The Spirit of Christmas

As Christmas drew close this year, I began to think of what I could do for Mariah. What did she want? What did she need, What would make her smile? I had no idea. She was faced with a similar dilemma. I was frequently being asked, "what would you like for Christmas?" "Is there something in particular that you would like for Christmas?"It became apparent that neither of us really needed, or wanted anything so badly that we desired it as a gift from each other. We had decided not to get anything for each other.

One night after a long day at work, I was on the computer filtering through video clips on You Tube when I came across this video.

I encourage you to watch it.

As I watched I was thinking with my business hat on. I thought this was a great marketing video to show at this time of the year. The company must have spent millions making this happen. My thoughts carried on like this until I saw the lady towards the end open her gift. It was a camera. Something that she desired so much that it brought her to tears. It was this simple reaction from a complete stranger that sparked a memory. I had seen and experienced similar feelings before.

Christmas 2004 sprung to mind.

I was serving as a missionary in Fiji at the time. It was my second Christmas in Fiji, and one thing that I had noticed was, there were no Santa's in the shopping complexes. There was no Santa on the back of the fire truck throwing lollies to the kids in the streets.

I didn't see children having the experiences that brought so much excitement to me as a child. So I thought that I would do something about it.

I asked around for donations from other missionaries so that I could buy the biggest sack of lollies that you had ever seen. There were a lot of kids in Fiji, and we had a lot of ground to cover. My companion, Elder Maiwiriwiri and I secured 2 Santa suits, borrowed the mission president's car and set off to bring some cheer to the kids of Fiji.

This is us, all suited up and ready to go. Note that only a Santa in Fiji wears sandals. I have to tell you ... it was hot in that suit.

I don't have any more photo's of that day, but I do recall the joy that we brought to not only children, but adults as well. We stopped to get fuel at one of the major service stations and the reaction from those that were filling up their cars was amazing. To have one, show up was amazing, but to have two... WOWZERS.. that was just amazing.

I will never forget that Christmas. The smile of the lady in the video clip reminded me just how special Christmas can be when we reach out to others. I wanted to feel that again.

As my desire to feel like I had back in 2004 grew, I came across this quote from an Apostle of our church.

“If every member, young and old, will reach out to just 'one' between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior.”
—M. Russell Ballard, October 2013 general conference

This was the piece of the puzzle that made everything fall in to place.

I was at lunch with Mariah one Thursday afternoon, when I said to her, "What if we give some money to my companion in Fiji to distribute to those that were in need in Fiji?"

I think Mariah was a little concerned at first that the funds would not be used for their intended purpose. But I reassured her that I trusted my companion and his family. There were good people and they would not misuse the funds. Mariah agreed and I was straight on to Facebook to ask my companion if it would be possible for him to help us.

The reply came that His family would be thrilled to help us. He could see that it was going to benefit so many and most of all it would allow him to teach his family the blessing of giving rather than receiving.

I had two conditions attached to the request.

1- That they take photos of them handing out the gifts so that I could share it with my family at Christmas.
2- No kava was to be purchased with the funds.

The money was sent and I eagerly awaited the photos.

One afternoon I received a message on Facebook,

"First Delivery had to be today as this young woman Frances Kotobalavu is leaving on Thursday for MTC. She will be serving in the Vanuatu Mission. Terry you may remember her grandmother a widow - Sis Ramaqa. They were thankful for the assistance and sent their loloma to your family. Vinaka vakalevu and she gave a small mat made out of newspaper as her way to say thank you. We told them that a family from Australia provided this."

With the note came these photos.

 

 

This was it. This was the feeling that I had all those years ago. This is what Christmas is really all about.

 

Another message came.

 

 

"A need came as we were doing our Ward Family history my wife found out that the Vanuatu saints maybe in need of food as they will be staying in here Fiji till the 29th of December. So we spent about $116 worth of groceries for the five families that came to the temple. All the adults had gone to the temple except for this lady in the picture Sis Sovuai who had to babysit."

 

 

 



As Christmas drew closer, I received more news and more photos of the preparations that had been taking place.

"Service Centre was out of stock for many of the things we initially thought of so we switched plans a little on the family gifts."

Empty shelves at the Church Distribution Centre

Wrapping and Packing

This is the oldest daughter of my companion. The two daughters were often referred to as the elves during this process. 

"we will definitely keep the pictures coming most will be on Christmas morning. We have invited the youth sin our ward to be part of this spiritually uplifting experience. We are thoroughly enjoying every effort. Thank you again for allowing this to do it on your behalf."

By this time most of the packing and purchasing had been completed. We just had to wait till Christmas morning. My Companion had said that they hoped to be up and about very early to deliver the gifts, then would send through the photos so that I could share with my family.

Christmas came and I was awake just before 4 am. It would have been around 6 am in Fiji. I knew that the gifts were being distributed. I kept checking my phone, hoping for an update, or a photo. By 4:30 I realised that I needed to get to sleep as I had a busy day ahead of myself. I was so excited.

Finally it came. At 6:33am

"Terry, isa what a wonderful experience to delivery. We just finished. The youths in the picture Boila siblings.Their mother left them for almost 7 years now. We invited them to be part of the experience. Here are the rest of the pictures"

For the next hour, we struggled to get the photos to come through. At one point I said, feeling disheartened, don't worry about it, go and spend Christmas with your family and try again later."

He replied that he would keep trying until we received all of the pictures.

Finally they came through. One by one I opened them. My smile grew and grew as I read the things that they had provided.

 

I won't go in to the detail of what each received as a gift. One thing that they did receive and that is evident in their faces is the true meaning of Christmas. They received joy. They felt the love of others. I hope they felt the love of the Saviour.

 

 

I made a DVD of the things that were provided and the help that we were able to provide to these people. There were a few tears as we watched and offers of assistance if we choose to do it again.



We hope to do it again. It would be nice to travel there in a couple of years and experience it first hand. It is something for us to work towards.

I have to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the Maiwiriwiri family for their help. They are the ones that have worked so hard to make this happen. All we did was come up with the idea and provide the means to make it happen.

This is a little of what they said about the experience.

"It was an inspirational experience for us too and thank you for helping us feeling of our Saviors' Love through this kind action. Every family here in Fiji have thanked your family in ways that are known locally food. Thank you again."

When asked about how the elves were doing he responded.

"....They are so excited. in every gift we prepared a journal jar for each family which they have been making since 2 in the morning. So excited"

 Santa and his helpers.

The man behind the beard and his amazing wife.

Vinaka!