Dear Gary...

I was blessed to do service for my oldest, Gary. Gary is always ping service for others for schools and   Those needing food. I decided to give money to the Road Home but Kristen mentioned making dental kits so that is what I did. I made kits for children and adults. The Road Home is a place for fillies who have no place to go. I also gave a box of clothes. One night at the Road home they had 245 children under the age of 5.

To: Sarah, Merry Christmas From: Becca

Merry Christmas Sarah. 

As my act of charity in your name I wanted to do something that reminded me of you. 

The first thing that came to mind was dentistry and teeth.

I dedcided to go buy some dental hygiene supplies and...

put them in some cute packaging...

I then donated them to a local homeless shelter

They were very grateful for the donation. 

I hope this helps a few people, and I hope it helps you 

to have a Merry Christmas. 

From, Becca 

Service from Nick

Happy Holidays from Nick.

For my service project, I decided to help donate for Cancer research. Todd's work at the time, Cardwell Distributing was holding a yard sale, where proceeds would go to help with cancer research. Tiffany and I had gotten quite a bit of new furniture after moving into our new apartment and had planned to sell it on KSL. When Todd mentioned the yard sale however, we decided to give our couch and entertainment center to the yard sale. Todd said the couch was the first thing to sell. Woohoo!

This was done in service for Weston. You know, the tall one in the family. :) MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Service from Tiffany

Happy Christmas from Tiffany.

For my service project, I decided to donate toys to the Primary Children's hospital. I had considered volunteering there as well, but when I checked their website, they said they would not be accepting applications for volunteers until February of 2014. So, I looked at their list of most requested items and headed off to Walmart. I really did enjoy picking things out and had a hard time stopping myself from buying more. The items on the list were pretty cheap, so I ended up with about 30 things in all. Most were crafts for the children to do: canvases, paints, decorate your own mugs, sun catchers, feathers, Pom poms, etc. I also picked up a few card games.

To make it more interesting, I got my students involved. I brought the toys to work and told them they would have the opportunity to buy these toys to give to the students by earning money (fake of course) in the classroom. I had one student in particular who went above and beyond and asked to use his homework money he had earned to spend on the toys, along with the money specifically earned for this project. After they had earned their money, they "bought" the items and placed them in bags with their name on it.

I have not yet delivered it to Primary Children's due to the snow that has graced us over the last week, but when I do take it, I plan to let them know they are from my students and each bag has a child's name on it who purchased the toys to give to them.

This service was done for Kristen, as you may have guessed.

I love you all. Happy holidays!

Dear Becca,

I have thought a lot throughout the year about my little sister Becca.  I realize that it has been an especially difficult year with Becca and Todd’s separation.  I realize I walk fine line of getting too personal, but I had an idea.  There are two Wards that share our church building.  The Colfax Ward that we belong to and the Kernersville Ward that I also attend regularly as their High Councilor.  As the Primary President Gina had already had plans of gathering toys, games, clothes, and every day supplies for a battered women and children’s shelter called Family Services of the Piedmont.  They provide a place to stay for women and children who are in need of help.  Let me be clear, I am not stating or implying Becca and Todd’s relationship to be abusive.  So, the situation is not the same; however, there are many women and children out there with no support network to fall back on.  Many arrive at the shelter hungry, broke, and with no possessions.  Our family is extremely blessed to be very close knit and we can depend on and help each other through difficult circumstances.  (I have to be honest: Gina did more work than I did but she let me help out and claim it for my act of service.)   

We put a Christmas tree up in the foyer of our church building.  We then worked with the Bishopric in each Ward and the Primary President in Kernersville to promote this cause.  The Christmas tree was decorated with ornaments that we made that listed items that were needed or desired by the shelter for their constituents.  Ward Members then chose ornaments from the tree.  They would purchase the items/gifts and return them to the Primary President in each Ward.  The gifts were all delivered in early December so the shelter would have plenty of time to assess their needs and what they had available.  We were able to provide two car loads of gifts for the shelter.  Gina kindly took a picture of her carload.  The other Primary President arrived a little later and did not want to take a picture because of the time involved in removing and arranging the items for the picture.  They were very grateful.  It felt very good to help out all those women and children in need who do not have the wonderful support network that we as a family provide for each other in difficult times.  Thank you, Becca for being such a wonderful sister!  Thank you everyone for being such a wonderful and loving family.  Merry Christmas!  

