26 December 2007

Merry Christmas!

The day after Christmas has always been hard for me... but there is still so much to look forward to with Festival of Lights. We still have an entire week to work hard and to celebrate the birth of our Savior. I'm grateful that we can always celebrate His birth by the way we live and by how we do our best to become more like Him.

I love my family! Talking with them made my day. I am so grateful that I am so close with my family. They are my best friends. After I got off the phone last night I thanked my Heavenly Father for sending me to such a wonderful family. I feel so blessed to have a family who love one another and most importantly who love the Lord and desire to put Him first in their lives. We have a great responsibility to uplift those around us and to emulate the love of our Savior to our brothers and sisters. Where much is given, much is required.

For those of you who I did not talk with yesterday here are a few details of my week... We have been busier than I have ever been with Festival of Lights. I feel it a blessing to be so busy during the Christmas season. It keeps me focused. Christmas Eve was a beautiful day. We had district meeting in the morning. Our district now consists of 6 elders and 2 sisters. We are grateful for our elders and they are successful and happy missionaries. After district meeting we went caroling with two zones. We went to downtown DC and sang at the Friendship Heights Metro entrance. I have never seen so many people smile at missionaries in downtown DC. They really loved us. It's amazing what the Christmas spirit and a little music can do for the soul. We passed out Christmas VHS copies and flyers for Festival. There were about 20-30 missionaries.

After caroling we went straight to the VC for Festival. There were eight of us VC sisters who are a part of the Christmas program. We have been practicing for two months! The music consisted of a Spanish piece, "I Wonder As I Wander", "When Mary Sang Her Lullaby", "Psalm 100", and "What Child is This?". We also included a violin part for one of the pieces and two harps accompanied our last piece. It was a beautiful program. We had two sisters also write a Christmas narration. Sister Baxter was the narrator and everyone loved her English accent. Our main focus of the program was the Savior and there was a beautiful spirit that was felt by all. We had only planned on performing twice, but there were so many people that we had a third performance. Everyone loved it! We had people asking Elder Child if we have to participate in musical auditions to be a missionary at the VC and if we were going to be making a CD. It was cute. The Lord definitely qualifies those He calls. After everyone left the VC, we closed the VC and we performed once more for all of the sisters. After the performance we went upstairs to the Christus where we listened to a Christmas story and were given Christmas gifts from the VC trainers. We also listened to the Christus narration and never before had the words touched my heart like they did Christmas Eve. I am grateful for my Savior. By the time we got to bed it was almost 12:30 a.m. We were completely exhausted, but grateful for a great night.

Christmas day was also beautiful. I had hoped for snow, but it felt more like a California Christmas. Waking up on Christmas day was just as magical as it was when we were kids. Santa made a visit to our apartment. He doesn't forget the missionaries. We opened some gifts and got ready for the day. Sister McEwan and I had breakfast at the Miller's home and opened our remaining gifts at their house. I love the Millers...they now how to take care of missionaries. We then had lunch at Bishop Bryan's home with the elders in our ward. Bishop lives in Potomac in a beautiful countryside home. Sister Bryan made a delicious lunch and we talked about Christmas memories and watched the Christmas program by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We had my favorite dessert, cheesecake! Yummy! I love Bishop Bryan and his family. They are good people and they love the Lord.

After lunch we hurried back to the VC and I skipped dinner and took a nap on the floor in a room by the main theater. It was the best nap I have ever had! We got ready for our remaining performances and were surprised to get two more full crowds. It was great! Most of the people who came on Christmas day were foreign. It was great to see so many people at the VC. I feel so grateful to have Festival of Lights for Christmas.

Just as the night was winding down Courtney came into the VC to surprise me! Courtney was baptized in Olney. She is doing so well and has even helped her friend be baptized! She will be in town until the end of January. It was so good to see her.

I hope that you all had a beautiful Christmas. We are so blessed with the knowledge of a plan of happiness and we are especially blessed to have a Savior. May His love fill your hearts not just during the Christmas season, but through the new year.

All my love, Sister Hogge

p.s. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!