Gift of gospel from missionaries adds joy to each yule celebration

By Rodolfo Acevedo
Published: Saturday, Dec. 12, 1992.










Last Christmas season, as I watched my children present the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at our home at the foot of the everlasting hills of Puente Alto, my thoughts returned with emotion to my own childhood.

I remembered the Christmases of my past with my parents and brothers and sisters at my home city of San Antonio. This city is a port city on the Pacific Ocean, and the people there are very straightforward people. At Christmas time, they decorate their homes and yards with wreaths and lights.I remember my Uncle Rogelio's gift to our family. Each year he crossed many miles to the mountains. Each year he cut two trees, one for his family and one for us. He didn't ask for payment; his gesture was in the true Christmas spirit and became part of our family tradition. He showed his love for us, and his only payment was seeing our happy faces.

I remember the efforts of our parents on Christmas Eve as they cared for us young and innocent children, getting us to bed early so Father Christmas could arrive in the middle of the night. We would awaken and find toys at the foot of the Christmas tree that our uncle had carried from the mountains for us.

What beautiful nights of childhood dreams we were given by our parents at Christmas time!

However, we also had a Father in Heaven who we did not then know, who could provide us with a gift we never even dreamed of.

In the winter of 1968 when I was an adolescent I was visiting at the home of my cousins. On a rainy June day, two young foreigners knocked at the door, and with the noise of the rain and music that was playing, I could only hear the words of my cousin Gabriel, who said, "No thank you," and closed the door.

Nevertheless, upon hearing those words and led by an unexplainable impulse, I stopped where I was, stood and walked to the door, opened it, and in the distance I could see these two young foreigners now half a block away. They looked very tall, and in their dark raincoats, seemed like two silvered trees leaning against the storm. When I returned to my own home, the first thing that I heard spoken to my mother was that two North Americans had passed and they wanted to speak with our father and return when he was home. No doubt these were the same two who had passed hours earlier at the home of my cousins.

When our father returned from work, my mother mentioned to him the visit we'd received. Their conversation ended with the conclusion that "there is no harm in learning new things."

Elder Robert Schallock y Élder Steve Cherry.

So the young men returned, and we were of a mind to listen to them. As they unfolded their flannel board in the living room we made it our business to find out who they were: missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. Those were names we had never heard before.

Those young men were bearers of a true gift of faith for us. This gift is the gospel of Jesus Christ, restored to the earth through a young man named Joseph Smith, another name we had never previously heard.

Christmas of 1968 found our family converted to the Mormon faith. I did not let the missionaries know how afraid I was of the reaction of the rest of the family, and my friends at high school. It was the words of our Savior that gave me peace. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27.)

Without doubt, the entire experience of conversion gave more significance to the truths in our lives and our Christmases. Thanks to the missionaries, I was able one day to serve a mission in my own hometown sharing the gospel and spending two Christmases with families that also had received our message about a gift from heaven.

One December as Christmas approached, my beautiful wife and I were sealed in our marriage in the Sao Paulo Temple. On this occasion I felt the joy of knowing that our children would be born in the covenant.

So this Christmas, I watch my four children present the humble birth of the Savior, and see them dressed in the clothing of Joseph and Mary, and little shepherds. The memories return to my mind and I feel deep emotion. I think of the great love of our Heavenly Father, who has given His firstborn on the earth to give us the possibility of returning to His presence. Such a great gift of our Savior; what a grand blessing for us, His brothers and sisters.