I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas (but Texas is flat and brown)

Hello my dear family!

Can you believe that Christmas is here already? Where did the time go? Also, today marks 8 months as a missionary for me! But who's counting? ;) Yesterday we had the Jingle Jam, which is our mission-wide Christmas party. It's a huge talent show! There's a gym segment and a chapel segment. In the gym is all sorts of talents, and in the chapel is more spiritual talents. Our zone did a skit for the gym part called "Rap-tism". It was a rap to the Fresh prince of Bel-Air theme song about an investigator at tech who gets baptized. It was pretty fun! There were a lot of silly talents and also some really amazing ones. I did something too! I did the cup song from Pitch Perfect, but I did Book of Mormon Stories, Deck the Halls, and Jingle Bells. At first I was just going to do Book of Mormon Stories, but then I heard the story from the Harmon Christmas party about the girls doing the song with those christmas carols, and I just loved it! I have a picture from when I was done that I'll attach here :) Then we had the spiritual segment, and everyone was so great. The Spirit was so strong. I played Come Thou Fount, which I have actually gotten pretty good at :). After, we showed the Heaps a slideshow full of pictures of all of us and why we love them. That was our gift to them this year :) Then, they had a surprise for us! We watched "It's A Wonderful Life"! I just love that movie! President Heap told us to think about it from our own point of view: to think about the impact that we have each had on those around us and how different the mission, and the world, would be without us. It was fantastic :)

So I got to see Sister Russell again! She and her companion stayed with us the night before the jingle jam. She is so great! I missed her so much.

I've been studying a lot about the Christmas story this past week. The thing that stands out to me the most is Mary, and the shepherds. Mary was such an incredible woman. I can't even fathom the kind of characteristics that she must have had to be worthy and chosen to bear the Son of God. Also, in the past, I've never really thought much about the shepherds. I actually didn't think that they were that important. I learned so much about them this week that changed that though. In the song "What Child Is This?" it says "whom shepherds guard and angels sing". There is an amazing comparison that goes on in the scriptures about Christ being the Good Shepherd, and also the Lamb of God. In Sunday School this past week, our bishop taught us that the shepherds were not ordinary men. They were priests whose specific role was to watch over the flock for the firstborn lamb, because those were the ones that would be used in the temple sacrifice. When the angel appeared to them, and told them of the Savior's birth, he shared with them the very thing that they were waiting for: the birth of the Firstborn. We are all the sheep of the Good Shepherd, but in His early hours, he was watched over by those humble shepherds from the fields. I love the Christmas season! I love my Savior! And I love y'all! :D

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad from your missionary in Texas!

Love, Sister Tycksen

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox