Showing posts with label YW SERVICE PROJECT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YW SERVICE PROJECT. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Heart 2 Heart Service Project
Interested in joining our year long service project? Come visit us at our Heart 2 Heart blog. I'm having a total blast with this project. It has been uplifting and has completely made me a better person. I especially love all the pictures of the YW groups. It's fun to see how different we all are but all working toward one purpose :) Sound familiar?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Warm Fuzzy Story
I talked to Dawn, one of the gals involved in the service project , yesterday. (She sent me her picure of her YW group...LOVE IT!!!) She mentioned she would be using the warm fuzzies and a story in her new beginnings. What a wonderful idea! I personally didn't even know there was a warm fuzzy story! This would be a great way to introduce the service project. Maybe even give each girl a cute little bag with some warm fuzzies inside?
Let me venture off topic for a moment....Now as I was thinking about this whole warm fuzzy approach the thought "this might be too primary" entered my head. I'm a sucker for cute stuff so are the YW. I can't tell you enough how adorable these warm fuzzies are. Also didn't we learn all the important stuff in primary? I sure did. I think I can sing a primary song that would teach just about every gospel principle :) Back to the story....
As I looked up the story online I found a few different versions and also Dawn was nice enough to e-mail me the two she had which I will include below.
This one is actually a book written by Claude M. Steiner. It's called "The Original Warm Fuzzy Tale"
* You can read the story here: http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm
Here is the the first version Dawn sent me...
Once upon a time there was a village. All of the people in the village got along very well. There was kindness, love, compassion, and justice. Every person in the village owned a special bag. It was given to them by their parents at the age of 3. Inside this bag were hundreds of warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies were soft, cuddly, cottony little puffs. When you gave someone a warm fuzzy, they felt warm and fuzzy inside. People in the village gave each other warm fuzzies anytime they wanted to let someone know they were loved. When someone received a warm fuzzy, they put it in their bag.
One day, an evil sorceress came to town. She saw that everyone was giving out these warm fuzzies from their bags and she didn’t like it. She went up to one villager and said, “Why do you keep giving away your warm fuzzies? Aren’t you afraid you’re going to run out? Here, take this bag of cold pricklies and give these to the people in your village instead, and keep all your warm fuzzies for yourself.” The villager took the bag because he believed the sorceress’ tale. The next time he ran into a friend, he handed him one of the cold pricklies from his new bag. A cold prickly made someone feel cold and prickly inside, like they were swallowing a pin cushion. Soon all the villagers went to the sorceress and asked for their own bag of cold pricklies since they didn’t want to be the only people handing out warm fuzzies if everyone else was going to hand out cold pricklies. Once you had a cold prickly, you wanted to give it away to someone else as fast as possible.
The sorceress was pleased. Her plan was working perfectly. Now the village was in a state of fear and panic. Everyone started avoiding everyone else so they wouldn’t be given a cold prickly. People hoarded their small supply of warm fuzzies and didn’t give them out to anyone anymore. But no one was happy anymore either.
One day a prince arrived in town and almost immediately someone handed him a cold prickly from their bag. The prince, recognizing the cold prickly, refused to take it. The villager was surprised and tried again. The prince handed the person a warm fuzzy from his bag. The villager was surprised, and a little ashamed that he had tried to give this warm prince a cold prickly and instead received a warm fuzzy.
The prince addressed the crowd and said, “Why do you give each other cold pricklies?” One villager said, “Why should we give away all of our warm fuzzies? Shouldn’t we keep them for ourselves?” Other villagers agreed. But the prince said, “Every time you give away a warm fuzzy a new one is created in your own bag. Don’t you see? The more you give away, the more you will have.”
To demonstrate, the prince had everyone put down their bag of cold pricklies and retrieve their bag of warm fuzzies from their homes. He asked everyone to take out a warm fuzzy from their bag and hand it to a neighbor. This they did, but warily. Then the prince told them to notice that they all still had the same amount of warm fuzzies in their bags as before. People started giving away more warm fuzzies and noticed their bag was never empty. There were indeed enough warm fuzzies for everyone.
The sorceress was very upset and tried to interrupt the prince and get everyone to give out cold pricklies again. But the villagers didn’t want to listen anymore. They threw all their bags of cold pricklies into a wagon, set the sorceress inside it, and sent her out of town.
The villagers realized they’d learned a valuable lesson.
When you give someone a warm fuzzy, they in turn will give it to someone else. Eventually, it will come back around to you.
What do you carry in your bag?
SECOND VERSION
Now, it is especially nice to give someone a Warm Fuzzy. It tells the person that they are special. It is a way of saying "I like you." And, of course, it is very pleasing to you, when you take it and feel its warmth and fuzziness against your cheek, just extra-nice. You feel noticed and appreciated when someone gives you a Warm Fuzzy, and you want to do something nice for them in return.
The little people of Swabeedoo loved to give Warm Fuzzies and get Warm Fuzzies, and their lives together were very happy indeed.
Outside the village, in a cold, dark cave, there lived a great green troll. He didn't really like to live all by himself, and sometimes he was lonely. But he couldn't seem to get along with anyone else, and somehow he didn't enjoy exchanging Warm Fuzzies. He thought it was a lot of nonsense. "It isn't cool," was what he would say.
One evening the troll walked into town, and he was met by a kingly little Swabeedoo-dah. "Hasn't this been a fine Swabeedoo-dah day?" said the little person with a smile. "Here, have a Warm Fuzzy. This one's special, and I saved it just for you, for I don't see you in town that often."
The troll looked about to see that no one else was listening. Then he put an arm around the little Swabeedoo-dah and whispered in his ear. "Hey, don't you know that if you give away all your Warm Fuzzies, one of these Swabeedoo-dah days of yours, you're gonna run out of them?" He noted the sudden look of surprise and fear on the little man's face, and then added, peering inside of his fuzzy-bag: "Right now I'd say you've only got about two hundred and seventeen Warm Fuzzies left there. Better go easy on handin' 'em out." With that, the troll padded away on his big green feet, leaving a very confused and unhappy Swabeedoo-dah standing there.
