Christmas and the Homeless 12-26-2022

 CHRISTMAS DAY


Here's a Christmas poem I wrote to remind us all of the true meaning of the season.....


As we all share in holiday delight
Let us not forget that one special night

Where the greatest gift was ever received 
Love and life everlasting if thou wilt believe 

In a stable born of Mary, in the humblest of settings 
Away in a manger, straw for his bedding

The Christ Child in his mother's warm embrace 
Tears of joy streaming down sweet Joseph's face

Shephards abide in the field with flock so near
And thus an Angel in great glory did appear

"Great tidings of great joy, peace on Earth and goodwill to men"
For if ye follow the star you'll find the babe lying in a manger in Bethlehem 

They came glorifying and praising God
Bowed before the Lord giving thanks with head nod

And 3 wise men came on the morrow
So full of love, Christ's light they borrow

Bearing gifts of the finest degree frankincense, myrrh and gold
Riches uncomparable to being held fast, secured in Christ's fold

So let us turn to Christ this Christmas day
Shouts of hallelujah for through him is the way!



Today is a special day for 2 reasons, it's Christmas Day, and it falls on the Sabbath this year. Next time Christmas will take place on Sunday will be in 11 years, I can already imagine myself trying to drag my kids to church and get them away from the presents under the tree. Today I challenge all yall to turn towards Christ and share with him all the gratitude of your heart. Remember him today especially and every day henceforth. 

First Christmas in the mission field was so awesome, (no disrespect to my family but back home is not the vibe right now, they're trying to move and that's stressful) so I am perfectly happy where I am at! The members are all so caring and willing to allow us to crash their place so we mostly hung out and shared in holiday cheer. Had 2 wonderful church services with beautiful musical performances. I received enough candy to last the millennium and Spider-Man legos! Also some legit boxes of groceries and socks from members. It was a Christ centered wonderful day. Merry Christmas and I love you ♡

Also this week we had freezing rain which basically knocked us out of commission for a whole day, this week has been quite interesting because there's hardly been any normal missionary work between service and exchanges and abnormal weather patterns (temps below -6.) On that note of exchanges Elder Stratton and I went out all day and we did some cool service for a lady who's a Rottweiler breeder. I butchered a phone call with a kid named Ben. I visited a home which had art from floor to ceiling, it was practically a museum. Elder Burke is a real one, and I spent over 14 hours in a homeless shelter which I will now elaborate on....

Monday was an interesting day, the mayor of Spokane called up our mission president and said something to the extent of..."All the homeless people in Spokane are dying in the streets becasue of this cold front that dropped the tempature to the negative degrees, can you send all those strapping young missionaries, particulary Elder Williams to the Trent Resource Center on Main St to assemble 350 new beds with allen keys as the only avaible tool" so we did as directed. We spent our entire preparation day in a warehouse and the shelter facility moving walls and dissasembling / assembling beds. The kicker is the fact that all the homeless people were in the facility with us meandering around most of them completely off their rockers (kids don't do drugs) I met some interesting individuals, here's a few quotes I heard from the residents.

"Beans rice and Jesus Christ"

"I could have communicated with the whole world by now if I had some sidewalk chalk from Walmart"

"I'm gonna go find some women" says a Hispanic man jumping out of bed, proceeds to give me dating advice

"Yayy more prison beds!" shouts a woman with more dogs than teeth

Man came up to me face to face "I see your soul"

"Homie you're tripping" man yelling at a dog who nearly attacked me 

"Charlotte you cannot take that off in here" says a woman to Charlotte who is undressing 

Man sniffing a pinecone "smells like weed"

It was an intense week, it's gonna feel weird getting back to work on Tuesday, but I really do love yall. Stay sweet

















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