I was called to be the 2nd Counselor in Relief Society on September 26, 2010. The first monthly meeting I was in charge of was in November called deLIGHTful Holidays.
We gave each sister a little box that said "The Greatest Gift." Inside was a slip of paper that read "Eternal Life." For this is truly the greatest gift ever given to mankind.
We had Kristy Hawks come and set-up her Christmas Tree. The ornaments were framed photos of the Savior. It was a special tree. Here is a letter I sent her.
Dear Kristy,
I wanted to share with you a some wonderful experiences we had with your beautiful tree. Thank you so much for sharing it with the sisters in our ward. I appreciate the time you spent setting it up and taking it down. Know that your service was a tool in the Lord's plan to brighten the holidays for several of His daughters.
We had our YW in Excellence Tues. night and all those families were able to enjoy the tree. Many of the moms were not at the activity on Wed. night, so that many more sisters were able to see it. One mom said her daughters were so inspired by the tree that they wanted to do something similar this year. They have been collecting photos of the Savior and her girls are writing on the backs why they chose that particular photo. When they add photos each year they can read the testimonies from the previous years.
One sister lost her husband to a tragic rock-climbing accident in Dec. 2004. She has struggled more than usual this year with the anniversary of his death. She has also not been attending our ward too frequently. She called me around 3:00 pm on the day of the R.S. meeting and was worried she wouldn't have time to make a pie in time for the meeting. I told her to be sure and come anyway, we wanted her not the pie :)
When she walked into the Relief Society room and saw the tree it touched her so much that she started crying. I talked to her afterwards and she had visited Africa with Mothers Without Borders and had her own photos of children from Zambia. She is very familiar with Philip, the model of the Savior, and Liz Swindles's work. She called me the next day and told me she didn't even want to decorate or celebrate the holidays this year, but since the activity she has a plan. She wants to do a tree with photos of the Savior and her own photos of the people in Africa she was able to serve. It was so touching to me to hear her story and how much the tree meant to her. She asked for photos of the tree and all of the eternal life boxes details. She even asked for a PDF of the tags so she could recreate and then share the boxes with her family. Since that activity we have seen her at church more and it truly made a difference in her life this year.
Sincerely, Anna Jeffs