Now, the troll knew that every one of the little people had an inexhaustible supply of Warm Fuzzies. He knew that, as soon as you give a Warm Fuzzy to someone, another one comes to take its place and that you can never, ever run out of Warm Fuzzies in your whole life. But he counted on the trusting nature of the little Swabeedoo-dahs, and on something else that he knew about himself. He just wanted to see if this same something was inside the little people. So, he told his fib, went back to his cave, and waited.
Well, it didn't take long. The first person to come along and greet the little Swabeedoo-dah was a fine friend of his, with whom he had exchanged many Warm Fuzzies before. This little person was surprised to find that when he gave his friend a Warm Fuzzy this time, he received only a strange look. Then he was told to beware of running low on his supply of Warm Fuzzies, and his friend was suddenly gone.
That Swabeedoo-dah told three other that same evening: "I'm sorry, but no Warm Fuzzy for you. I've got to make sure I don't run out." By the next day, the word had spread over the entire village. Everyone had suddenly begun to hoard their Warm Fuzzies. They still gave some away, but very, very carefully. "Discriminatingly," they said.
The little Swabedoo-dahs began to watch each other with distrust, and they began to hide their bags of Warm Fuzzies under their beds for protection at night. Quarrels broke out over who had the most Warm Fuzzies, and pretty soon people began to trade Warm Fuzzies for things, instead of just giving them away. Figuring there were only so many Warm Fuzzies to go around, the mayor of Swabeedoo proclaimed the Fuzzies a system of exchange, and before long the people were haggling over how many Warm Fuzzies it cost to eat a meal at someone's house or stay overnight.
On some dark evenings-the kind the little Swabeedoo-dahs had enjoyed for strolling in the parks and greeting each other to exchange Warm Fuzzies-it wasn't safe to be out and about. Worst of all, something began to happen to the health of the little people. Many of them began to complain of pains in their shoulders and backs, and as time went on, more and more little Swabeedoo-dahs became afflicted with a disease known as softening of the backbone. They walked all hunched over, or (in the worst cases) bent almost to the ground. Their fuzzy-bags dragged on the ground. Many people in town began to say that it was the weight of the bags that caused the disease, and that it was better to leave the bags at home, locked up safely. After a while, you could hardly find a Swabeedoo-dah with his fuzzy-bag on.
At first the troll was pleased with the results of his rumor. He had wanted to see whether the little people would feel and act as he did sometimes when he thought selfish thoughts, and so he felt successful with the way things were going. Now, when he went into town, he was no longer greeted with smiles and offerings of Warm Fuzzies. Instead, the little people looked at him as they looked at each other -with suspicion- and he rather liked that. To him, that was just facing reality. "It's the way the world is," he would say.
But as time went on, worst things happened. Perhaps because of the softening of the backbone, perhaps because no one ever gave them a Warm Fuzzie (no one knows), a few of the little people died. Now, all the happiness was gone from the village of Swabeedoo, as it mourned the passing of its little citizens. When the troll heard about this, he said to himself: "Gosh! I just wanted them to see how the world was. I didn't mean for 'em to die!" He wondered what to do. And then thought of a plan. Deep in his cave, the troll had discovered a secret mine of Cold Pricklies. He had spent many years digging the Cold Prickles out of the mountain, for he liked their cold and prickly feel, and he loved to see his growing hoard of Cold Pricklies, to know that they were all his. He decided to share them with the Swabeedoo-dahs. He filled hundreds of bags with Cold Prickles and took them into the village. When the people saw the bags of Cold Prickles, they were glad, and they received them gratefully. Now they had something to give to one another. The only trouble was that it was just not as much fun to give a Cold Prickly as a warm Fuzzy.
Giving a Cold Prickly seemed to be a way of reaching out to another person, but not in friendship and love. And getting a Cold Prickly gave one a funny feeling too. You were not sure just what the giver meant, for after all, Cold Prickles were cold and prickly. It was nice to get something from another person, but it left you confused, and often with stung fingers.
The usual thing a Swabeedoo-dah said when he received a Warm Fuzzy was "WOW!" but when someone gave him a Cold Prickly, there was usually nothing to say but "UGH!" Some of the little people went back to giving Warm Fuzzies, and of course, each time a Warm Fuzzy was given it made the giver and receiver very joyful indeed. Perhaps it was that it was so unusual, to get a Warm Fuzzy from someone when there were so many of those Cold Pricklies being exchanged.
But giving Warm Fuzzies never really came back into style in Swabeedoo.
Some little people found that they could keep on giving Warm Fuzzies away without ever having their supplies run out, but the art of giving a Warm Fuzzy was not shared by many. Suspicion was still there, in the minds of the people of Swabeedoo. You could hear it in their comments:
"Warm Fuzzy, eh? Wonder what's behind it." "I never know if my Warm Fuzzies are really appreciated." "I gave a Warm Fuzzy, and got a Cold Prickly in return. Just see if I do that again." "You never know about Mabel. A Warm Fuzzy one minute, and Cold Prickly the next!" "I won't give you a Cold Prickly, if you won't give me one." "I want to give my boy a Warm Fuzzy, but he just doesn't deserve it." "Sometimes I wonder if Grandpa has a Warm Fuzzy to his name."
Probably every citizen of Swabeedoo would gladly have returned to the former days when the giving and getting of Warm Fuzzies had been so common. Sometimes a little person would think to himself how very fine it had felt to get a Warm Fuzzy from someone, and he would resolve to go out and begin giving them to everyone freely, as of old. But something always stopped him, like going out to see "how the world was". It was the softening of the backbone.
Let me venture off topic for a moment....Now as I was thinking about this whole warm fuzzy approach the thought "this might be too primary" entered my head. I'm a sucker for cute stuff so are the YW. I can't tell you enough how adorable these warm fuzzies are. Also didn't we learn all the important stuff in primary? I sure did. I think I can sing a primary song that would teach just about every gospel principle :) Back to the story....
As I looked up the story online I found a few different versions and also Dawn was nice enough to e-mail me the two she had which I will include below.
This one is actually a book written by Claude M. Steiner. It's called "The Original Warm Fuzzy Tale"
* You can read the story here: http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm
Here is the the first version Dawn sent me...
Once upon a time there was a village. All of the people in the village got along very well. There was kindness, love, compassion, and justice. Every person in the village owned a special bag. It was given to them by their parents at the age of 3. Inside this bag were hundreds of warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies were soft, cuddly, cottony little puffs. When you gave someone a warm fuzzy, they felt warm and fuzzy inside. People in the village gave each other warm fuzzies anytime they wanted to let someone know they were loved. When someone received a warm fuzzy, they put it in their bag.
