It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

This past week we were able to attend some of the branch Christmas parties in our district.  Also, last Sunday I enjoyed watching the primary children re-enacted the nativity scene.  Children bring a special spirit to Christmas.   

I've enjoyed giving out paper nativity sets to the children that we have visited this week.  It's been fun to watch them set up the characters of the nativity:  shepherds, wisemen, angels, stable animals, Joseph and Mary, and of course, baby Jesus.  #LightTheWorld Day 7

You can get the pattern to the nativity set by clicking here.  

When we visited Corozal, I loved seeing the clever decorations at the public library.  The Christmas tree is made out of Sprite bottles and the snow man is made out of library books covered in white paper and encyclopedias.     

Our travels also brought us to Orange Walk where we visited friends. This couple has been members of the church for three years, hold leadership callings in the branch, and tell of the peace, blessings and great changes the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has made in their lives.   

Visiting San Pedro on the island on a cool and windy day.   

Speaking of cold and windy, here is the latest breaking Belize news.  As you can see on this Facebook Breaking Belize News page that 1.4K reacted to the weather conditions with 43 comments and 193 shares.  

Last Monday, we had dinner with a new member of the Belize City Branch, Joe England.  As we got acquainted, we were surprised to learn that Joe produced for the Church my favorite youth mormonmessage, "Sanctify Yourself", based on the talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

We got out our laptop and he answered our questions about the process of producing the movie as we watched it.

You can also see the movie by clicking here.

This is what your pants look like when you have vehicle trouble in Belize City.  (There's a lot of dust from the road construction going on here) Thankfully, we were able to get help dealing with our dead truck battery from Elder and Sister Adams.

We got news earlier this week that one of the Belize City branch members, who lives alone, had a stroke.  After he was seen in the hospital, he was sent home.  When we visited him, we were humbled to learn that he was being attended to by his "good Samaritan" neighbors.  This painting by Walter Rane immediately came to mind when I learned about all that this couple were doing for their neighbor. Their compassion was nothing short of what we read about in the Bible.

The Good Samaritan

by Walter Rane

Luke 10:33-35

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

You can also see the video by clicking here