Random Thoughts on the Happy New Year!

 


Wishing you all a very happy new year!!! It was a quiet new year's eve for us. 

We were blessed to be on a mission so as not to have been able to attend the Rose Bowl as we did last year. At least last year the game was close. It was hard to watch the game this year.

It has been snowing quite a bit lately. Four years in Florida helped me forget how much I hate shoveling snow. But is sure is beautiful immediately following a good snow storm.


We had one missionary complete her mission and leave us (see picture at the beginning of this post). Her family came to pick her up and we were able to attend the temple with them on transfer day.


On the flip side, we had a group of nine new missionaries begin their missions - three of whom are awaiting visas so we will only have them temporarily.


It is hard to believe we have been serving now for a little over six months. There is this weird paradox of feeling as if the time is flying by so fast - like we couldn't possibly have been out on our mission more than six months - but simultaneously feeling like we have been on this mission much longer than just six months.

One of the highlights of the last two weeks was being able to attend a leadership meeting with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, one of the Twelve Apostles in our church, and other church leaders including Elder Patrick Kearon, Elder Kevin Pearson, and Elder Hugo Martinez. The primary audience was stake presidents in the Salt Lake Valley, men called to preside over a geographic area called a "stake", which is made up of anywhere between 6 to 14 "wards" (our name for our congregations), but temple presidents, mission presidents and Area Seventies were also invited to attend. It was incredibly edifying and uplifting.

As we begin a new year, let me conclude by quoting a beautiful poem, Ring Out Wild Bells, by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892). It is included in our hymnal. I highly recommend listening to it at the following link. Crawford Gates' (1921-2018) music arrangement to this poem is hauntingly beautiful.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light.
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old; ring in the new.
Ring, happy bells, across the snow.
The year is going; let him go.
Ring out the false; ring in the true.
The year is going; let him go.
Ring out the false; ring in the true.

Ring in the valiant men and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand.
Ring out the darkness of the land;
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Ring out the darkness of the land;
Ring in the Christ that is to be.


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