One day, an evil sorceress came to town. She saw that everyone was giving out these warm fuzzies from their bags and she didn’t like it. She went up to one villager and said, “Why do you keep giving away your warm fuzzies? Aren’t you afraid you’re going to run out? Here, take this bag of cold pricklies and give these to the people in your village instead, and keep all your warm fuzzies for yourself.” The villager took the bag because he believed the sorceress’ tale. The next time he ran into a friend, he handed him one of the cold pricklies from his new bag. A cold prickly made someone feel cold and prickly inside, like they were swallowing a pin cushion. Soon all the villagers went to the sorceress and asked for their own bag of cold pricklies since they didn’t want to be the only people handing out warm fuzzies if everyone else was going to hand out cold pricklies. Once you had a cold prickly, you wanted to give it away to someone else as fast as possible.
The sorceress was pleased. Her plan was working perfectly. Now the village was in a state of fear and panic. Everyone started avoiding everyone else so they wouldn’t be given a cold prickly. People hoarded their small supply of warm fuzzies and didn’t give them out to anyone anymore. But no one was happy anymore either.
One day a prince arrived in town and almost immediately someone handed him a cold prickly from their bag. The prince, recognizing the cold prickly, refused to take it. The villager was surprised and tried again. The prince handed the person a warm fuzzy from his bag. The villager was surprised, and a little ashamed that he had tried to give this warm prince a cold prickly and instead received a warm fuzzy.
The prince addressed the crowd and said, “Why do you give each other cold pricklies?” One villager said, “Why should we give away all of our warm fuzzies? Shouldn’t we keep them for ourselves?” Other villagers agreed. But the prince said, “Every time you give away a warm fuzzy a new one is created in your own bag. Don’t you see? The more you give away, the more you will have.”
To demonstrate, the prince had everyone put down their bag of cold pricklies and retrieve their bag of warm fuzzies from their homes. He asked everyone to take out a warm fuzzy from their bag and hand it to a neighbor. This they did, but warily. Then the prince told them to notice that they all still had the same amount of warm fuzzies in their bags as before. People started giving away more warm fuzzies and noticed their bag was never empty. There were indeed enough warm fuzzies for everyone.
The sorceress was very upset and tried to interrupt the prince and get everyone to give out cold pricklies again. But the villagers didn’t want to listen anymore. They threw all their bags of cold pricklies into a wagon, set the sorceress inside it, and sent her out of town.
The villagers realized they’d learned a valuable lesson.
When you give someone a warm fuzzy, they in turn will give it to someone else. Eventually, it will come back around to you.
What do you carry in your bag?
SECOND VERSION
Warm Fuzzies and Cold Pricklies
Long ago only little people lived on the Earth. Most of them dwelt in the little village of swabeedoo, and so they called themselves Swabeedoo-dahs. They were very happy little people and went about with broad smiles and cheery greetings for everybody. One of the things the Swabeedoo-dahs liked best was to give Warm Fuzzies to one another. Each of these little people carried over his shoulder a bag, and the bag was filled with Warm Fuzzies.
Now, it is especially nice to give someone a Warm Fuzzy. It tells the person that they are special. It is a way of saying "I like you." And, of course, it is very pleasing to you, when you take it and feel its warmth and fuzziness against your cheek, just extra-nice. You feel noticed and appreciated when someone gives you a Warm Fuzzy, and you want to do something nice for them in return.
The little people of Swabeedoo loved to give Warm Fuzzies and get Warm Fuzzies, and their lives together were very happy indeed.
Outside the village, in a cold, dark cave, there lived a great green troll. He didn't really like to live all by himself, and sometimes he was lonely. But he couldn't seem to get along with anyone else, and somehow he didn't enjoy exchanging Warm Fuzzies. He thought it was a lot of nonsense. "It isn't cool," was what he would say.
One evening the troll walked into town, and he was met by a kingly little Swabeedoo-dah. "Hasn't this been a fine Swabeedoo-dah day?" said the little person with a smile. "Here, have a Warm Fuzzy. This one's special, and I saved it just for you, for I don't see you in town that often."
The troll looked about to see that no one else was listening. Then he put an arm around the little Swabeedoo-dah and whispered in his ear. "Hey, don't you know that if you give away all your Warm Fuzzies, one of these Swabeedoo-dah days of yours, you're gonna run out of them?" He noted the sudden look of surprise and fear on the little man's face, and then added, peering inside of his fuzzy-bag: "Right now I'd say you've only got about two hundred and seventeen Warm Fuzzies left there. Better go easy on handin' 'em out." With that, the troll padded away on his big green feet, leaving a very confused and unhappy Swabeedoo-dah standing there.
Now, the troll knew that every one of the little people had an inexhaustible supply of Warm Fuzzies. He knew that, as soon as you give a Warm Fuzzy to someone, another one comes to take its place and that you can never, ever run out of Warm Fuzzies in your whole life. But he counted on the trusting nature of the little Swabeedoo-dahs, and on something else that he knew about himself. He just wanted to see if this same something was inside the little people. So, he told his fib, went back to his cave, and waited.
Well, it didn't take long. The first person to come along and greet the little Swabeedoo-dah was a fine friend of his, with whom he had exchanged many Warm Fuzzies before. This little person was surprised to find that when he gave his friend a Warm Fuzzy this time, he received only a strange look. Then he was told to beware of running low on his supply of Warm Fuzzies, and his friend was suddenly gone.
That Swabeedoo-dah told three other that same evening: "I'm sorry, but no Warm Fuzzy for you. I've got to make sure I don't run out." By the next day, the word had spread over the entire village. Everyone had suddenly begun to hoard their Warm Fuzzies. They still gave some away, but very, very carefully. "Discriminatingly," they said.
The little Swabedoo-dahs began to watch each other with distrust, and they began to hide their bags of Warm Fuzzies under their beds for protection at night. Quarrels broke out over who had the most Warm Fuzzies, and pretty soon people began to trade Warm Fuzzies for things, instead of just giving them away. Figuring there were only so many Warm Fuzzies to go around, the mayor of Swabeedoo proclaimed the Fuzzies a system of exchange, and before long the people were haggling over how many Warm Fuzzies it cost to eat a meal at someone's house or stay overnight.
