Noche de luz, Noche de paz

This Christmas, my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) really wanted to do some good service for some needy families in Provo. We had worked to raise some money over a period of a few weeks, by going around to various apartment complexes and asking for loose change. In just a few short weeks, our ward (church congregation) had raised $1300 in pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, with just my group of 15 raising $1000 of that. We had more than expected, and much more than we knew what to do with. Finally we decided to work through the Sub for Santa organization, where groups of us were assigned a local needy family to buy gifts for. On Saturday, my partner Devin and I (we were in charge of our group) went to the store to buy all kinds of toys, clothes, and books for this family with 4 children. Each family was allotted about $400, which is a lot of money, and Devin and I felt that we were more than generous in picking out gifts on Saturday. When we got to the checkout counter, however, we discovered that we still had $150 to spare! It had been suggested that we buy the family a Christmas tree as well, so we did, as well as decorations, wrapping paper to wrap the gifts in, and a visa gift card with all the leftover money on it.

Now, the point of this story was not to tell all about what we did for this family...the point of it was more to tell about what they did for me.

We showed up last night to deliver the gifts, a little apprehensive because even though they knew we were coming, we were not sure how they'd react to us. We approached the door, opening with a verse of Silent Night. They sat quietly and listened, and there was the special spirit as a few of us finished with a verse in Spanish. God bless the boy in our group who had the foresight to bring a couple of Spanish hymnbooks. You see, the family was Hispanic, and spoke no English. We went in, and while the boys set up the tree, a couple of us girls gathered around the mother and her two adorable little daughters to chat. She was touched by how many of us spoke Spanish and Portugese and were comfortable conversing with the family. I learned a lot of things about them, how they were newly baptized members, how they'd only lived in the area for a few months, but had no family close by, which is why they were so appreciative of the love that we showed them. It almost seemed that our willingness to just talk to her in her native language meant more to her than all the gifts we had brought them.

I came away so happy with not only the service that we had performed that night, but because I know now that there is a reason why I am studying Spanish. I've kind of always known it was the right direction to go with my education, but I'd never really had this gut feeling validated until last night. It was the first time I've ever really had to use my Spanish, but I know that it will not be the last time that I will use it to help others. And I'm grateful for this little family for giving me that opportunity last night to serve them and helping me learn a little more about myself :)