"Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!"

         "This is the season of gladness!"      "This is the season of joy!"

From Alleluia to Zion, (beginning to end) we are looking at our year and at Christmas in a new light: 

  Basking in sunshine with Maria before losing a Christmas suitcase;

 

 

 Lingering in temple light in Tegucigalpa before longingly leaving,

friends, faithful patrons, fellow temple workers, radiant students 

      

      
 

Visiting home in both May and October to celebrate new (and older) grandchildren 

and remarkable children

 
                                                  
                               

           
                 (with our visiting--I had to catch the color change of sky and earth!)
               

siblings and dear ones,

  

 cousins--

mothers

aunties and friends

--preparing ourselves to depart again and work to be ready for our new Guatemala, Cobán mission assignment--hoping to encourage  young missionaries and/or struggling branches;

(Here we are at our Comayaguela Honduras mission office, boning up--can you see Excel spreadsheets beaming from the inner soul??)

 

 

(The field and the fruit is white...the laborers readying to garner the sheaves!)

Singing with (JOY!) for/with neighbors this week, we continue to look for the star (Shine for me again, Star of Bethlehem!) as we tackle a leaking shower by remodel, 

(our own version of gold, frankincense and myrrh)

and juggle months into a remaining few weeks in defiance of our less than perfect world.

As Maria moaned this week, recovering from wisdom teeth removal, some close friends cheerfully arrived, 

ice cream in hand ready to help her forget her pain in a card game of "Pounce." Our hearts warm in a thought that it is the human element (not only a star in the sky or on a tree, but the arrival of welcome visitors) that invites us in to the Christmas story. 

As part of our family gathers this week at our home and phones reach out to more, we extend interest and love to our friends in search of a star in their lives--"Do not despair, your star is still there!"
                  

And echoing Sunday's message from our friend Sarah, 

who has yearned to feel the magic of Christmas, yet struggles in the loss of their son,  

after monumental effort 

expended in helping him survive his first four years: 

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given!"

The climax of the children's movie "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" speaks to Sarah in the words  " For unto YOU is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (emphasis added.)
Why use those particular words? Because, it was for her...and for me, and for you (see: He is the Gift) that there came something Wonderful!  A Prince of Peace!  

(sculpture in LDS Conference Center)

We are praying for such a gift to personally knock upon your door, to elevate you from the challenges of your mortality--
                           
If He was born to raise the sons of earth...what if we allow the Spirit of this holy season to tutor, to teach and to lift us each, and to bless us, every one?  

May there be comfort and hope in your Christmas time and the beginning of our coming New Year of promise.

We genuinely love you!  Laurene and Val Starkey

                 

(Embedded in the underlined and blue words above are links to our choir music, the verses and the credits for pictures.  Enjoy.  Love, Laurene)