On some dark evenings-the kind the little Swabeedoo-dahs had enjoyed for strolling in the parks and greeting each other to exchange Warm Fuzzies-it wasn't safe to be out and about. Worst of all, something began to happen to the health of the little people. Many of them began to complain of pains in their shoulders and backs, and as time went on, more and more little Swabeedoo-dahs became afflicted with a disease known as softening of the backbone. They walked all hunched over, or (in the worst cases) bent almost to the ground. Their fuzzy-bags dragged on the ground. Many people in town began to say that it was the weight of the bags that caused the disease, and that it was better to leave the bags at home, locked up safely. After a while, you could hardly find a Swabeedoo-dah with his fuzzy-bag on.
At first the troll was pleased with the results of his rumor. He had wanted to see whether the little people would feel and act as he did sometimes when he thought selfish thoughts, and so he felt successful with the way things were going. Now, when he went into town, he was no longer greeted with smiles and offerings of Warm Fuzzies. Instead, the little people looked at him as they looked at each other -with suspicion- and he rather liked that. To him, that was just facing reality. "It's the way the world is," he would say.
But as time went on, worst things happened. Perhaps because of the softening of the backbone, perhaps because no one ever gave them a Warm Fuzzie (no one knows), a few of the little people died. Now, all the happiness was gone from the village of Swabeedoo, as it mourned the passing of its little citizens. When the troll heard about this, he said to himself: "Gosh! I just wanted them to see how the world was. I didn't mean for 'em to die!" He wondered what to do. And then thought of a plan. Deep in his cave, the troll had discovered a secret mine of Cold Pricklies. He had spent many years digging the Cold Prickles out of the mountain, for he liked their cold and prickly feel, and he loved to see his growing hoard of Cold Pricklies, to know that they were all his. He decided to share them with the Swabeedoo-dahs. He filled hundreds of bags with Cold Prickles and took them into the village. When the people saw the bags of Cold Prickles, they were glad, and they received them gratefully. Now they had something to give to one another. The only trouble was that it was just not as much fun to give a Cold Prickly as a warm Fuzzy.
Giving a Cold Prickly seemed to be a way of reaching out to another person, but not in friendship and love. And getting a Cold Prickly gave one a funny feeling too. You were not sure just what the giver meant, for after all, Cold Prickles were cold and prickly. It was nice to get something from another person, but it left you confused, and often with stung fingers.
The usual thing a Swabeedoo-dah said when he received a Warm Fuzzy was "WOW!" but when someone gave him a Cold Prickly, there was usually nothing to say but "UGH!" Some of the little people went back to giving Warm Fuzzies, and of course, each time a Warm Fuzzy was given it made the giver and receiver very joyful indeed. Perhaps it was that it was so unusual, to get a Warm Fuzzy from someone when there were so many of those Cold Pricklies being exchanged.
But giving Warm Fuzzies never really came back into style in Swabeedoo.
Some little people found that they could keep on giving Warm Fuzzies away without ever having their supplies run out, but the art of giving a Warm Fuzzy was not shared by many. Suspicion was still there, in the minds of the people of Swabeedoo. You could hear it in their comments:
"Warm Fuzzy, eh? Wonder what's behind it." "I never know if my Warm Fuzzies are really appreciated." "I gave a Warm Fuzzy, and got a Cold Prickly in return. Just see if I do that again." "You never know about Mabel. A Warm Fuzzy one minute, and Cold Prickly the next!" "I won't give you a Cold Prickly, if you won't give me one." "I want to give my boy a Warm Fuzzy, but he just doesn't deserve it." "Sometimes I wonder if Grandpa has a Warm Fuzzy to his name."
Probably every citizen of Swabeedoo would gladly have returned to the former days when the giving and getting of Warm Fuzzies had been so common. Sometimes a little person would think to himself how very fine it had felt to get a Warm Fuzzy from someone, and he would resolve to go out and begin giving them to everyone freely, as of old. But something always stopped him, like going out to see "how the world was". It was the softening of the backbone.
Good Luck! Make it a year where you give out plenty of warm fuzzies :)
Friday, January 1, 2010
Service Project: What Have I Done for Someone Today?
I love goals. I believe I can credit this to the personal progress program. Working on personal progress I started setting goals at a young age. To this day I love setting goals. Some of us are good at setting a big goal and just going for it. Some of us need to set mini goals to achieve our big goal. I do both:)
"I was overwhelmed when this year for my birthday I received hundreds of cards and letters from members of the Church around the world telling me how they had fulfilled that birthday wish. The acts of service ranged from assembling humanitarian kits to doing yard work.
Dozens and dozens of Primaries challenged the children to provide service, and then those acts of service were recorded and sent to me. I must say that the methods for recording them were creative. Many came in the form of pages put together into various shapes and sizes of books. Some contained cards or pictures drawn or colored by the children. One very creative Primary sent a large jar containing hundreds of what they called “warm fuzzies,” each one representing an act of service performed during the year by one of the children in the Primary. I can only imagine the happiness these children experienced as they told of their service and then placed a “warm fuzzy” in the jar. " (You can read the full article HERE)
Please keep track of your completed projects and inform me of your numbers. I would love to make something up for President Monson when we are done. I think he will love to hear what our beautiful YW have done :)
Today I'm going to share an idea for keeping track of goals for the year long service project. This idea came from a talk President Monson gave titled "What Have I Done for Someone Today?". (November 2009 Ensign)
"I was overwhelmed when this year for my birthday I received hundreds of cards and letters from members of the Church around the world telling me how they had fulfilled that birthday wish. The acts of service ranged from assembling humanitarian kits to doing yard work.
Dozens and dozens of Primaries challenged the children to provide service, and then those acts of service were recorded and sent to me. I must say that the methods for recording them were creative. Many came in the form of pages put together into various shapes and sizes of books. Some contained cards or pictures drawn or colored by the children. One very creative Primary sent a large jar containing hundreds of what they called “warm fuzzies,” each one representing an act of service performed during the year by one of the children in the Primary. I can only imagine the happiness these children experienced as they told of their service and then placed a “warm fuzzy” in the jar. " (You can read the full article HERE)
Isn't President Monson wonderful? He makes me smile :) I love the idea of a "warm fuzzy". I knew exactly what he was talking about as he gave this talk. One of these...
