Last week every missionary met with their zone at the Mormon Center for temple zone conference. Christmas pictures were taken, instruction given, Christmas lunch provided by local Relief Societies, and a temple session was attended. These conferences were held Tuesday-Friday, to accommodate everyone.
Meanwhile, back at the office, the last-minute packages started pouring in. On Monday alone there were close to 200 delivered. After weeks of carefully logging in each package, color-coding it by zone and placing in the proper "pile," things got out of control. A sweet 87-year-old woman came in to help me. She's very sharp and energetic and has great organizational skills. I didn't discovered till midweek that she couldn't tell hot pink tape from florescent orange.
Some missionaries received 10-12 packages; others nothing. We have 192 missionaries, so do the math. We waited until the last minute to shop, since boxes were still arriving daily. Some moms had called me ahead of time to ask for the names of Island missionaries who wouldn't be getting gifts from home, so we had extra help. On Thursday night, after zone conferences and hauling and stacking boxes all day, we went shopping to buy pajama bottoms, sweaters, etc. Friday night was spent loading the trailer. I should mention here that it has been raining, seriously raining, for days now, so the loading and unloading was done in a downpour.
We left yesterday morning at 6:20 a.m., and finished our Santa run at 8:00 p.m. After all the planning, there were still some missionaries who received nothing. Some whom we had shopped for received packages yesterday, and the office elders waited at the office for mail delivery and then caught up with us with the day's deliveries. But other packages that had been logged in for an individual didn't materialize. We had some generic gifts to give them with no name tags but it was still hard to see one face in every group with nothing from home. It's not a perfect world yet. Everyone did receive a shopping bag full of hygiene items, candy, socks, etc., which we spent Monday night assembling.
Whew! Santa's job is really hard. And it's still raining.
But the up side of the week was watching the missionaries sing together, hug one another, and bear testimony of the meaning of Christmas and the joy they feel in being here, serving their Savior. (Much like a spiritual Who-ville!) Like them, I'll never forget my Christmas in the mission field.
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