Answer 7th Day Christmas Past: A Christ-like Inn Keeper provided strangers with a vehicle so their children could wake up in their own home on Christmas morning! Congrats to 7th Day drawing winner, PEGGY SELF, who won an Olive Wood Holy Family nativity carving on olive wood star, hand-stitched purse/wallet – made by Bedouin women in Bethany (near Jerusalem), Bethlehem baby blanket, pack of 10 5×7 Nauvoo watercolor note cards-$130 value! Please contact MHA office 801-272-5601 or info@mormonheritage.com within 30 days to arrange for how to receive your prize. Story still available on yesterday’s...
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On the 7th Day of Christmas Past… Question: How did Elder Andersen find himself home on Christmas Eve when there was room in the Inn? To be entered into today’s daily giveaway & FREE tour drawing- Read the story below; “Comment” & “Share” your answer on Facebook or our blog. Click Here for contest rules. “Room in the Inn” By Elder Neil L Andersen On a bright, crisp winter afternoon we pointed our van toward the mission home in Bordeaux, France. It was December 24, 1990, and we were on our way home for Christmas. My wife, Kathy, and I, along with our four children had just experienced a week to remember. Because of the distances involved in our mission, we had not brought the missionaries together for a Christmas celebration. Rather, we had traveled as a family to every city in the mission, bringing a feeling of family togetherness at this glorious time of year. On our final day we had been joined by four wonderful missionaries. The large blue van, now full, was filled as well with the Christmas spirit, and Christmas carols and favorite stories made the travel time pass quickly. Our young kids were becoming more excited with each hour as they anticipated the surprises Christmas morning would bring. We could almost smell the turkey dinner being prepared at the mission home by a wonderful missionary couple awaiting our return. The feeling of Christmas was in the air. It was not until late in the afternoon that we realized there might be a problem. For much of the morning we had experienced some difficulty in shifting our van from one gear to another. We had stopped to check the level of the transmission fluid, but all seemed to be in order. Now, with darkness setting in and our van still two hours from Bordeaux, third, fourth, and fifth gears stopped functioning altogether. We looked for possible help. The concern and disappointment showed on the faces of our younger children. Would they not be home for Christmas Eve? Would they spend this most special night of the year in a crowded mission van? After they had brought happiness and cheer to missionaries far from home, would their Christmas come alongside a forgotten French country road far from their own home? My daughter knew to whom we could appeal, and she immediately suggested a prayer. Many times as a family we had prayed for those in need—for the missionaries, the investigators, the Church members, our leaders, the French people, our own family. We bowed in prayer and humbly asked for help. By now it was dark. The van crept forward, moving at a jogger’s pace through the pine forest. We were hoping to reach a little town just three miles (5 km) ahead. Soon our lights caught a small sign with an arrow directing us to Villeneuve-de-Marsan. People had closed their...
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Answer 6th Day Christmas Past: When we want nothing more than to give our best, what we try to do is exactly what our Savior wants us to give. Congrats to 6th Day drawing winner, REBECCA DAWSON, who won 2 books by Karl Ricks Anderson: Joseph Smith’s Kirtland and The Savior in Kirtland, 3 olive wood carved angel tree ornaments, Holy Family with bark surround, pack of 10 5×7 Nauvoo watercolor note cards -$100 value! Please contact MHA office 801-272-5601 or info@mormonheritage.com within 30 days to arrange for how to receive your prize. Story still available on yesterday’s...
Read More6th Day Christmas Past Story
On the 6th Day of Christmas Past… Question: What message does “Little Drummer Boy” and other similar early legends teach us? To be entered into today’s daily giveaway & FREE tour drawing- Read the story below; “Comment” & “Share” your answer on Facebook or our blog. Click Here for contest rules. “Little Drummer Boy” Written in 1941, ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, originally titled ‘Carol Of The Drum’, has become a favorite Christmas song around the world. The words of the song, narrated by a little boy, tell how he hears from those around him of a newborn King. And of how they are gathering up their finest gifts to bring to the new King to honor him. He knows that he is a poor boy who has no material goods as he was not a wealthy child, and yet he decides that he has one gift that he can bring to the King which is his talent to play the drum. In the end, what the boy believes turns out to be true: he gets to see the new born King and the boy begins to use his talent to honor Him and is rewarded by His smile of acceptance of his heartfelt gift. The story of the Little Drummer Boy resembles a twelfth century legend that Anatole France retold as Le Jongleur de Notre Dame or Our Lady’s Juggler. The French legend tells of a juggler, again with nothing else to offer, who juggles in front of a statue of Mary, much to the horror of some monks present, who accuse him of blasphemy. But it goes on to tell how the statue comes briefly to life, and smiling at him throws him a rose, silencing the juggler’s accusers. In the Buddhist tradition a story is told of an old beggar woman named Relying on Joy. She used to watch kings, princes, and other people making offerings to Buddha, and there was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to do the same. So one day, intending to make her offering too, she went out begging. But at the end of a whole day all she had was one small coin. An oil-merchant took pity on her and gave her a small amount of the oil. That evening she took it to the monastery, poured the oil into an empty lamp and lit the wick, and made this wish:”I have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I work to free all beings from darkness, helping them to reach enlightenment. That night the oil in all the other lamps went out, but the beggar woman’s lamp was still burning at dawn, when Buddha’s disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect all the lamps. When he saw that one was still alight, full of oil and with a new...
Read More5th Day Winner & Answer
Answer 5th Day Christmas Past: A 3-year old girl showed the audience how to be still and completely focus on the miracle of our Savior. Congrats to 5th Day drawing winner, JESSICA GARCIA, who won an Olive wood carving of Mary & baby Jesus, Kirtland Temple decorative plate, Kirtland Temple tree ornament, pack of 10 5×7 Nauvoo watercolor note cards -$205 value! Please contact MHA office 801-272-5601 or info@mormonheritage.com within 30 days to arrange for how to receive your prize. Story still available on yesterday’s...
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