As I was thinking of ideas of how groups could keep track of their goals for our service project in a fun way this primary's ideas came to mind. It's perfect! We are knitting, crocheting and making blankets to help keep people warm. Putting a warm fuzzy in a jar after you make an item to help keep someone warm makes perfect sense. Plus who can resist a warm fuzzy?? My kids love them and even I think they are adorable.
Another thought came into mind as I thought about the warm fuzzy. Often when people talk about feeling the Spirit's influence they describe feeling a warm feeeling inside. I believe helping people physically to be warm by crocheting them a hat will help each of us have that warm fuzzy feeling inside too.
So....Go out and find your group a big glass jar and find some warm fuzzies. I found mine at a local craft store. 
Some of you may want to measure mini goals. Use smaller fun vases (maybe personalize them with their names) and they can dump them into the larger jar once they fill their personal one. You can find cheap jars at IKEA or even the Goodwill.
Please keep track of your completed projects and inform me of your numbers. I would love to make something up for President Monson when we are done. I think he will love to hear what our beautiful YW have done :)I'm working on my map right now and just waiting for pictures of your groups. It's OK if everyone doesn't end up in the picture. Believe me...I know how hard that is! We are up to 22 different wards from around the world. It will be fun to see in the pictures how different our groups are.
Just a few other details. If any activity days groups are interested in joining our project they are certainly welcome. Those girls are our future YW. Also I've altered the hat patterns I sent to all of you a few times. If you need it to be a smaller size let me know :)
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
YW SERVICE PROJECT
Our group is growing :) To read more about this project click HERE.
*Melinda Beachell from the Battleground Ward (Battleground, Washington)
*Tara Curtis from the Continental Ranch Ward (Tucson, Arizona)
*Sharon Wood from the ? Ward (Springs South Africa)
*Barbie Williams from the Highland 1st Ward (Highland California)
*Shannon from the ? Ward ( ?, Florida)
*Wendy Jenson from the ? Ward (?)
*Amber Garvin from the ? Ward (?)
*Dawn russo from the ? Ward (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
*Janna Streibel from the Marsing 1st Ward (Caldwell, Idaho)
*Marye Eby from the ? Ward (Lehi, UT)
*Shelly ? from the Stockdale Ward (Bakersfield, California)
*Traci Pankratz From the Bitburg Military Ward (Germany)
*Vikki Playforth from the ? Ward (United Kingdom, England)
*Mary Pugh from the ? Ward (Boston, Massachusetts)
*Allena Allread from the Warrenton Ward (Warrenton, Missouri)
*Julie Bradford from the ? Ward (Cedar Hills, UT)
*Ginger Thompson from the ? Ward (?)
*Coreen Phipps from the ? Ward (?)
*Jennifer South from the ? Ward (?)
*Debbie Orosco from the ? Ward (Ventura, California)
*Jullie Olenslager from the Thayne 1st Ward (?, Wyoming)
*Melinda Beachell from the Battleground Ward (Battleground, Washington)
*Tara Curtis from the Continental Ranch Ward (Tucson, Arizona)
*Sharon Wood from the ? Ward (Springs South Africa)
*Barbie Williams from the Highland 1st Ward (Highland California)
*Shannon from the ? Ward ( ?, Florida)
*Wendy Jenson from the ? Ward (?)
*Amber Garvin from the ? Ward (?)
*Dawn russo from the ? Ward (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
*Janna Streibel from the Marsing 1st Ward (Caldwell, Idaho)
*Marye Eby from the ? Ward (Lehi, UT)
*Shelly ? from the Stockdale Ward (Bakersfield, California)
*Traci Pankratz From the Bitburg Military Ward (Germany)
*Vikki Playforth from the ? Ward (United Kingdom, England)
*Mary Pugh from the ? Ward (Boston, Massachusetts)
*Allena Allread from the Warrenton Ward (Warrenton, Missouri)
*Julie Bradford from the ? Ward (Cedar Hills, UT)
*Ginger Thompson from the ? Ward (?)
*Coreen Phipps from the ? Ward (?)
*Jennifer South from the ? Ward (?)
*Debbie Orosco from the ? Ward (Ventura, California)
*Jullie Olenslager from the Thayne 1st Ward (?, Wyoming)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
YW SERVICE PROJECT
This is a copy of the most recent e-mail I have sent out regarding our YW Service Project. If you want to know more click HERE. You can also go down on my sidebar and click the link titled "YW SERVICE PROJECT". There you will find all the ideas associated with this project. I will not be sharing all the patterns on my blog due to I got permission to use some patterns that aren't mind but as I state in my e-mail the use is only for service. I'm sure you can make yourself a hat or two just don't go out there and sell them :) Here is the e-mail....
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Hey lovely women! I've been crazy busy (I'm sure you all have too) and forgot to send out the patterns. I've attached them and why I'm at it I just want to give a few reminders. First a few words about the patterns. These are for service or personal use only. ***Please only give these patterns for your YW to use or for your own personal use. I got permission to use one I didn't write but with the conditions we would be doing service with it.*** If you have any questions or need help with the patterns please e-mail me or call me. I'm always around to help! Ok...now on to the few other reminders.... I'm hoping each of you will be able to e-mail some sort of group YW pic as soon as you get a chance. For example...this is a picture from our YW blog....
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Hey lovely women! I've been crazy busy (I'm sure you all have too) and forgot to send out the patterns. I've attached them and why I'm at it I just want to give a few reminders. First a few words about the patterns. These are for service or personal use only. ***Please only give these patterns for your YW to use or for your own personal use. I got permission to use one I didn't write but with the conditions we would be doing service with it.*** If you have any questions or need help with the patterns please e-mail me or call me. I'm always around to help! Ok...now on to the few other reminders.... I'm hoping each of you will be able to e-mail some sort of group YW pic as soon as you get a chance. For example...this is a picture from our YW blog....
