A Christmas Story

I hate that Christmas has already started. Doesn't it make you sick that you walk into a store the day after Halloween and are greeted by Christmas ALREADY? I hate that aspect of Christmas. I was thinking yesterday of a Sister in my ward who at first I could not stand. She is an older lady, (older than me.) She has a very loud voice and sometimes I swear she thinks the relief society teacher was there to have a personal conversation with her. During the hymns you can hear her because she is the one singing hopelessly off key. Then she showed up without teeth one day. Can I tell you it is not attractive to bear your testimony crying without teeth? But then I had a visit from my visiting teacher. She started telling me a story of a sister who bugged the heck out of her. I, of course, knew exactly who she was referring too! Then my visiting teacher said " But you know what? She is better and more righteous than me!" Wow! Talk about inspiration. From that day forward I saw this crazy sister in a new light. I love her! I can't wait till she bears her testimony because she teaches simple truths! How inspired is that? For the simple things are truth and without them we can't understand or gain the "big" picture. Does that make sense? Anyway, every year my Relief Society does a progressive dinner and an ornament exchange. Last year was like any other except I got to witness the funniest sweetest exchange between two sisters. The ornament exchange was over and we were helping ourselves to dessert when the sister was I just talking about wanted to know who got her package. Another "special sister" in the ward said "I did!" and proceeded to open the package right in front of me. Now remember, this was an ornament exchange. She opened the package and pulled out a pair of winter gloves. This special sister was so excited! "Yea! Gloves! I needed these!" the other sister says "The Gift of Warmth!" They were both so excited and seemingly oblivious to the fact that it should have been an ornament instead of gloves. I turned to look at my friend I was sitting next to and we just started giggling. If anyone else would have opened that package they would have been like "Gloves? What the heck?" So I am really convinced that our Heavenly Father was in on that one. I still crack up when I think of this story. These two "special" sisters can teach us so much about being Christlike. So the next time you want to disregard someone because they bug you or they dress a little funny, maybe you should stop and find something you didn't see before. Who knows? This person may end up teaching you something or maybe even changing your life. And I guess that's all I've got to say about that.