Love,

Scott

To Nick From Kristen

I drew Nick's name for Christmas this year. I know that Nick loves motorcycles. I decided that a great service would be for me to donate to BACA. I donated to a Utah chapter of BACA. This is such a great organization. Merry Christmas!!  Love, Kristen

Weston had Rod's name

I got Bampa's name for Christmas. Rod is big on having food storage, so I put boxes of food together and dropped them off anonymously to people who needed it.

Dear Tiffany...

Dear Tiffany,

When I drew your name, I thought of lots of different things that I could do in your name to serve someone else and bless their lives.  I thought of children and autism and animals and your love for others.  It was hard to decide where to devote my efforts, but ultimately I decided to focus on missionary work and helping to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

In January, our ward gained a pair of Sister Missionaries and this is where my service began.  I had the opportunity to give the missionaries a ride, feed them meals, help them in our ward, and best of all, teach others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.  They quickly realized that my schedule was flexible and would call on me sometimes daily, but at least weekly.  If at all possible, I went with them if I could.  It's been a rare week this year that I haven't helped the missionaries in some capacity.

At the end of summer, they tracted into a less-active woman and began teaching her husband.  I've been able to befriend this lady and her family.  We've become good friends, we've had them over to our home, and I've been able to slowly help their 5 year old son to adjust to Primary.  We were able to attend her husband's baptism this month.  It's been a really wonderful experience.

As Christmas approached, I wanted to get our children involved in some type of service.  We've really been trying to focus on and teach them that the true magic of Christmas comes in serving others.  Through a friend, I became aware of some missionaries serving in the Australia Brisbane mission who are not supportive of them being on a mission.  This was so sad to me, especially having spent so much time with the missionaries serving in my ward and developing close relationships with them.  There were 39 missionaries from Tonga, Samoa and the Philippines. One of the Elders was from the area of the Philippines that was recently hit by the Typhoon. He is the oldest of five children and both of his parents died when he was 13. He quit school to work and raise his siblings until leaving on his mission. His home was destroyed and he hasn't heard from his siblings since the typhoon.  However, he has a constant smile on his face as he testifies daily that God loves them and will watch over them until he gets home because he is serving a mission.  Some of the missionaries are the only members of the church in their family and their family isn't even speaking to them.  They probably would not be getting anything from their families for Christmas!

So, I helped the kids to make Christmas cards for each of these 39 missionaries in Australia.  We personalized, decorated them, wrote them a message, and sent them to Australia in hopes of brightening their Christmases.  I hope that they can feel the love of our Heavenly Father and know that He loves them.  

This is the message that has been a common thread throughout my service this year and coincidentally it was also the 2013 Primary theme, "I am a child of God".  It has been so wonderful to teach others this truth and for me to try harder to remember that everyone is loved by Him and He is aware of each and every one of us.    

Tiffany, I love you and I am so grateful for the person that you are.  I loved this opportunity to think of you all year and to provide this service in your name.

Love,
Gina

Christmas Present for Rhonda

 

This year we made our school supplies drive bigger and better than ever. We stuffed this school bus and the box next to it full of school supplies. We got our entire office team and our patients involved to make this the most successful school supplies drive yet. Hundreds of items were donated. The supplies were donated to the Educator Warehouse, where teachers are able to go and "shop" for the supplies that they need for their classrooms. The supplies are, of course, free for the teachers to pick up.

 

I also encouraged our friends and family this year to save their box tops to benefit your school. I have received many box tops over the past year that will be donated to your school to help fund more school supplies. 

Merry Christmas!

-Sarah

Christmas Present for Todd

This year we collected food for the less fortunate. To get as much food as possible, I encouraged our patients and their families to donate as well. We have received hundreds of food items that will be donated to The Second Harvest Food Bank. This food drive will continue until January 6th so that we are able to help replenish the shelves after the holiday rush. Merry Christmas!

-Gary

Merry Christmas to Scott

I changed my mind a few times during the year but finally settled on doing Family History Stories for my children and grandchildren.  Gina agreed to type up the stories if I would record the story on my iPhone.  I made it thorough five or six stories but then didn't follow through very well. Sorry, Scott.  Since then, I have decide to expand on the idea and do recording of my mother whenever I call her on FaceTime.  However, I will just post the recording on YouTube or a Blog Spot so no one will have to type them up.  However they could be typed up at a later time if someone wanted to take the time I guess.  I will continue to work on it for the rest of this year and next year in addition to my new service for next year.  Merry Christmas to everyone and I love all of you.  Bampa Tucker

To post your service:

Post your service here.  Click on "Schedule" on the right and set the date to be December 25 at 12am  :)