Any picture will do. If your curious...I'm in the middle with the big puffy black vest :) As soon as I get the majority of pics I will e-mail them out to you. I will send a picture of our bulletin board focusing on this project soon. I am getting it ready. It will have a map and each of your locations will be pin pointed. My hope is to run a string to each of your pictures :)
Our group has gotten bigger. These are the names I have so far....please please please if I'm missing some info e-mail me and help me out!
*Melinda Beachell from the Battleground Ward (Battleground, Washington)
*Tara Curtis from the Continental Ranch Ward (Tucson, Arizona)
*Sharon Wood from the ? Ward (Springs South Africa)
*Barbie Williams from the Highland 1st Ward (Highland California)
*Shannon from the ? Ward ( ?, Florida)
*Wendy Jenson from the ? Ward (?)
*Amber Garvin from the ? Ward (?)
*Dawn russo from the ? Ward (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
*Janna Streibel from the Marsing 1st Ward (Caldwell, Idaho)
*Marye Eby from the ? Ward (Lehi, UT)
*Shelly ? from the Stockdale Ward (Bakersfield, California)
*Traci Pankratz From the Bitburg Military Ward (Germany)
*Vikki Playforth from the ? Ward (United Kingdom, England)
*Mary Pugh from the ? Ward (Boston, Massachusetts)
*Allena Allread from the Warrenton Ward (Warrenton, Missouri)
*Julie Bradford from the Cedar Hills 14th Ward (Cedar Hills, UT)
*Ginger Thompson from the ? Ward (?)
* Coreen Phipps from the ? Ward (?)
I know some of you are still trying to figure out how you will be able to participate in this project. If you would like me to take your name off the list just let me know. All these groups are going to look awesome on my map. I can't wait. Our YW are talking about this project nonstop :) That's a good thing!
Last of all if any of you have any ideas you would like to share...do it! I love ideas :) I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!!
Melinda Beachell
360-991-6472
beachellfamily02@hotmail.com
http://undermypolkadotumbrella.blogspot.com/
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Everyone is welcome to join. It's going to be a lot of fun and I truly believe serving changes people for the better :) I'm working on a fun idea to track our goal right now.
For some reason my blog isn't e-mailing me my comments. So if you write a comment and I don't respond I promise I'm not being rude. Sometimes it just takes me a while to find them!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Service Project Update :)
Just wanted to update everyone how the service project is coming along :) I need to come up with a good name for it. Any ideas are appreciated! Right now I'm in the process of collecting pictures of each YW group involved. We have a good group forming. I'm excited to see what we all can do together. Check out our group so far...
*Melinda (that's me :) ) from Battleground, WA
*Julie from Cedar Hills, UT
*Janna from Caldwell, ID
*Marye from Lehi, UT
*Shelly from Bakersfield, CA
*Sharon from South Africa
*Tara Curtis from Tucson, AZ*Barbie Williams from Highland, CA
*Shannon from FL
*Wendy from ?
*Amber from ?
*Dawn from Tulsa, OK
*Ellen from Western Australia
There are so many wonderful people in this world. It's so easy to focus on the bad instead of the good. This project is helping me and our YW see not only what we can accomplish united together but the goodness of people.
Here are what some of the people involved in this group are saying. Ellen from Western Austrailia said:
"I love how the Spirit works. Have just finished our Calendar for 2010 and every 5th Tuesday - I had written in Service Project...now I have read this and would let you know, that we in Western Australia will be doing this.. and more often...monthly. Thanks for the wonderful idea."
Julie from Utah said:
"I would love to join the group for the up-coming year. I think this is exactly what the girls need this year. I wanted to get back to the basics and really teach them some skills."
Marye from Utah said:
"I was completely inspired when I read your post on sugardoodle! I'd love to get copies of the patters for crochet!! This is very inspiring what you are trying to do! Thank you for being willing to share & influence so many people!"
I'm getting ready to e-mail patterns out. Keep the word spreading about this project! It's not too late to join. In face feel free to join in at anytime of the year. There are so many people doing this project in different ways. Some are just focusing on crocheting others only the laurels are working on the project. I think we always have room for more service in our programs :) If you are a member of the group please get me your group picture. I want to get our bulletin board with map and pictures up for next year.
We have introduced the project to our YW and they are very excited. We have girls who will be graduating who plan on seeing this project to the end. That makes me smile. Our YW are thinking about what a reasonable goal for our group will be. We will monitor that goal in a fun way through the year. Thanks to the many woman and young woman who are making this project happen!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Service Project Patterns
This is the ornament the YW were given after the STORY we used to introduce our SERVICE PROJECT. If you have no idea what I'm talking about click the links, read and then join us! My friend Wendy and Michelle made these adorable ornaments...
Here is the pattern for the dress. You can find the hooks at the Dollar Store (40 for $1.00).
Below is my beautiful daughter's arm/hand in the hobo gloves we will be making.
Again it's your lucky day! Here is the pattern....
Materials:
*1 skein any Worsted or Medium Weight yarn.
*Crochet Hook Size 5mm or 6 mm
*Yarn Needle
*Scissors
Remember to mark your rounds ! Since this pattern works in a
continuous round, it is crucial to mark the beginning of your next
round. I use a safety pin, but you could use another color of thread
or a special marker.
With H hook loosely ch-20 then join at first chain to form a loop
Round 1: dc in next 20 sts to marker (20)
2. dc in next 8 sts, dc decrease, dc in next 8 sts, dc decrease (18)
3. dc in next in next 18 sts to marker (18)
4-10. hdc in next 18 sts. (make sure you mark each round)
11. dc next 8 sts, 2dc in next st, 2 dc in next st., dc in next 8 (20)
12. sc next 20 sts (20).
13.dc in next 10 sts, skip next 5 sts, dc in back of next st, dc next 5 sts (15)
14. hdc to marker (15)
15. Sc to mark, sl st, darn loose ends (15)
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
SERVICE PROJECT- Story
In my schedule for the YW YEAR LONG SERVICE PROJECT I talked about a December lesson where we would focus a lesson on service and then tell them about our service adventure for 2010. My friend Michelle has an amazing true story about her grandfather's family (Her grandfather is one of the little boys in the story) and how they were served. Not only is it a wonderful, touching Christmas story it helps demonstrate what service can do! The hope for this lesson is they would walk away inspired and motivated to do some good. After reading the story I was ready to do exactly that! We are going to read this story to the YW and they are going to get an ornament that goes with the story to help remind them the power of service. I will be e-mailing this story out to those who have requested to be involved. If you would like to be on the e-mail list let me know! Here is the story...
