To Brooklyn from Lucy

To Brooklyn

                For my Christmas Service, I made a special gift for my old bus driver’s wife. My old bus driver just passed away and Brooklyn’s dad died a few years ago. Our family went to my old bus driver’s memorial service and I made a card for my old bus driver’s wife and sons.  The card I made we put in a frame. The card said “Because Someone We Love Is In Heaven, We Feel Heaven In Our Home”. We have a sign like this in our living room that was given to us after Uncle Ryan died.

Love,

Lucy

"Following in my Footsteps"

Let me begin by saying how great you all are for keeping this up. I feel it's as hard to think of what would be an appropriate service for the particular person we are given as it is to write about it.  I remember last year I promised myself that I would start out nice and early this year,well that did not happen..however when we finally got our call to go on our next mission I thought I can just serve all year long and write it up and it would done right!!?

So this is my story,.."when we were given what our responsibilities would be I was to just be bring spirit to the project site. I was not to give out any directions to the workers, just tell them how great it was to work on a temple!

However, soon after we got there that changed drastically. I was now to be the church inspector!... and to help direct the workers.

So I have tried to do my service for the person I was to serve!

The past 3 days we spent in Alaska with the Dittbrenner's , where I was able to pair up my service with the person whom I was given.  While we were there, we went to the temple where Wayne was serving as a temple worker. Later that day he commented that he was following in my footsteps,1st he was able to learn from me all about construction and now he was serving as a temple worker!  Every one that is in construction and is a member would love to work on a temple. I have served for the past 8 months for you Wayne and perhaps some day you can follow me once more?  Now that I know people are following in my footsteps, I will try to be a good example.

I love you, Wayne, and at this particular time "you are my favorite son in-law" !

Love Elder Gates 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so you all can keep reading!

 Two old men doing doing what like to do

First time I have worn a hardhat on a job!

Daily greeting the men.

Conducting daily prayer meeting.

It is not a coincidence ...
that we are here!

I'm grateful for our President

Here we are again. Excited to hear about the heartfelt actions dedicated to that specific loved one. I am very grateful for my recipient this year. We have shared a lot of bonding time as well as some growing pains together. She seems to be doing what she can for other people and never has a ‘what am I getting out of this’ attitude.  My person this year is Mitzi.

Mitzi seems to always have a lot going on. Sometimes more than she would like. Because of this, I was always on the lookout for opportunities that I could lessen or speedup her needs. Because she was Primary President there was A LOT of opportunities.

Every Sunday morning there was always a teacher that wasn’t there. I would see her scrambling around trying to find a substitute. This was on top of her regular duties of being President. I asked her if there was anything that I could help her with. She would grab my arm and look at me with huge thankful eyes and say, “YES! Could you teach a class for me?” What I was thinking inside……uuuuuhhhhhhhh. I was not prepared to TEACH a class. However, I said sure. Where do you want me? To my surprise she said I just need you to be the second person in the class.

Because this happened every Sunday, I became her goto person. I enjoyed being with the children. But better was the look of relief on Mitzi’s face when she saw me and she knew her problem was solved. When I was at church, I looked for Mitzi so that I could try to make it easier for her to focus on her cute Primary kids.

Mitzi is so great with little kids. She always does cute crafts with them. She makes it a priority to know all their names as well. I see Mitzi going beyond a calling. She treats it as a privilege and takes it and runs.

Then Charise and I got a calling to teach the Sunbeams. I was excited because now I could try and give those kids the love and fun that Mitzi did. By this time Mitzi had moved so I steered my efforts toward Sister Hartman who is now the Primary President. Now lets be real, it is Charise who is the fun, loving one. But I did my best to make those kids feel like Mitzi would. These pictures are from lessons that I planned.

I know you may not have all the support you need every time. But through your behavior, your glowing attitude is contagious to everyone. It was very fun to help out our Primary President thinking about all the hard work and great ideas that you put into your calling. Even though you are a brat, I still love you.

To Savannah From Connor

This year for my secret service I got Savannah Johnson. I have 3 sisters all in Irish dance classes and they LOVE it! They say it is there favorite activity they have ever been in. But of course it comes at a cost. Since I know that Savvy loves to dance I have decided to pay for my sister Cora so that she can learn how to Irish Dance. I earned the money by doing chores like vacuuming and shoveling the snow. (something I did NOT need to do in N.C!)

To Dad I LOVE YOU, Mitzi

Merry Christmas!  This year I have dad for reals...I think! ;)  It's kind of fun to think about dad all year.  It made me fell just a tad bit closer to him while he was way off in Africa.

Growing up, dad was not a very touchy feely kind of guy.  I mean, I knew dad loved me but the words were not said out loud very often.  We brought this up a few times.  One year dad decided to make it a new years goal to tell mom he loved her every day.  I remember there being lipstick on the mirror once.  I remember little notes being left and I think he wrote it in the sand once.  This year, I decided to take a month and tell Mike I loved him every day.  For the most part I would make sure I said it out loud sometime during the day.  There were a few nights in a row that we would say our evening prayers together and I would remember that I hadn't said it yet and so I would tell him I loved him after the prayer.  The first time I don't think he thought much of it.  The third night, he looked at me and said...."ok...?"  So I decided I needed to up my game.  I left a note on his pillow...

I wrote a note in the snow....

There were many other times I thought of this man this year...

I was going to take a treat to visit some friends.  What to take??  How about black licorice?  Introduce them all to the finer points of life.

Of course it needed to be hard candy!

When I think about Christmas growing up one of my favorite memories is buying a second beautiful tree each year.  We would take it to a family in need.  In addition to donating to a family in need.  When the #lighttheworld campaign came out, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to think of dad daily in December.  The kids and I have had a great time enjoying our acts of service. My favorite day was feed the homeless.  We put together 8 homeless kits.  They had non perishable food (ie: beef jerky, apple sauce, goldfish crackers, water bottles, hard candy, gum)  Socks, Gloves, hand warmers, toothbrush and toothpaste.  We put the packets in our car and each time we pass a homeless person we hand them out a kit.  We have given out 4 or 5 already. 

 Another strong memory of my father is how diligent he was in his callings.  They never turned a calling down and always magnified it!  This year I was asked to help serve on the Christmas Party committee.  I had a great time preparing, setting up and even cleaning up.  My dad was always the last one to leave and clean up at a party.  It was fun to be the last one of the last 3 walking out of the church thinking of my hard working dad!

I love you daddy!  Thanks for always being a good example to me!  I am proud of you!

Love you,

Mitzi