He Speaks Spanish

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too!  Of course the highlight was having our entire family gathered - definitely the best gift ever!

Some of the other highlights of our holiday were:  Being surprised with Christmas Carols sung at our front door, receiving the 12 days of Christmas from a secret Santa, reading the Christmas Story Christmas Eve in the Mission Home with all of our family gathered around, delicious French toast breakfast, Cutler's gingerbread cookie dough brought all the way from Utah, Pearl and Violet's excitement for Santa's arrival (yes, he found them here in Long Beach), remembering our Savior's birth and celebrating our Heavenly Father's gift to each of us.

Sunday night we went to the Los Angeles temple and visitor's center to see the Christmas lights.  I loved being able to walk around and look at the lights without freezing - there is nothing wrong with a warm Christmas!  The visitor's center was recently remodeled.  It is wonderful. We joined a big crowd of people looking at the many interactive displays.  We loved the missionaries who are so excited about our message of the restored Gospel.  One of the sisters said that they don't have baptisms but they plant lots of seeds . . . over 1,000 visitors come to the Los Angeles visitor's center each day!

Pearl especially loved the statue of the Christos.  As you sit at the feet of the statue a recording plays the Savior's words taken from the New Testament.  Because many of the visitors speak Spanish they alternate the recording between English and Spanish.  When the recording began playing in Spanish our three year old granddaughter Pearl said, "Jesus speaks Spanish".  It was a very sweet moment and one that really touched my heart.  The faith of little children is so pure and strong. Pearl's simple statement was really very profound. Jesus Christ knows and loves each of us, no matter our ethnicity, our language or background.  In fact he loves us each so much that He gave His life for us.

I want to keep the beautiful Christmas Spirit throughout the coming year.

Thanks to each of you for your prayers and faith for us and our missionaries.

Love,
The Long Beach Buberts