MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So yes I do know that it isn't actually Christmas today and that I'm like two weeks early but I love this time of year. I love seeing the mountains covered with snow, I love jackets and this weather is perfect for them. I love the Hot Chocolate and all of the time I get to spend with my family.... I especially love all of the lessons in church. I love the lessons on Christs birth and the new things I learn every year. In institute this year I took a Women in The Scriptures class and I got a whole new perspective on Mary and Elizabeth. For those of you who don't know Elizabeth is John the baptists mother.  In case you didn't all know Elizabeth couldn't have kids she was barren, but because of her faith the Lord blessed her with a child, the child that would one day baptize the Son of God. These two women knew each other. They were cousins even and they were carrying the future prophets of the Lord together. Can you imagine how much Mary and Elizabeth went through to raise these men? Mary gave birth in a stable, not one of those cute little wooden ones we sometimes imagine but more of a cave with lots of smelly animals and some straw. Not that I didn't know that before but I'm thinking of the hospitals and the medcine we have now and how much harder it would have been, in a stable, no medicine, no doctor with a big degree, no electricity and no place to raise the child after they were born. Mary is one of my new heros, I wish to have the strength and faith that she did. She heard from an angel that she was going to give birth to the Son of God, and she did as she was commanded from that moment on. I tried putting myself in Mary's shoes and it was a whole new experiance with the story and how Christ's life began.

I hope as you go about buying presents and panicking about money and finals and travel plans for the holiday that you remember why this Holiday even exists. I hope you remember the love your Heavenly Father and your Savior have for you. Most of all I want you to count your blessings during this happy time and what they mean to/ have done for you. I hope you take a minute and read in the scriptures the story of Christ's birth. Who knows maybe you will see and learn something you didn't before. Try placing yourself in their shoes. Try and feel how Mary and Joseph felt. Again I wish all the very best and most Merry Christmas yet. I love you all and will be thinking of you this Christmas season.