Merry Christmas from Spencer:

I wanted to write about one of my memories of Christmas. I was watching a rerun of the 2017 Christmas first Presidency Devotional.  Elder Duncan of the Seventy was giving a talk about Christmas season after being widowed.  It reminded me of my lonely Christmas—but this was before I was ever married.  I had just returned from my 30 month mission.  I came home that summer and realized that my parents were in an economic crisis.  They sent me off to school at ASU with an old, old travel trailer and I was able to park it in a trailer court about a mile from the campus.  I had a job on a dairy farm out near where Grandpa and Grandma Vance used to live.  I didn’t know them at that time.  

I had to work enough to support myself for my tuition, books and living expenses.  The hours I worked were close to full time.  The lack of academic preparation and the work load was almost too much for me. I had difficulty with attention deficit and couldn’t concentrate on my studies very well.

My Christmas memory is this:

I went to the Institute singles’ ward that Christmas morning (it was a Sunday) after working from 2 AM to 8 AM. 8 AM. What seemed so difficult was that my peers all came to church in new sweaters and sports jackets and other new apparel.  That included the two adult bishopric members with their new Christmas clothes.  To me it seemed like a “show and tell” and who had the best.  The good thing was that I stayed at church that Christmas Sunday morning.  I had my one and only old short sleeve shirt and my old pants from my missions.  That is what I wore every week.  I sat alone and endured the Sacrament meeting.  Even though it was difficult, I stuck it out.

Three years went by with loneliness and some failures at school.  I was blessed to just get by.  I was shabbily dressed and struggling in so many ways.  I think I went for three years without a date.  In looking back I received some attention, but not from the right quality of girls.  Looking back on that group of kids, I think I have a better life than any of them.  I wouldn’t trade places with any one of them.

One saving grace, so to speak, was I did make it to the temple almost every week.  No, I wasn’t perfect, nor exemplary by any means, but I tried hard to make good choices.  The fourth year I met Susan and we had a good courtship, I thought.  That brought hope but even that courtship dissolved.  Shortly thereafter, I was drafted and after a year in the army the blessings came. 

I was at church with the chaplain and I received a distinct prompting that I should go home and write a letter of proposal to Susan.  She accepted!!  On my next furlough, I went back to Arizona and we were married. 

Then came the blessings of having children every two years.  Each one was a new blessing in our lives. The way was opened for me to make a living and we had a wonderful family.   

I will end this Christmas memory by saying that now I have an even bigger and more wonderful family.  God bless each of you at this time of the year. 

As time marches by my desire is that you will live in such a manner that you will be blessed at critical times in your lives.  To quote Elder Rasband, “The Lord… is in the small details of your life as well as in the major milestones.”