Christmas memories: Sister Barbara Thompson — 'We felt the joy'
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Many years ago as I served as a missionary in the Germany Hamburg Mission, the Christmas season was approaching. It was very difficult to get appointments with people in December because the people were all so busy preparing for Christmas. They didn't want to hear about the gospel, and their common response was for us to come back after the first of the year.
As missionaries, we wanted to continue to teach people the gospel and share this most important message we had for them — that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and that the Savior stands at the head of His Church. We wanted people to know that Christ's Church was led by living prophets, seers and revelators.
With us being missionaries who were far from home at Christmas time, it was easy to get a little discouraged, especially when people were so reluctant to open their doors to us.
Our little district came upon an idea where we could share the message of the Savior at Christmas, even if people did not invite us to their homes to be taught. The six of us (four elders and two sisters) decided we would go Christmas caroling together. We chose several nights and selected a number of the people we had been teaching or were trying to reach.
Without an invitation or appointment, we went to the homes of these good people, rang the doorbell and started singing songs about the birth of the Savior and singing praises to Him. As the people came to the door (and many of their neighbors in the apartment buildings came to their doors, too) we could see their faces light up as we sang. Even for just a few brief minutes, these dear German people felt the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and knew that we knew the purpose of Christmas, we knew the Savior had been born, and we knew that He was the Redeemer.
Our voices wouldn't qualify us for any great choirs or any invitations to sing in a concert, but blessed by the Holy Spirit and singing praises to the Lord, our singing sounded great and blessed the lives of those who heard us.
I don't know that our caroling resulted in a single baptism, but at least we knew that for a few minutes, these people heard our testimonies in song.
Somehow, being involved in just this small act of service at Christmas time helped us to feel encouraged and full of the Christmas spirit. We felt the joy and peace of the season and were no longer homesick being so far away from home.
