Sunday
December 21, 2014
Dearest
Family and Friends,
How are
you? We are very proud of your
accomplishments and the wonderful children, parents and grandchildren you
are. We feel blessed to be part of your
lives.
Richard and
I have had a good week. He is almost
finished with his unit “What it means to be Human.” As an attorney, his classes went deeper and were
more legalistic than mine. I’m very
proud of him for being able to take this important topic and inspire his
students to think at that level. When
does life begin? When does it end? Who decides?
Will they?
I have now
listened to approximately 500 recitations of the poem “The Road Not Taken” by
Robert Frost. Fortunately, I love this
poem and am grateful that almost 500 students at SDU can now recite it for
memory. They were graded for memory,
pronunciation and feeling. Richard came
to one of my classes and recorded a few of them. At times, their recitations brought me to
tears. I hope that this poem will help
them in their future choices as it has for mine.
We had a fun
time shopping for cardstock paper and printer cartridges yesterday. We enjoyed eating noodles at an eatery near
the Central Campus and would have stayed longer, but it was very cold. Today, Sunday, is also cold. I’m grateful for the heat that we have in our
apartment. Some rooms are warmer than
other, but we do have blankets and jackets and in a few weeks, after Harbin
(Brrrr) and Beijing, we will be heading south to much warmer weather and
exciting travel adventures! When we
return at the end of February, it should be much warmer in Jinan.
As I am
sitting at my Chinese desk, my thoughts are drifting to Christmases in America
with our families. I’ve been trying to
remember a time when I didn’t have family (other than my husband) for the
holidays. Since I didn’t go on a
mission, I can’t think of any. This
year, especially, I’m grateful to have Richard, our Jinan church group and our
China Virtual Branch to share this season of love and good will. Today, we enjoyed a beautiful sacrament
meeting with scriptures and musical numbers about the Savior’s birth. I am attaching the program for you. As you will see, participants were from all
across China. I grateful that I could
share the song “Angels We Have Heard on High” on my violin. Gloria, in Excelsis Deo!
Many years
ago, with the help of my daughter Liz, I wrote a children’s song, “Christmas
Love.” The words are:
“In a manger
far away, the infant Jesus humbly lay, and the stars shown round and the moon
looked down, and they all were made by Him.
Mary held
her baby fair, Joseph watched with tender care, and the cattle lowed, and the
sheep knelt down, and they all were made by Him.
Children
sing the carols clear, fathers, mothers everywhere, sing of Jesus’ birth, and
His love for us, for we All were made by Him.”
This little
baby’s birth and life would and still does change the world. I am grateful for Him and grateful to know
that He knows and loves me, individually and personally and accepts me with my
faults and shortcomings and wants me to come to Him. May we all come closer to our Savior this
Christmas. He is the Reason for the
Season!
Merry
Christmas to you All! We love you!
Love,
Mom,
Carolyn, Grandma, Richard, Dad, Grandpa
No comments:
Post a Comment