Philip Newton's journal

Today was the ward's Christmas celebration—a bit early (even before the first Sunday in Advent).

It started off in the chapel, with a short talk and a video about the birth of Christ (with dialogue only in—presumably—Aramaic, and no subtitles). A couple of songs, including one by the ward choir.

And at the end of that segment, we were asked to leave through the front door of the chapel because there were some angels standing there who would give each person a little bag of biscuits and a booklet.

The booklet was about four Christlike virtues or attributes that the bishopric asked us to focus on in the four weeks of Advent, and which would also be the topics for the next four Sundays: faith, hope, charity, and patience.

The angels were the young women: Esther, Jeva, Verena, and Melissa. The last three were even dressed up as angels, with white blouses, white dresses, and white wings.

So, after that, we went into the cultural hall, where a buffet table had been prepared; everybody chose a seat at the tables which had been put up and set, and when the buffet was opened, could help themselves to the cakes and biscuits that had been provided, as well as to the fruit tea, cereal "coffee", or mineral water that was there.

After a while, three wise men (who looked rather similar to the bishop and his two counsellors) came in, bearing a big wrapped box. They each told a short story and then asked one child to unwrap the box carefully.

The box inside bore the inscription, "For the Primary children of Wilhelmsburg Ward". Inside were individually addressed envelopes with a card in each and small chocolate bars stuck to the outside, as well as a couple of somewhat bigger presents, two of which were for the missionaries and two of which were for the Primary as a whole; those last two ended up being xylophones (since the one the Primary has now is missing some of its "keys"(?)).

Amy exemplified the spirit of Christmas when she brought me the card and confided to me, "But I wanted a real present!". Ah well :)

What was less nice was getting Amy home afterwards; she didn't want to leave and kept disappearing rather than getting dressed.