I have been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. Gee, I wonder why? But I was thinking of past Christmas seasons and I remembered what it was like to have Christmas while serving on my mission. Christmas in New York was magical. It seemed like the Christmas season even penetrated the people of New York. People were friendlier, there was definitely a good feeling that overcame the city. There was a lot of lights, there was a lot of decorations. The city was absolutely gorgeous when the snow would come and blanket the city. I loved Christmas in New York. Sure, I was a little homesick and I missed being around my family but the city takes care of their own. And I was happy to be counted among them.
My second Christmas in the field was the best one. I was serving in the Rego Park area and my companion was Elder Powell. My best friend in the mission field. We served in a nice area and we knew a lot of fantastic people, people that I still think about all the time.
Now I also love Christmas music. I love all Christmas music in all of its forms. Elder Powell and I wanted to get some Christmas music to play at the apartment so we stopped by a music store and bought some CDs. And I found a CD that I really wanted.
I still have this CD
Now I like Mariah Carey. I don't care for her new stuff, I really liked her first and older material. You know when she was pretty and nice. Not when she went crazy and went thuggy. Her Christmas music was absolutely fun to listen to, her rendition of O Holy Night is still one of my all-time favorite covers of that song. We listened to that CD every chance we could.
And then I found out from my friend John that she was giving a free concert downtown.
Mariah Carey is giving a free concert at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. John invited us to go if we wanted to and we would have really good seats because of his connections and maybe even get to meet her. I really pondered this, when would I get another chance like this? The only bad part is that Saint Patrick's is located inand out of our mission. If it was just out of our area, I wouldn't even think twice about it, I would go. But it is out of our whole mission and that could lead to trouble. The last thing that I would want to happen is something to go wrong while we were out of the mission boundaries. President Bailey would be so ticked! But our Branch Christmas Party is the same night too and I didn't want to miss that either. But Mariah Carey! Powell and I decided it would be best if we just went to the Branch Christmas Party instead. I think I would rather want to regret missing Mariah than regret being kicked out of the mission or something drastic as that! On the other hand I would love to have seen President Bailey's face when he found out. Manhattan
We ended up taking John to the Branch Christmas Party with us. It was a fun evening and I am glad we made the decision to go to this instead of seeing Mariah Carey.
So I almost snuck out of the mission to go see Mariah Carey. A small part of me wishes that I did it anyway. Like I said, it was a chance in a million to go see her and perhaps even meet her. And a small part of me wanted to do it to spite my mission president. We did not see eye-to-eye on a great many things. Luckily wiser heads prevailed and I went to the party instead.
And we spent Christmas at John's house.
