Hello again,
Well hello to you all! It really has started to feel like December here. This whole week as we have been out tracting, I have had some more "You know you’re in Vegas..." moments. As it is December people are starting to decorate for Christmas. This has made me ask the question to myself: "Why do people here decorate for Christmas?" I mean it looks and feels nothing like winter here. I mean, the high temperatures are in the mid 60’s still. I am a little ashamed to say though…it's cold and I have been wearing sweaters all week. When you are used to like 105 to 115 degrees, the 60's can be cold. It does get cold here at night though with it getting down into the mid 30’s. So really - it does get cold, I am not just a wussy.
Well this week has really been full of lots of excitement around here. We found out last Monday night that Friday would be our temple day as the temple closes for holiday cleaning. So Friday morning we got to go to the temple. It was very nice, and I ended up seeing a few members from the Las Vegas stake where I had served earlier this year. It was nice to see them and then go through the temple. The sad thing is I only have one more chance to go through the Las Vegas Temple as a missionary, and that will be the day before I go home, so that was kind sad to think about. Yet, it was a great time. We had a really nice member in our ward take us and then he took us for Krispy Kreme’s afterward. That was a great way to end temple day.
Then I totally forgot to tell you guys last week that the Tule Springs Stake was being split. So hey, Tule Springs stake was split yesterday. We had stake conference this past weekend. Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy was there to preside over the whole meeting. It was a really good conference. We went to the Saturday night session and it was really good. All the speakers spoke about being economically smart…weird huh? Then Elder Rasband spoke about how the Savior really loves and knows each of us. It was a really good talk and the session was great. Then yesterday was the big general session and that was where they did the split. They did it all at once and they broadcast it into three other buildings and the stake center was packed full. They said in total the number of people watching the conference was 3,021. Elder Rasband said that it was "...about time..." for the stake to be split. Our two wards are the in the same stake, but the Craigs are in the new Elkhorn Springs stake. We are, however, still in the same zone so that means I can still go and eat at their house on the 27th. So really not too much changed. Well, I guess it did since they also called two new stake presidencies. That made the meeting really long. They gave all of them a chance to bear their testimonies. So the meeting became a testimony meeting. It was good at first then it really just dragged on and on and on. In the end, Elder Rasband spoke on The Family and he gave a really good talk. It was pretty cool when we were walking around before the meeting looking for people, and Elder Rasband came around the corner, he shook our hands and asked if we had investigators there, I told him they were are they way, and he said, "Good, they'd better get here." So needless to say I haven’t washed that hand yet!! Just kidding - I’m not that weird.
Saturday was also one of our ward Christmas parties. It was cool, because they set the whole gym up like a marketplace from back in the day. They gave everyone little rocks painted silver and we had to go from place to place buying our food to eat. I thought that it was a really cool idea. Then they did a little nativity play. It was really nice little party. It really made me think about how hard it must have been for the people back in that time. Then last night as we watched the First Presidency's Christmas devotional and President Monson talked about those innkeepers. If they had only known who Joseph and Mary were, how they would have acted so differently, they would have possibly made more room for them or been more caring for them. I had never really thought about the whole thing that way. I had just thought that those guys were really dumb and that they had no other choice. The devotional last night was really good. If you didn’t get to watch it then you really missed out big time. I love to hear the First Presidency speak. These guys are good!
Well I love you all, and hope that you are all having a great and festive holiday season. I hope that you all get to share the Christmas spirit with someone else and make someone’s day a little brighter. Know I think about you often and care for you even more. I love you.
Love,
Elder Geoff Taylor
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment