It's been quite the Santa's Workshop around the office for the past few weeks. Scott's office and the supply room have been turned into storage rooms for missionary Christmas surprises. In November we sent a letter out to the parents of our missionaries asking them to send their packages to the mission office by December 12. When our kids were on missions I didn't understand why I had to send things through the mission office, but now it makes perfect sense. Sister Rasmussen has been making a list and checking it twice, making sure everyone is taken care of for Christmas. Her system of recording and delivering packages would make a warehouse manager envious. She and Sister Scott and Sister Skank have worked tirelessly keeping track of every package that comes our way. We have 135 missionaries and if each one gets 3 or 4 packages, do the math and that is a lot of packages. Elder and Sister Gunn have been like little elves, shopping, wrapping and returning gifts that weren't needed. We are so grateful for all of their hard work, I had no idea the behind the scenes things that go on in a mission office, especially at Christmas time and we could never do it without all of them. We are also so grateful to so many of our missionary parents who have sent gifts, gift cards and money to help out. And personally, we have received so many kind cards, gifts and well wishes, it makes me wish I had been more thoughtful to our kids mission presidents, we have felt so much love and are so incredibly grateful for all that has been done for our missionaries and for us.
All of the packages were sorted and stacked in zones, these pictures were taken one day a few hours before we got a mail delivery of another 80 packages. All of this preparation was done in order to be able to deliver the Christmas packages to the missionaries at our Mission Christmas Conferences that were held this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Elder Rasmussen, with the help of some missionaries loaded up the big trailer and hauled the packages to the church where the conferences were held and they made very large piles for each zone.
We also have a sweet sister, Sister Morgan, in Carmichael who donates a large bag of oranges to each zone for Christmas. People are so good to our missionaries and we love them for it.
Our First Christmas conference was held in the Elk Grove Stake Center and included the Elk Grove, Sacramento, Cordova and East Sac Zones. We started out with a meeting in the chapel where we had music and talks by President Moser, a counselor in the mission presidency, I said a few word and then Scott. At the end of his remarks we finished reading the Book of Mormon together. We started reading the Book of Mormon in August as a mission and we all read the same chapters every day. We saved the last three so we could finish together. We had each missionary read one verse and after we finished Scott said a prayer. It was a great experience to be able to all be part of this Book of Mormon read and then to finish all together. I know my testimony of the doctrine found in the Book of Mormon was strengthened and I think the missionaries would say theirs were too. Of course, I am reading with missionary work in mind, but it hit me more than once that the entire Book of Mormon is about missionaries and missionary work.
After the meeting we went into the gym and had a delicious lunch prepared by the Elk Grove Stake. How grateful we are for the members who are so supportive and happy to serve the missionaries. We are very blessed to be in such an area where there are so many wonderful members.
These were all of the lunch providers and helpers.
After lunch we gathered and had some fun. We played Christmas Bingo for some pretty good prizes, and we had asked each zone to come up with a Christmas Carol that they had reworked to be about missionary work and their zones. I think they had a lot of fun preparing them and we had a blast watching them. Scott and I got parodied in many of them. Apparently I am famous for saying "This is one of my favorite scriptures" and Scott is famous for saying "Now, let me teach you a principle." They were clever and funny and we loved what they came up with.
The following are a lot of pictures from the first day of our Christmas Conference, in no particular order. We were so grateful to our friend Patrick Twomey, who is a local photographer and willingly comes and takes pictures, so most of these are thanks to him. We are grateful for his willingness to share his amazing talents and his time with us.
President makes a good Bingo Caller
Our Daughter Stacie and her kids, Thomas and Charlotte were able to come and stay for a few days with us this week. Her husband Bennett had to go out of town for work for the week, and his misfortune turned into our good fortune, as Stacie figured she didn't want to spend the week before Christmas alone so she came to stay with us. There are several pictures of our darling grandchildren sprinkled in with the missionaries. They loved the missionaries and I think it was fun for the missionaries to have some kids around as well.
Thomas with Elder Thomas, he thought it was pretty cool that a missionary had his name. In fact on Day 2 of our Conferences, we pulled up to the church and he asked where Elder Thomas was. He didn't quite understand why he wasn't there both days.
Thomas and Charlotte loved helping us pass out our gifts to the missionaries
Day 2 was very similar, but it was held in the Cameron Park Church in the El Dorado Stake, and again, we had wonderful members who fed us the most delicious lunch. President Bitnoff spoke and his wife Jeni sang, Scott and I spoke again and we, again, read the last three chapters of the Book of Mormon with the other half of the mission, which included the El Dorado, Folsom, Carmichael and North Sac Zones. Also, our son Preston came in after finishing finals late Tuesday night so our family group grew a little bit. It is so fun to have our family join us when they can in our missionary activities. They love getting to be around and to know all of the missionaries we talk so much about.
Yes, Sister Leavitt and I intentionally twinned for the conference, and Sister Coombs was also color coordinated. I felt honored to twin with these two adorable Sisters.
I love Sister Bitnoff!
In honor of finishing the Book of Mormon, Brother Twomey took pictures of a lot of the missionaries reading and having light come from the Book of Mormon. He also photo shopped this picture and made it look the the cover of the Ensign and posted it on facebook. I've had lots inquiries about that, and the answer is, no, I'm not going to be on the cover of the September 2018 Ensign. It was just the work of a very talented photographer.
We wish you a Very Merry Christmas from our California Sacramento Mission Family to yours. It is such a blessing to be a missionary at this time, and to be serving along side of these remarkable Elders and Sisters. We are blessed to testify of Him, whose birth we celebrate and there is nothing better than that. Much love to all of you who might be following along on this joyful journey.
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