It's Christmas Time in the City

 We are late this week but have a great excuse - IT'S CHRISTMAS!  That means that we have been trying to make sure every missionary has Christmas, run a light and art display at the Temple that rivals Temple Square Christmas Lights - yes Alita, I said that!  And.....continue with all of our "normal" activities.  So we were grateful that we sent all of our family gifts to the states in November and only have to take care of 200 others.   But, our actual post is that we are diligently trying to keep the Christ in Christmas by remembering whose birth we celebrate.  

The sights and sounds of our Christmas Season include talking about the beautiful art work that depicts the the life of Christ.  Also the offices at the nearby Service Center become "enlightened" with joyful decorations.  We were part of the competition with our entry "The Gingerbread Howes", in honor of President and Sister Howes.  It won the first place prize!

It is about in this location that Sister and Elder Feil break into song:  "Let It Snow" and "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas", and so on...

It is great fun to be with the missionaries as they help with tours of the Art and Lights.  They come in from the nearby Zones and are here from 7 to 10:30 pm.  Well, some nights it's much later as visitors continue to ask questions and the missionaries answer.  Many good discussions occur about the Godhead, the Restoration and our love for the Savior.

The bright moon fits right in with the beautifully lit grounds. Notice the unusual sight for Christmas time...leaves are on the trees!

The temple is a great backdrop to the lights.  And with that backdrop we have given out copies of the Book of Mormon in various languages-Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Chinese, Korean and Spanish.  This is a wonderful, multicultural country.

The Three Wise Men lead you into the life-sized Nativity scene.  Everything here is well done-the audio telling of the events leading up to the birth of the Savior, the actual display of the people representing the description in the New Testament. We know this isn't Israel but we appreciate President Monson's statement:  "May we all make the journey to Bethlehem in Spirit, taking with us a tender, caring heart as our gift to the Savior."  We want you to know that we know that Jesus Christ is truly Our Savior.  We love Him, we revere and respect Him.  He has great love for all of His children and beckons us to follow Him and His commandments.  We are grateful that we are here where we can put Christ into Christmas and pray that you will have a similar focus and experience.  Love, the Christmas Elves in Sydney