Noche de Luz, Noche de Paz

Merry Christmas from Motril
Merry Christmas from Motril

Email 26/12/16

Hello everybody,

Well, another transfer has passed and a new one is upon us. Neither Elder Jarvis nor I are being transferred from Motril, so it will be great to be able to hit the ground running this week without having to worry about the adjustment period necessary that comes with a change of companion or area.

This was an interesting and busy week. We were already planning on making the journey from Motril to Málaga on Thursday for the Christmas Zone Conference when we received a call Tuesday night informing us that Elder Jarvis had to be in the mission office there on Wednesday morning to do his residency. That required waking up at 5 AM, taking a 2.5 hour bus ride and an hour long train ride, and then spending the night there to attend the conference the next day. Definitely an adventure. I should have pictures from this within a few weeks.

With Christmastime naturally comes singing a lot of Christmas songs. As part of our Zone Conference, we went to a park in front of a really busy commercial center and spent around 15 minutes singing for those who were walking by to hear. While singing “Noche de Luz” (“Silent Night,” or literally translated, “Night of Light”) the third verse stuck out to me a lot:

Noche de luz, noche de paz; (Night of light, night of peace;)

Ved la luz de Su faz. (See the light from His face.)

Es el alba de la redención; (He is the dawn of redemption;)

Dios, por Él, nos dará salvación. (God, through Him, will give us salvation.)

¡Oh bendito Jesús! (Oh blessed Jesus!)

¡Oh bendito Jesús! (Oh blessed Jesus!)

It was our loving Heavenly Father who created a perfect plan to allow us to progress in this life and return to Him through His son Jesus Christ. Although Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of Christ, this was neither the beginning nor the end of his role of salvation in our Heavenly Father’s plan. Christ accepted this calling in the pre-mortal life, came to this world to suffer through pains and temptations, carried out the Atonement to save all mankind from their sins, and defeated the bands of death that we may be able to do so one day, too.  All of this was done out of love. I know that the Savior has a perfect love for each of us and if we turn to Him, that love does become an apparent force in our own lives. 

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Élder Stark ??

Photos

1: Old people are cool

1226b

2: Branch Christmas party

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3: Paella ✨?

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4: Birthday party for Presidente Izquierdo feast. The family of the former Elder Johnson.

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5: Our dinner for La Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) the following night.

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6: We couldn’t figure out where to buy firewood for our fireplace (our house actually has a fireplace in it), so these 40 candles to celebrate Christmas was the next best thing.

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7: Merry Christmas from Elder Stark and Elder Jarvis

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8: Skyping the family ❤

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9: Until next time

1226j


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