Merry Christmas

 I want to wish each of you a very blessed Christmas.  I love this wonderful season of the year.  I count my many, many blessings among which are God, our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ, my beloved husband, my children and grand children, the great grandchildren and you my dearest friends.

Our assistants to the president, Elders Lopez and Williams have been busy delivering packages and letters to the missionaries.  All of the mail comes to the office and then I sort it into zones.  Usually the zone leaders pick up all of the mail on zone order day, but because of Christmas we have been doing special deliveries.  All of the missionaries are anxious and excited to talk to their parents on the phone or on SKYPE tomorrow.

 Not everyone receives a package though.  Some families are too far away and some families just can't afford to send something.  We had 50+ missionaries who did not receive a package this year.  So Sisters Jordan and Nilsen and I put our money together and bought everyone that didn't get a present something.  Then as a happy surprise one of the senior couples who served here before, the Mahaffey's send a package with lots of stuff from their ward for those same missionaries.  We had a fun time deciding what to give to which missionary and wrapping the presents for them.

 It took us a long time to get everything sorted and wrapped, but now everyone has a present to open for Christmas.  As you can see, we had fun chatting and laughing as we worked.  The picture above is our second session of wrapping gifts.  We had so much little stuff that is took 2 separate wrapping times.