Answer 9th Day Christmas Past: Joseph was silently strong and instrumental in teaching our Savior ultimately what He was to become. Congrats to 9th Day drawing winner, LINDA LARSON, who won 2 books by Karl Ricks Anderson: Joseph Smith’s Kirtland and The Savior in Kirtland, set of 4 olive wood carved tree ornaments, pack of watercolor Christmas cards, pack of 10 5×7 Nauvoo watercolor note cards-$95 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 More9th Day Christmas Past Story
On the 9th Day of Christmas Past… Question: What can we learn from Joseph as pondered in today’s story? 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. Maybe Christmas Doesn’t Come from a Store by Elder Holland “…As a father I have recently begun to think more often of Joseph, that strong, silent, almost unknown man who must have been more worthy than any other mortal man to be the guiding foster father of the living Son of God. It was Joseph selected from among all men who would teach Jesus to work. It was Joseph who taught Him the books of the law. It was Joseph who, in the seclusion of the shop, helped Him begin to understand who He was and ultimately what He was to become. I was a student at BYU just finishing my first year of graduate work when our first child, a son, was born. We were very poor, though not so poor as Joseph and Mary. My wife and I were both going to school, both holding jobs, and in addition worked as head residents in an off-campus apartment complex to help defray our rent. We drove a little Volkswagen which had a half-dead battery because we couldn’t afford a new one (Volkswagen or battery). Nevertheless, when I realized that our own night of nights was coming, I believe I would have done any honorable thing in this world, and mortgaged any future I had, to make sure my wife had the clean sheets, the sterile utensils, the attentive nurses, and the skilled doctors who brought forth our firstborn son. If she or that child had needed special care at the Mayo Clinic, I believe I would have ransomed my very life to get it. I compare those feelings (which I have had with each succeeding child) with what Joseph must have felt as he moved through the streets of a city not his own, with not a friend or kinsman in sight, nor anyone willing to extend a helping hand. In these very last and most painful hours of her “confinement,” Mary had ridden or walked approximately 100 miles from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea. Surely Joseph must have wept at her silent courage. Now, alone and unnoticed, they had to descend from human company to a stable, a grotto full of animals, there to bring forth the Son of God. I wonder what emotions Joseph might have had as he cleared away the dung and debris. I wonder if he felt the sting of tears as he hurriedly tried to find the cleanest straw and hold the animals back. I wonder if he wondered: “Could there be a more unhealthy, a more disease-ridden, a more despicable circumstance in which a...
Read More8th Day Winner & Answer
Answer 8th Day Christmas Past: Through a purely honest Christmas Eve hug from a friend, it was easy to imagine what it would be like to get a hug from the Savior. Congrats to 8th Day drawing winner, JEFFREY ABRAHAM, who won an Olive wood Holy Family flight to Egypt carving, Nauvoo replica candle lantern, pack of 10 5×7 Nauvoo watercolor note cards, Nauvoo Temple sunstone replica tree ornament-$143 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 More8th Day Christmas Past Story
On the 8th Day of Christmas Past… Question: How did a severely injured man experience what it must be like to get a hug from the Savior? 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. A Christmas Hug In July 1997 a serious accident completely crushed my pelvis and midsection and left me blind. I spent five long months on my back in the hospital, able to move only my head and my right arm. Only through priesthood blessings, fasting, and prayers was my life spared. The hospital discharged me in December, though I was bedridden for months. On Christmas Eve, the doorbell rang. It was 15-year-old Spencer and his mom. Spencer and I had been acquainted since he was a Cub Scout. As I helped out with the den, I soon realized that Spencer, who had Down syndrome, often needed one-on-one attention. We had a lot of fun and became good buddies. My wife led Spencer and his mom into the room where I was lying. He came to my bedside, bent down, and embraced me. He began to tear up but kept himself in check. I wasn’t as strong as Spencer—I couldn’t hold back my tears. He kissed me on the cheek. On each subsequent Christmas Eve the doorbell would ring, and it was always Spencer there to give me my Christmas hug. Spencer’s hugs were pure, sincere, and honest. There was nothing superficial about them. As Spencer hugged me, I felt his Christlike love and imagined what it would be like to get a hug from the Savior. One Christmas Eve, Spencer’s mom told us that Spencer had been to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City—Spencer needed a new heart and lung. The doctors were concerned that his body would reject the organs or that he wouldn’t make it through the surgery. They predicted that without the surgeries, he would live anywhere from three to eight more years. The family decided to decline the surgery. About three years later, in the arms of his stepdad, 19-year-old Spencer quietly slipped from mortality. A few months after Spencer passed away, Christmas Eve came and our doorbell rang. It was Spencer’s parents and sweet little sisters, there to give me Christmas hugs. Each Christmas since, they have come. One day it will be my time to go through the veil. I hope that when that time comes, Spencer will be one of those waiting for me with arms outstretched, ready to give me a hug full of Christlike love. Taken from: Ensign 12/2015, A Christmas Hug, by Ed...
Read More7th Day Winner & Answer
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...
Read More7th Day Christmas Past Story
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...
Read More
Recent Comments