(My friend Michelle said this story has been made into a book but the story was changed in the process. The book's name is "A Christmas Dress for Ellen". I also asked Michelle if I have permission to share her family story and she agreed :) )
(My friend Michelle said this story has been made into a book but the story was changed in the process. The book's name is "A Christmas Dress for Ellen". I also asked Michelle if I have permission to share her family story and she agreed :) )
JEPPSON FAMILY CHRISTMAS STORY
This Christmas story has been compiled by Marian Jeppson Walker from memories of hearing the story told by her mother, Mary Thomas Jeppson, It has been over thirty-five years since anyone has heard the story from her lips, so memories of details have grown dim. However, the spirit of the story remains the strong. For many of her last years, Mary Jeppson was asked by ward Relief Societies to come and retell her beautiful true Christmas story. The retelling of this story was always an emotional drain on her but an emotional uplift for all those who were privileged to hear her tell the story.
It was December of 1927 in the remote prairie town of Hillspring, Alberta, Canada. A young mother by the name of Mary was getting her six small children ready for bed. Her heart was so full of sorrow and concern that she felt it would surely break—and yet she felt that it was too laden down in grief to even have a chance to break. It was Christmas Eve and all of the children except for the eldest, Ellen, age ten, were dancing around excited to hang their socks for Santa to come.
Ellen sat very subdued and sullen over in a corner of the cold, small two-room house. She felt that her mother was cruel and wrong to let the children build up their hopes and excitement for Santa to come because actually there would be no Santa. There was nothing to fill the socks. There would be only a little mush for breakfast. There was very little wheat and corn left. The winter had just started and already it was cold and harsh. The milk cow had died last week from starvation and harsh weather conditions. The last two or three chickens had stopped laying eggs about a month ago.
Times were hard and Ellen being the oldest had too much responsibility put on her thin young shoulders. She had become very cynical and childhood hopes and dreams and excitements had had to be put out mind much too early.
Mary helped each one of her children hand a little darned and mended sock. She couldn't persuade Ellen to hang one, however. All Ellen could say was, “Mom, don't do this. Don;t pretend.”
After the socks had been hung, May had read the Christmas story from the Bible to the children and then recited a few Christmas poems to them from memory—memories of her own happy childhood living in the United States. She was the next to the youngest of a very large and loving family. Her mother and father, although pioneers in a remote area of Idaho, made life—and especially Christmas—very happy., loving and warm times.
As the children went to bed, everyone except Ellen, had visions of sugarplums dancing through their heads. Ellen turned to her mother with one last last plea, “Mom tell them tonight. Let them know tonight that there's not going to be anything there in the morning for them. Don't let them go to bed thinking that they are going to be able to get up and have some surprises. They'll just be disappointed.”
But Mary turned to her daughter, kissed her goodnight and whispered, “I can't Ellen. Don't ask me why.. I just can't tell them that.”
It was midnight now. The children had been asleep for hours, and Mary's husband Leland had gone to bed feeling like a broken man., like he had failed his family completely.
Mary sat by the dying fire reading from the Bible the story of Christmas over and over again. Her mind drifted off to think about her plight here in this God-forsaken land of ice and snow. It was the beginning of the Depression and her husband had heard wondrous stories about the opportunities in Canada. He'd heard that anyone could come to Canada, homestead some land, and , if he had a good team of horses, could hire out to clear other people's land. There would be good money to be made. He'd heard that the opportunities were unlimited.
After two years of not being able to find work in the United States, and after a flood had destroyed their small farm in Willard, Utah, he had moved his family to Canada. But when they arrive, they found that they were five or six years too late to cash in on the great opportunities they had heard about. They did homestead a small piece of land, however. But Spring had come very late for the last two years and Winter had come very early. They had been left with only part of July and part of August for a growing season. All of their crops had frozen and failed for two years in a row.
In October, May had received a letter from her family in Idaho. Her sisters living in Malad and Pleasant View had written to her and told her that they knew times were very hard for her and although the Depression was causing many hardships for themselves, they wanted to know what they could send the family for Christmas.
Mary hadn't written back to them real soon. In fact, it was quite a long time before she did write back. She had much too much pride to tell them how poor and destitute the family really was. Finally, in November, seeing that things that things were not going to get any better, in desperation she had written.
Mary had requested only necessities. She had told them how desperately they needed food, especially wheat, yeast, flour and some cornmeal. She related to them how long it had been since she had been able to bake a cake or cookies because they had no molasses or honey and, of course, no sugar. It had been a year since they'd had any salt to use on their food. She also added that if they could ship just a little bit of coal it would help because it was so cold there, and their fuel was almost down to nothing. She finished her her letter with a request for some old used quilts. All of her own had worn thin and were full of holes, and they could not keep her children warm. Also, she requested some old worn out pants that she could use to cut up for patches to repatch the pants that her boys were wearing. She told them of their desperate need for socks and shoes and gloves and warm hats and coats. And at the very end of her letter she had stated, “If you could find just a dress that someone has outgrown that I could makeover to fit Ellen, please send that too, Ellen is such a little old lady for such a young girl. She worries about the family and about our needs and she carries the worries of the family on her shoulders. She has only one dress that she wears all the time, and it is patched and faded. She's outgrown it, and I would like to fix something that is nicer up for her.”
The week before Christmas had found Leland hitching up the horse to the sleigh and making the three-hour round trip from Hillspring into the town of Cardston everyday to check at the train station and at the post office to see if a package had come for the family from Idaho. Each day he would receive the same disappointing answer.
Finally, on the day of Christmas Eve, he left early in the morning from Hillspring and went into Cardston and sat around waiting for the daily train and checking at the post office to see if the box had come from Idaho. He left at noon, however, to return home to Hillspring before dark, and he left without a package. He had to go home and tell Mary that maybe it would arrive the day after Christmas or some time next week, but it hadn't made it before Christmas.
Mary woke up out of her reminiscing sleep with a chill. The old clock on the wall showed that it was 3:30 AM. The fire in the old stove was all but out. She decided to put a little more fuel into the stove so that it wouldn't take so long to start in the morning so that she would be able to cook the last little bit of wheat that she had for breakfast. She looked up at the sad little mended socks still hanging empty and felt that her heart was hanging just as empty.
