What might you do to make this Christmas Eve unforgettable? To remember the Reason for the Season? To help children in your family experience the true Spirit of Christmas?

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I was in Sacrament meeting (the Mormon version of mass) last Sunday. I had gone to my brother’s ward (congregation) because he was blessing his son. (Sort of like a Christening but without the baptism. Or the godparents. Or the- actually, all unknown Mormon terms are described better here, so if you see something you don’t understand, try that.)
[Photo provided by Allaboutmormons]

So the blessing was over and we had sung the Sacrament hymn and the priest (16 or 17 year old boy) up front starts saying the Sacrament prayer. He says the first line and then you hear this other voice, it’s a disorganized sound, high and then unaccountably low, kind of like that of a pubescent boy, but more so.

 The voice repeats the last word or two of what the priest said. Then the priest says the next line and the voice again repeats most of the syllables, some recognizable as the words we just heard, some not. And the prayer continues that way, the whole way through.

After we all said amen I looked up at the table where the Sacrament had been prepared and blessed and I see a very large, obviously mentally challenged man stand up. And next to him I see my oldest nephew, the priest who had helped him through the prayer.

And I thought I was as proud as I could be.

And then they started passing the Sacrament and I saw another nephew walking around, not passing but helping another very large, obviously mentally challenged man pass the sacrament.

And there was another man doing the same for another not as large but just as obviously mentally challenged boy.

The deacons in this ward were not the most polished I’ve seen. They were not all wearing white shirts and they were not all tucked in, but I learned more in those few minutes about loving and sharing the blessings of the gospel than I have in a long time.

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Please view the video and share your thoughts.  What other songs inspire you?

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Karen attended Brigham Young University and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education. She has taught school for 32 years. She said: “I always had the support of my husband and children, and I always felt that I was supposed to be a teacher.”

Right now, Karen serves as the Relief Society President in her ward. She has served in many areas in the Church, and she says that the more she serves in the Church, the more she realizes how important each calling is –how each one was the experience she needed. However, if she could pick, she would serve as the Primary (children’s Sunday classes) pianist!

Karen loves to read almost every kind of book –from Jane Austen to Harry Potter. She also loves to relax by watching movies with her husband. She enjoys hiking and skiing, although she doesn’t do either very often. Some of her other favorite things to do include: scrapbook, spending time with her family, doing family history, and traveling.

One time, Karen had an experience which changed her life:

“I remember one time when I was pregnant and had a miscarriage. I prayed for someone to come and my visiting teacher showed up. My husband was out of town, and I was hemorrhaging pretty badly. My visiting teacher was a nurse and she had her husband give me a blessing. She stayed with me all night, because I wouldn’t go to the hospital because my insurance wouldn’t cover it. She took me to the doctor’s office the next morning. I was in pretty bad shape, but I felt the Lord with me through the night in the form of that wonderful visiting teacher.”

For Karen, the Plan of Salvation is so wonderful! She says that only a loving Heavenly Father would have such a plan. She also knows that she is a child of God who knows her and loves her. On being a Mormon woman, Karen says:

“I have never felt that we as women were less important than men in the eyes of our Father in Heaven. He has blessed us with the power of creation. He has given us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the Priesthood is such a blessing in our lives. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love the peace it brings into my life. I’m grateful for that blessing and I wish everyone could hear about the gospel and could know what I know. It gives my life such purpose!”

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“And a little child shall lead them….“