I'll just jump right into this...
On Sunday, Sister Emett and I had the opportunity to teach a lesson in our District Council/Meeting (kind of like Sunday school). We taught on the subject of "Praise to the Man" in reference to Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. We talked about all the things that Joseph Smith sacrificed for the gospel and for Jesus Christ. In fact, the scriptures say, in Doctrine and Covenants 135:3, that "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it." We continued with a discussion on what we could sacrifice for Jesus Christ and what we can do to help His work progress. We also read the 4th verse of the hymn, "Praise to the Man" while thinking about Jesus Christ in that context.
Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven;
Earth must atone for the blood of that man.
Wake up the world for the conflict of justice.
Millions shall know "Jesus Christ" again.
I loved relating this verse to Christ. And it fits perfectly. Millions shall know Jesus Christ again. When Christ returns to the earth for His Second Coming, every knee will bend and every tongue will confess that He is the Christ, the Savior of the world. We will all know and recognize Him as our Savior and millions shall know Jesus Christ again.
On Monday, we learned about on of the most loved Christmas traditions of Poland. They have these wafers imprinted with pictures of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. (They also use these types of wafers in their sacrament or communion.) So everyone gets a wafer. Then, everyone goes to each person individually and says what they wish for that person in the next year. Then the person receiving the wishes breaks off a piece of the wafer of the person who is giving the wishes. They eat the wafer to accept those wishes. To them, the wafers represent restitution and unity of family. It's such a sweet tradition!
Another cute tradition is: kids believe that at midnight on Christmas Eve, animals can talk. So they always tell stories of how their dog or their cat talked to them and told them that they loved them. It's kind of how in America we always watch for Santa's sleigh and Rudolph on Christmas Eve. Now, I don't know if the animals in Poland talk, but I'm going to find out. I'll let you know Ethan! :)
Our Christmas tree and gifts (all the Polish sisters' gifts).
Christmas here at the MTC was great! Totally different from any other Christmas I've had, but it was a cool experience. For our devotional, we had Elder David A. Bednar come and speak to us. It was amazing!! He spoke on receiving personal revelation and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. He talked about how if we are keeping the commandments and trying to be the best we can, our steps will be guided and sometimes we won't even realize that we're acting on promptings from the Holy Ghost. When we're doing what God wants us to do, we will be where He needs us to be and doing the things He needs us to do. He also talked about how we often think of being perfect as being without mistakes. He talked about it in the way that perfect means, "whole" or "complete." I thought of this: We can only be made whole and complete through Jesus Christ who is perfect. In every sense of the word, He is perfect. And so it is only through Him that we can be made perfect as well.
Polish Family picture on Christmas.
Also on Christmas, I was able to skype my rodzina!! My family! It was the best thing ever and now Mom can't wait for Mother's Day to come. :)
In the evening that day, we had another "devotional." We had David Archuleta come and perform for us. He is so talented!! I had never been to any of his concerts and I hadn't really listened to much of his music before. But he was really good! That was a fun surprise for all of us. Afterwards, he wanted to meet everyone, so we all were able to go and shake his hand. (For any of you David Archuleta fans out there, I send a digital handshake to you from him. You're welcome.) :)
Since it was just Christmas this week, I want to talk a little bit more about Him. On Christmas Eve, in class (Yes, we had class on Christmas eve. Y'all are jealous, I know), we had the opportunity to study the different names of Christ and write them on the whiteboard with scripture references. (I've included a picture below if anyone would like to study this as well.) There were so many names and we didn't even get them all! But it was such a cool activity to do, especially on Christmas Eve and to be able to focus completely on our Savior, Jesus Christ. One name of Christ that I focused on during this time was: Deliverer. I know that Christ is our Deliverer. He delivers us from sin, death, bondage (from sin), hopelessness, sadness, hate, anger, turmoil, confusion, doubt, and pain. And instead, He gives us the opposite. Righteousness, life, freedom, hope, joy, love charity, peace, clarity, faith, and relief. I love even just the difference in feeling between those words. I know that the difference is Christ. He provides deliverance for us to be able to feel these things and experience those positive emotions.
Love you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
Names of Christ.
Panorama of our classroom and some of our district members.
Class picture with our substitute Sister Cooper.
We all matched our outfits, so naturally we had to get a picture.
Jessalynn Wynn.
Ethan's Nacho Libre picture.
Someone made a box into a little bed for Luna, the MTC cat.
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