CHRISTMAS OR NAVIDAD?

FELIZ NAVIDAD MY BELOVED ONES. How faireth all of thee during this lovely Christmas week? I´m feeling real real wonderful. How I love Christmas. Even though it feels a little weird because I´m eight trillion miles away from my family and am constantly sweating, the Christmas Spirit is still strong here in the bowels of South America. I love Christmas. But before I talk about the blessing of this holiday, I want to come clean and confess that I did mourn quite a bit on the eighteenth. I tried not to, and I´ll probably regret it in a few months, but it was impossible not to. I wish joy and peace to all those who were able to partake in the Star Wars events this past week. 

That aside, this week was still wondrous! There´s nothing better than teaching 

about our Saviour every day, especially right now, when every one´s minds are on Christmas. One of the new videos the Church released is entitled some thing like, The World without A Saviour. I love it! This world with out the birth and life of our blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ would be a dark world indeed. I can´t imagine a life with out a knowlege that all of us can be free from our sins, our sadnesses and our sicknesses. Yet there are so many people who live their lives heaping up their sins and their sufferings upon their own shoulders. No one needs to! Christ already did it all. Every single piece of it. All He asks is that we accept that and ask for relief. We´re going to recieve it if we answer our doors! That´s why I´m here in Argentina. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I can´t take away any one´s sins or sufferings, but I can sure help them understand how. And that´s all I want to do. Show them how they and all of us can return in happiness to our Father in Heaven to live with him and our families forever. 

Even though it´s important during this week to have fun and spend joyous time with our families, I hope we can all remember why we´re celebrating - why a Saviour was born over two thousand years ago. I am so incredibly grateful for Jesus Christ and love Him more than I can write. This Sunday all of the primary children sang Christmas songs and read the prophesyings and stories of Christ´s birth during church. I love the primary programs, Especially Christmas ones! There are no better testimonies of Christ than those of children. Even though their knowlege is simple, their love is great. What an example our little children should be to us. They have such a pure, worldless love that I strive to have for every one every day. Even though children are on occasion a handful, Christ has commanded us to be like them. I know that in doing so, we can all better realise the pure love that Christ has for us and desire to share this love with others. 

I hope every one has a wonderfully joyous Christmas and stuffs them selves full of Yankee Christmas goodies that I may or may not miss a little bit. I´ll just eat a lot of dulce de leche. I´m not worried. I´m excited beyond words to be able to talk to my family this week! Woo! ¨That´s going to be the most English I´ve used in one sitting in over a month. I love all of you and can feel your Christmas joy from the bottom of the Americas! Peace be with you all.

Chau,

Elder McDonald