Christmas Devotionals

Sister Shaner and I wrote a Christmas Devotional complete with a Shepherd, Joseph, Mary, and Wiseman.  Our portion of the program ended with a missionary from today speaking about the effect Christ's birth has made on the world and how he is spending the next two years, putting aside his schooling, dating and life in general, to share Christ's gospel around the world along with 52,000 other young missionaries. We invited all past and present missionaries to come up and sing "We'll Bring the World His Truth." It was very powerful and many people were tearing up.

We made simple costumes and included lots of musical numbers, many of which were sing-a-longs for the congregation. We made posters and invitations and took the program throughout the mission during the month of December. In each district/stake we met with our missionaries an hour before the program--made assignments and waited for the congregation to come. (Each zone had been practicing several musical numbers.) President Carlos concluded the devotional with spoken words about the birth, life and legacy of our Savior.  In every instance the people came and brought their friends and neighbors. The missionaries serving in those areas brought their investigators. The program included duets, solos, small group numbers, Elder Shaner's violin. The people were thrilled--I will never forget the looks on their faces when they saw the costumes or heard four part harmony sung acapella or listened to a live violin. Many commented that they had never experienced anything like this before and hope we will do it again next year.

Sister Shaner and I were so excited by the outcome that we have already been working on next year's presentation which will feature the birth of Christ from the perspective of the Book of Mormon people.

The Bambang and Solano Districts were our first stop.

Alicia was next. Our cast looks awesome in their costumes.

Ilagan District

Santiago's cast

We did a combined devotional for Roxas and Burgos Districts but President and I were at a District Conference and couldn't attend that one. I don't have a photo to share from that night. But the Shaners carried on and it went very well!