Sub for Santa

This is a long one, with an awesome ending. . .

I am the ward FHE co-leader in my ward and I have had a lot of fun doing it, but nothing was quite as rewarding as what we did as a ward for the month of December. Each auxillary has a chance to be in charge of Service 2 times a year. FHE has always had December and it is a tradition to do Sub for Santa. This year, my co-chair and I decided to change things up a bit. We still got names of families, but we tried to get it from the group of children that we help to tutor on Tuesday and Thursday nights. So, we went through one of my FHE leaders aunt's wards and she was able to get the names of 6 families that were in need. We thought it would make it more personal since they were families that we were already serving.

Then we also decided to raise some money before hand by doing a Service Auction in our ward. We had people submit different services that could be rendered, such as making dinner for an apartment, giving piano or sports lessons, making a blanket, and of course, there were dates auctioned off as well. :) My favorite was the ice fishing for 4 couples that went for $124. Everyone came together and we bid on each others service. It was a lot of fun. Dan was the auctioneer for awhile and then I got to do it. Going once, going twice, sold. It was kind of fun. Sometimes people would just leave their hands up and I would keep going up, 10,11,12,13. . . until only one person was left. If it was really popular, I would start going in increments of 5's. We weren't sure how much we were going to make. We were just thinking it would be fun to have service done among the ward members and then do service for someone else. We were guessing we would make maybe 300 dollars. We far exceeded that. When we tallied up all the money in the end, we had raised $1,621.00. I was shocked and amazed, but very humbled by the generosity of everyone. That was why we were able to take care of 6 different families.

That is only the beginning of the story. So the auction was held on the 30th of November. Then when we got the names, I had Maria call them (they were all Hispanic families, I can speak Swedish now and all my Spanish went out the window, so I needed help). As she talked to each family, they were very gracious and thankful for the help during this season. We found out that most of them did not have heat, so we took some of the money and Krystel went to buy a blanket for each member in our six families. IKEA is so great!! We were able to get a ton of blankets since they were about $3 a piece. They were the warm fleece blankets as well. Then we divided up the rest of the money among my 5 FHE groups. (I know we had 6 families, but 2 of them there was only one kid in each family so we combined them and gave them to one group). Each group was able to get the clothes and toys each child wanted and needed for Christmas. I was able to shop for most of the clothes in my group with my friend Megan. We had so much fun shopping for our girls. We had 4 girls from the age of 18 months, 5, 10, & 15. It was so fun to do that for them. If anyone had money left over, we were able to give that to them to use with their own discretion. We turned some of the money into gift cards to Wal-Mart. All of the gathering took a long time and it was a lot of work, but finally we had everything wrapped and in my town home by December 22.

However, we did not deliver them until December 23. I had 5 wonderful people that came to help us out that evening. Matt, Vilate, Christina, Maria, & I went to 4 of the 6 families. I should have said that Maria's group took theirs on the 21st, and then Christina & Krystel dropped one of earlier that evening. We knocked on all of their doors to drop off the gifts. Each family was so happy, and so grateful for what we were able to do for them. One lady gave us hugs and candy canes. She had a bare tree before that. Then another family was leaving in a basement and the wife came out to greet us and bring us back to her apartment. She had only been in the country maybe 8 months, and was speaking English very well. She had the cutest little baby girl with big wide eyes. She was so enthralled to see all of us there. Her husband was not there at the time, but as we were leaving, he came and rushed out to greet us and thank us. It really made all of the effort so worth it. These people were so humble and it humbled us to see what life is like for others in need. I really felt blessed to be part of these events.

Thinking that was the end of Sub for Santa, I didn't think about it much until one of my leaders Krystel told me about what happened at Testimony meeting today in her aunt's ward. We didn't really know this, but one of the families in the ward was inactive. Apparently, they decided to come today and bear their testimony. This family had not answered the door when we went to take the presents to them, so we left it on their door step. She said that she went out and saw all of the presents and had no idea where they came from, but she knew that it was someone generous and kind. She said that act of kindness convinced her enough to come back to church to bear her testimony about it. We don't know if it will keep her active, but it gave her a testimony that people are kind and that the church is true. I truly hope that it will keep her coming and I'm sure her ward will do their best to continue helping her feel welcome at church.

What an amazing blessing service can be to not only those you serve, but you as well. Like I said, this project was a lot of work and to be honest I was having a tough time feeling the spirit of service of Christmas. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be part of this and the many tender mercies I have seen along the way during it. So many generous people, willing to give service and help others out. And that one act of kindness that helped to rekindle a testimony that had been forgotten. People are essentially good and want to do good things. Pay it Forward.