The Spirit of Christmas

Right now there are missionaries in our Utah Salt Lake City mission who come from about thirty other countries. Christmas time is difficult, because mailing packages from some of these countries is very expensive, and the mail may or may not be reliable. So even though these missionaries are loved by their families, packages can't always come from home. That makes for awkward moments in an apartment on Christmas morning, when the missionary from Texas is surrounded by gifts, and the missionary from El Salvador has none. In November, I was thinking about this, and came up with what I thought was an excellent plan. I drafted a simple letter, explaining this situation and stated that if anybody felt so inclined to donate Christmas gifts to an Elder or Sister who might not otherwise have any, we would be happy to distribute them. Then we sent a copy of that letter to each of our 78 stake presidents and asked them to share it as they thought appropriate.

What I didn't anticipate was the absolute avalanche that I was about to start! All I can say is that the kindness and generosity of the people in the Salt Lake Valley simply cannot be matched anywhere, I'm sure! We had so many gifts and gift cards donated to our mission office that we were able to provide each and every one of our 200 missionaries with a huge gift bag on Christmas. Besides that, each missionary who hadn't gotten any packages in the mail received several additional gift bags as well! It was amazing! We had families who got together and provided gifts. We had Young Womens' organizations and Relief Societies and wards and individuals open their hearts and share their blessings in an unbelievable manner. The office was overflowing with gifts! It took my children, who were here on vacation but have forever been used to mom's random requests (Just come over to the mission office to help for a few minutes = come help organize and sort thousands of items for several hours) and the mission office senior staff hours and hours to prepare the gifts. Our place looked sort of like Santa's workshop. I will never forget the kindness shown to our missionaries by the people who live here. What a choice Christmas memory this will forever be. My gratitude, and heart, go out to them.

The Extended Davis Family delivers gift bags for the missionaries to the mission home.

Hundreds of other gifts were delivered to the mission office.