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SALT LAKE CITY -- More than 20,000 people filled the LDS Conference Center Sunday night in for the annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performed traditional hymns and the three leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke, emphasizing the need to concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of the Christ child.
"While it's true we can find materialism and anxiety at Christmas, it is also true that if we have eyes to see we can experience the powerful message of the birth of the Son of God and feel the hope and peace He brings to the world," Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency said."Let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others," said the President of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson. "Let it be time for discarding the meaningless and for stressing the true values. Let it be a time for peace."
Pres. Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency talked about service and the joy that accompanies helping others.
"You can give him the gift of doing for others what he would do for them. Many of you have already done that and felt his appreciation. It may have been visiting a lonely widower," Pres. Eyring said. "It may have been joining with others in a project to help those in need."
The First Presidency urged Church members during the next few weeks to draw closer to the Lord, their families and their fellow man.
E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com
