Week 50: Christmas in Zion
Dear Loved Ones,
It snowed so heavily this week that we had to cancel church. Saydi's phone is turned off, so I spent all of Sunday imagining her trapped inside, dressed and ready to go like she usually is when we come over to get her ready for church, waiting for us to come. And we don't. I thought snow days would be a party, but I wanted to be out helping her. We're seeing her tonight, though.
With Christmas approaching, I've been thinking a lot about the wise men lately since they feature in the Christmas video The Christ Child. Mary lived with an enormous secret inside her nine months, and even once he was born, she couldn't talk to anyone about his true identity except Joseph, Elizabeth, and Zacharias. And then these mystery men show up in her life ad they know him for what he is. She must have really connected with them and had years worth of thoughts and stories to share with them.
The VC hosts concerts throughout December (except for the one canceled Sunday night).
This Saturday, all the sisters put on a Christmas concert. Four hermanas did a Spanish song and I decided it was more fun than the fifteen English numbers combined-they had wrist bells and danced while they sang-so we ran around to the other side of the visitors' center and copied their moves. We thought we were kind of subtle about it, even when we started clapping to their rhythm, since all eyes were on the stage, but a lot of people told me afterwards that they'd caught our flash mob. Oops.
The front wall, the one we were dancing by, is entirely glass. That means it turns into a building-sized mirror when it's dark. The setup had a small stage in front of our Christus and I realized on our second-to-last song that we'd been singing to Jesus's reflection all night without realizing it. Our closing number was It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, which our music director decided is a Christmas hymn in the first two verses and a Second Coming hymn in the final one. It dawned on me that the visitors' center is on Walnut Street, diagonal of the temple lot, and if Jesus picks that dedicated spot above all other spots in Independence to return to, I was signing a Second Coming hymn, to Christ's face, on the very street where he will appear.
I love Independence and I'm happy to be staying here for Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Sincerely,
Sister Smith
It snowed so heavily this week that we had to cancel church. Saydi's phone is turned off, so I spent all of Sunday imagining her trapped inside, dressed and ready to go like she usually is when we come over to get her ready for church, waiting for us to come. And we don't. I thought snow days would be a party, but I wanted to be out helping her. We're seeing her tonight, though.
With Christmas approaching, I've been thinking a lot about the wise men lately since they feature in the Christmas video The Christ Child. Mary lived with an enormous secret inside her nine months, and even once he was born, she couldn't talk to anyone about his true identity except Joseph, Elizabeth, and Zacharias. And then these mystery men show up in her life ad they know him for what he is. She must have really connected with them and had years worth of thoughts and stories to share with them.
The VC hosts concerts throughout December (except for the one canceled Sunday night).
This Saturday, all the sisters put on a Christmas concert. Four hermanas did a Spanish song and I decided it was more fun than the fifteen English numbers combined-they had wrist bells and danced while they sang-so we ran around to the other side of the visitors' center and copied their moves. We thought we were kind of subtle about it, even when we started clapping to their rhythm, since all eyes were on the stage, but a lot of people told me afterwards that they'd caught our flash mob. Oops.
The front wall, the one we were dancing by, is entirely glass. That means it turns into a building-sized mirror when it's dark. The setup had a small stage in front of our Christus and I realized on our second-to-last song that we'd been singing to Jesus's reflection all night without realizing it. Our closing number was It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, which our music director decided is a Christmas hymn in the first two verses and a Second Coming hymn in the final one. It dawned on me that the visitors' center is on Walnut Street, diagonal of the temple lot, and if Jesus picks that dedicated spot above all other spots in Independence to return to, I was signing a Second Coming hymn, to Christ's face, on the very street where he will appear.
I love Independence and I'm happy to be staying here for Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Sincerely,
Sister Smith
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