Merry Christmas from Plant City

Elder Griffiths (far right) with other missionaries
at a mission Christmas devotional.

On Christmas Eve we had the other Elders stay the night at our apartment so we could have a Christmas morning together. Then after presents, we did some personal studying (Christmas is not an excuse to forget to study Christ's gospel) and then we did Skype calls (woot woot!). Then came the food.

Our first "dinner" appointment was at 1 p.m. I had the best ham I've ever tasted in my life and then we had pumpkin pie. Immediately after that appointment we went to another appointment we'd been invited to. There was steak and potatoes and we also did a white elephant gift exchange. It was super fun and the lady gave all the missionaries gifts as well. Then right after that we went to another appointment where we had dessert. It was apple pie, but by that point I felt like a pumpkin so I'm not sure the type of pie made a difference.

That basically sums up our Christmas. However, I took time throughout the day to think about what the holiday actually means. I'm grateful that we have a Savior that took all our sins up Himself, suffered 'til death, and then broke the bonds of death. An interesting thought I had this week is that our sins caused Him pain, and yet instead of being angry at us for cause that pain, He still loves us. It changed my perspective on Christ's character. I hope all of you took some time to think about Him. If not, it's never too late.

More smiles from the devotional.