The miracle of Christmas is that Christ came to this world so we, as mortals, can wake up! So we can wake up out of our sorrows, sins, "problems," and learn how to do our best. And through repentance, our best can keep getting better and better. We can be recovered from our fallen states. We don't have to live with fear or torment or misery for eternity. All because of the Savior.

So this Christmas, let’s all take some time to be appreciative of our Savior and Redeemer. Let's share the gospel. Let's bring peace to other peoples' souls. Let's wake up.

I say these things, In the name of my Savior and our Brother, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Sister Bingham