Hello All,
It's been a wonderful Christmas week and now we head into the New Year - 2024. It just sounds like a good year, right?
We had a wonderfully busy week. We had the opportunity to serve at the Oakland Temple Visitor Center every day this week, Sunday - Saturday!
We love serving there! We were so happy to serve and fill in for the directors who had all their family in town before they get released in a couple weeks.
The Visitor Center is open every day of the year from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. - yes, every day! We usually serve the later shift from 3:00-9:00 p.m. A normal day of the year, we might see between 200-400 people come in. Weekends and holidays bring in 500-700 guests. This year, 925 people came in on Christmas Eve and 1008 came in on Christmas Day. The biggest day this year was 1150 guests on December 23rd.
Of course most people wouldn't think it is even open on Christmas Day, but the missionaries serve there and people come! Many come to see the Christmas lights, or the light on the hill, which is referred to as the "beacon of Oakland" as the temple can be seen from afar. The grounds and palm trees are all lit up and the weather is mild so people walk around the grounds and up around the 2nd story floor of the outside of the temple for a spectacular view of the San Francisco Bay. Then many come wandering into the Visitor Center not sure what they will find. Well, they are greeted by beautiful young sister missionaries who speak a variety of languages. Folks can sit and listen to a 90 second narration from the scriptures of words Jesus Christ spoke as they look up to the Christus statue. Next they can walk around and look at different displays and enjoy some interactive activities. Missionaries can follow along and teach them if they want or turn on a short movie about any topic they are interested in. This month we love showing "The Christ Child". I love to slip in at least once a day to feel the beautiful spirit there with that video. Some accept a free copy of the Book of Mormon. Remember how we can donate towards the Book of Mormon fund? Well I see these books given away every day. We have cupboards full of copies in 115 languages. I've given away the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese, Hindi, Arabic, Armenian west and Armenian east. Many of the languages I've never heard of before and can't even pronounce. Mostly we share books in Spanish and English but now almost daily, we have a group of visitors from Guatemala. They speak Mam and seem to send their friends so we figure out how to speak with them as some either know a little English or a little Spanish. I "speak" through admiring the beautiful stitching on the clothing the women all wear. Then they want to take pictures with me, haha! I ask if I can share their picture so they have given their permission. They love receiving a book in their native language. We share a little about what is in the book and invite them to read, ponder and pray. We hope they do!
We come home sharing with each other who we were able to share the gospel with as that is a daily opportunity. This has added such a wonderful blessing to our missionary week.
After serving at the Visitor Center on the morning of Christmas Eve, we got to shop for gifts for 31 residents at a local Care Center, then fed the Sister missionaries, and together bagged up those 31 gift bags. On Christmas Day, we were up early to make pies and frost cookies, then loaded those 31 bags to take to the Care Center where 10 missionaries joined us to sing Christmas carols for the folks there. We drove to another care center where we were able to perform for two more groups. Then we got to feed those missionaries a Christmas dinner before going to serve at the Visitor Center.
The next day we finally took the time to open our simple gifts to each other. At the end of the week we serve an hour at the Food Bank distribution in a nearby church parking lot, and then on to a nearby Methodist church for 2 more hours to help divide and distribute food to the folks who line up outside.
Like our missionary daughter Amy just said, "Let God love others, through you."
May we all daily find ways to serve God as we serve others.
This fun salutation is also from Amy
Hugs and kisses and merry wishes
Love, Elder and Sister Jerman
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