Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

Well I feel like the first week of training is always so much!  I have forgotten how much you don't know when you first come out haha!!  But it’s been so much fun!! So my new companion’s name is Sister Tanner and she is the sweetest and funniest person!! She's an awesome teacher and she's got that greeny fire!! It’s going to be a real game changer down here in Portage!! She is from Salt Lake!! She is seriously the best!! She reminds me so much of my friend from high school, Ashlyn it’s crazy!!  

Tuesday

I had to say good bye to Sole. My heart broke in two!!  I love that girl so much. It was so hard to walk away!! It’s almost like when you get dropped off at the MTC. You’re so sad because you’re leaving your family and there is just a lot of emotions.  You’re so sad to go because of the love you have for your family, but you know it’s time. You’re scared and excited for what's coming next. The unknown is your best friend and your worst enemy. Words don't do it justice. It’s just the hardest moment ever. Anyway, that is how it is with every new companion and every new area….. this one was especially hard for me though :)  

But then I met Sister Tanner and I couldn't be happier. Because this is her first week, I had to teach her a lot and help her get use to the mission life.  It has been so good! Here's a little run down of what we spend a majority of our time doing: 

For part of her training, I am to help her learn how to teach!! So we have been teaching the restoration and role playing like crazy. It’s been so much fun for me!!  As you all know we don't have a lot of investigators right now, but we have plenty of less active members.  What better than to share the Restoration with them!! 

Another fun thing we did this week was going tracking.  So in my mission, we don't go tracking hardly at all because of the amount of people that are normally out and about, and a number of other things. But this week has been really cold so no one leaves their houses.  So, if no one is going to come out, guess what, we are going to go to them!! Sister Tanner froze!! Poor thing put her entire closet on and she still couldn't stay warm!! I was laughing so hard because she couldn't bend her arms because of the amount of clothing she had on!! 

We had a great lesson with Sue this week. She is going to the temple to be sealed next month! It’s been so fun to help her grow!! What a better way to start off the New Year!! 

Friday was my hump day.....We're halfway there.....oh we're living on a prayer

Sunday we got dumped on and I literally had to shovel a path to the car and then shovel our car out. Church got delayed 6 hours and we only had a 30 min meeting. It’s crazy but I was just so grateful to be able to partake of the sacrament. A member of the stake Presidency spoke yesterday on this article and I really liked it so I thought I would share it with you. 

Before I do though, I just wanted to thank everyone who has been so kind and has remembered me this Christmas holiday! The cards and letters and the packages!! It means so much to me!! It means so much to know that I have such a support group back home!! I love you all and I just want to say THANK YOU, your kindness and love has not gone unnoticed!! 

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!! And for all of you that took the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by Christmas, you have one week left….. Get on it Hahaha :)  

Ok here's that article!! I Hope that you can take it and see where you and your family stand.  Take in the whole meaning of Christmas and let it change you all year round!!

In our opinion: The 3 levels of Christmas

Christmas is a beautiful time of the year. We love the excitement, the giving spirit, the special awareness of and appreciation for family and friends, the feelings of love and brotherhood that bless our gatherings at Christmastime.

In all of the joyousness it is well to reflect that Christmas comes at three levels.

Let’s call the first the Santa Claus level. It’s the level of Christmas trees and holly, of whispered secrets and colorful packages, of candlelight and rich food and warm open houses. It’s carolers in the shopping malls, excited children, and weary but loving parents. It’s a lovely time of special warmth and caring and giving. It’s the level at which we eat too much and spend too much and do too much — and enjoy every minute of it. We love the Santa Claus level of Christmas.

But there’s a higher, more beautiful level. Let’s call it the "Silent Night" level. It’s the level of all our glorious Christmas carols, of that beloved, familiar story: “Now in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus ….” It’s the level of the crowded inn and the silent, holy moment in a dark stable when the Son of Man came to earth. It’s the shepherds on steep, bare hills near Bethlehem, angels with their glad tidings, the new star in the East, wise men traveling far in search of the Holy One. How beautiful and meaningful it is; how infinitely poorer we would be without this sacred second level of Christmas.

The trouble is, these two levels don’t last. They can’t.

Twelve days of Christmas, at the first level, is about all most of us can stand. It’s too intense, too extravagant. The tree dies out and needles fall. The candles burn down. The beautiful wrappings go out with the trash, the carolers are up on the ski slopes, the toys break, and the biggest day in the stores for the entire year is exchange day, Dec. 26. The feast is over and the dieting begins. But the lonely and the hungry are with us still, perhaps lonelier and hungrier than before.

Lovely and joyous as the first level of Christmas is, there will come a day, very soon, when Mother will put away the decorations and vacuum the living room and think, “Thank goodness that this over for another year.”

Even the second level, the level of the Baby Jesus, can’t last. How many times this season can you sing “Silent Night?” The angels and the star, and the shepherd, even the silent, sacred mystery of the holy night itself, can’t long satisfy humanity’s basic need. The man who keeps Christ in the manger will, in the end, be disappointed and empty.

No, for Christmas to last all year long, for it to grow in beauty and meaning and purpose, for it to have the power to change lives, we must celebrate it at the third level, that of the adult Christ. It is at this level — not as an infant — that our Savior brings his gifts of lasting joy, lasting peace, lasting hope. It was the adult Christ who reached out and touched the untouchable, who loved the unlovable, who so loved us all that even in his agony on the cross, he prayed for forgiveness for his enemies.

This is Christ, creator of worlds without number, who wept because so many of us lack affection and hate each other — and then who willingly gave his life for all of us, including those for whom he wept. This is the Christ, the adult Christ, who gave us the perfect example, and asked us to follow him.

Accepting that invitation is the way — the only way — that all mankind can celebrate Christmas all year and all lifelong.

"The Three Levels of Christmas" was published as a Church News "Viewpoint" in the Dec. 15, 1985, issue of the Deseret News. It was written by then-editor and general manager William B. Smart, who included it in his 1989 book, "Messages for a Happier Life."

The last paragraph of the Deseret News' editorial policy reads: "The Deseret News embraces the divinity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the light, life and hope of the world. it nurtures the light of faith in the darkness of an unbelieving world and acknowledges his teachings, grace and redeeming power as the way to everlasting happiness."

Love you 

Keep smilin 

Sister Kendrick