Good evening. Yesterday began the Christmas season and as always it brings feelings of excitment and joy from all ages in and outside of our family. We've just received a wonderful package from our grandchildren that has 12 small gifts in it representing the twelve days of Christmas. We can't wait for December 13th when we can open our first gift! Tonight we put up our 3 foot Christmas tree that was given to us by another departing missionary couple. We also opened our first gift to each other which is a beautiful Nativity set from Willow Tree that somehow survived our jam packed car on the trip here in August.
      When I think of that jam packed car and that there was not room for one more item, I think of my life and contemplate how much room do I have inside of me for the Savior. Do I have space left for Him? Our "simplistic" missionary life tends to allow us to reflect more on "what can I give the Savior" rather than the traditional thought of "I wonder what I am getting for Christmas"? I think my best gift I can give Him is to move out a lot of stuff inside of me and make more room for Him to the point that I am able to share Him with other people.
      An analogy of this might be of a perfectly round beautiful piece of pottery. It was completely enclosed such that no light could get in. If one would gently shake it something could be heard rolling around inside. But sadly other than to put it on a shelf and admire it, it didn't have much use. Then one day it was jostled off the shelf onto the floor and cracked enough that light was allowed inside. The pottery was about to be thrown out until the seed inside start to receive light and from the broken pottery came a new form of beauty, a new form of life.
     Maybe that's what our lives are like. If we clean out, make more room for Him, something new will grow out from us and our growth will flourish. As it says in the scriptures "ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God, and for all men. If we press forward feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, we shall have eternal life". 

Elder John