The Christmas Elves

 

This was inspired by Kira Sunnex from Te Awamutu Ward so I’m giving her all the credit. She was so upset last year when she heard that the missionary sister in her ward received no Christmas gifts from her family and did not have regular contact with her family and she vowed that that would never happen again. So with the help of the TA Relief Society they made up 10 Christmas stockings for the 4 in her ward and then 6 for other missionaries. She asked the import question “are there many missionaries in our mission who will not get anything from their family?” YES. So for the past few months I have been recording on a separate piece of paper as well as the regular spreadsheet on my computer, all the parcels that have arrived. Kira then put a plea on the unofficial Hamilton FB page for stocking fillers. We had an amazing response from the sister who actually started that page and she sent a large box of goodies, via The Warehouse, an NZ store. I had a couple of other smaller parcels and I even had to go and collect one from the store opposite. Now for the challenge of getting stockings. Well the Manager of one of our local Warehouses is a member of our church and I asked if he would be will to donate anything for our good cause. He said come along and he would sort us out. When we visited the store he was busy but his floor manager was there and he was brilliant. Not sure if I’m allowed to say how many stockings they gave us but it was lots and I hoped that would be enough. Over the next few days my total went up by 15. As parcels arrived in the post I was able to cross off a few names. But I did have to go shopping and buy a few more stockings and kiwi Christmas bags, that was fun. We went to Kira’s house and with the help of two other elves we pack over 30 stockings, with lots left over. Just as well as I then had to put together loads on Monday night. I think we have all our missionaries sorted now with either stockings or little token gifts as we were sure they would receive something in the next week from home.

Although I wasn’t giving them out to the missionaries personally I still wanted to take photos of them receiving their stocking so that I could post it on FB for all the generous people who either gave of their money or time, to see. But sadly I only got one photo and he was delighted that someone had thought of him.