Outside, the wind was blowing about seventy miles per hour and the snowstorm had intensified. After she added a few lumps of coal to the fire, she was about to put out the lantern and go to bed for a few hours when suddenly there was a knock at the door.
Mary opened the door to find a man standing there. And, for all the world, he looked exactly like what she would expect Santa himself to look like. He was covered with frozen snow and ice. His hat, his gloves, his boots were all white, and for a moment she was startled into believing that Santa had really come and knocked on the door,
It was the mailman from Cardston. He belonged to the Church and he knew the plight of the family. He told her that he knew of their waiting for the package from Idaho. He knew that there would be no Christmas without it. That evening as he was finishing up a long day of delivering mail all around the area of Cardston, he was glad to be in. His horse was exhausted and cold. It was one of the worst days they had had so far that year with the blizzard and the cold wind and he was very anxious to put his horse in the barn, park his sleigh and go home and spend Christmas Eve with his family.
Just after he got in and put the horse away, someone from the train station came up to him and told him that ten large crates had arrived from the States for the Jeppson family. It was only about four in the afternoon, but already it was dark. The storm was getting worse. The mailman told the man from the train station it was just too late. There wasn't anything he could do about it. He did say that the day after Christmas, though, he would see that those crates did get out to the Jeppsons.
He went home and was very disturbed. He talked to his wife about it and together they decided that the only thing he could do was to take the crates out to the Jeppson's little isolated farmhouse in Hillspring. He would have to find someone that would let him borrow a fresh horse and also borrow a sleigh with sharp running edges on it.
After he finished telling Mary about his decision to come, he brought the crates into the house. Mary told him to go over by the stove to get warm and thaw out. She took his horse out to the barn and when she looked at the poor animal, she knew there was no way that horse could make the trip back to Cards ton that night. She went back into the house and asked him if he wouldn't just stay until morning to let himself and the horse have a chance to rest.
He told her “No”, that it had taken him about eight hours to make a trip that could usually be made in about an hour-and-a-half, and he said that if he were to leave right now and go back, he would still be able to spend Christmas afternoon with his family.
Mary reminded him of the condition of his horse. She said that it had icicles hanging from its nose, mouth and ears, and that there was no way that horse could make it back. But, he still insisted on going, so Mary told him that she would harness up their horse because it was in a lot better condition to make the trip back.
She then went in and got some of Leland's clothes and had the mailman take off his wet, frozen clothes and put dry clothes on. While he was doing that, she went back out to the barn and harnessed up their horse. Back in the house again, she fed him what warm food she could muster up.
The mailman then headed back to town. It had taken him eight hours to get there because of the severity of the storm. By this time it was about 4:30 and going on 5:00 in the morning. He probably wouldn't get back till noon or after if he left now. Mary thanked him as best she could, but she always said that there just were not words enough to express her thanks. After all, how do you thank a miracle, and a Christmas miracle at that?
As soon as he left, Mary began to unpack the crates. She only had an hour or so to get ready before the children would wake up. At the top of one of the crates she found a letter from her sisters. They told her that quilting bees had been held all over the Malad Valley, and from these six thick, warm, beautiful quilts had been made to be seat to them. They told her of many women who had sewn shirts for the boys and dresses for the girls, and of others who had knitted the warm gloves and hats.
The donation of socks and shoes had come from people from miles around. The Relief Society had even held a bazaar to raise money to buy the coats, and all the sisters and nieces and cousins and aunts and uncles from all around had got together to bake the breads and make candy to send. There was even a crate half full of beef that had been cured and packed so that it could be shipped, and lo and behold there were two or three slabs of bacon and also two hams,
The closing of the letter had said, “We hope you have a Merry Christmas, and thank you so much for making our Christmas the best one we've ever had!”
When Mary's family awoke that Christmas morning, they awoke to what to them was a miracle. Bacon was sizzling on the stove, hot muffins were ready to come out of the oven. There were bottles and jars of jams and jelly and canned fruit that the younger children had never seen before in their lives, and they were not sure what it was. But oh, was it good!
Every sock that was hanging was stuffed full! Homemade taffy, fudge, divinity and dried fruit of every kind were in the socks, as well as cookies like the children had never seen. They weren't sure what to call them.
Later, Mary and Leland were to find tucked in each toe of socks that had been sent for them a dollar or two with a little note that the money was to be used to buy coal and fuel for the rest of the winter and to buy oats and wheat to feed the animals.
For each boy, there was a bag of marbles and each girl had a little rag doll made just for her. But best of all and the most wonderful miracle occurred when Ellen, the very last to get up, rubbed her eyes in disbelief as she looked at the spot where her sock was supposed to have been hung the night before and saw hanging there a beautiful red Christmas dress, trimmed with white and green satin ribbons.
Ellen turned around, walked back to her bed and laid back down, thinking it to be a dream. But in only moments she opened her eyes again and came back out to the joy of the most wonderful Christmas ever. For that morning, with the Christmas dress for Ellen, a childhood had been brought back, a childhood of hopes and dreams and Santa and the miracle of Christmas.
It was December of 1927 in the remote prairie town of Hillspring, Alberta, Canada. A young mother by the name of Mary was getting her six small children ready for bed. Her heart was so full of sorrow and concern that she felt it would surely break—and yet she felt that it was too laden down in grief to even have a chance to break. It was Christmas Eve and all of the children except for the eldest, Ellen, age ten, were dancing around excited to hang their socks for Santa to come.
Ellen sat very subdued and sullen over in a corner of the cold, small two-room house. She felt that her mother was cruel and wrong to let the children build up their hopes and excitement for Santa to come because actually there would be no Santa. There was nothing to fill the socks. There would be only a little mush for breakfast. There was very little wheat and corn left. The winter had just started and already it was cold and harsh. The milk cow had died last week from starvation and harsh weather conditions. The last two or three chickens had stopped laying eggs about a month ago.
Times were hard and Ellen being the oldest had too much responsibility put on her thin young shoulders. She had become very cynical and childhood hopes and dreams and excitements had had to be put out mind much too early.
Mary helped each one of her children hand a little darned and mended sock. She couldn't persuade Ellen to hang one, however. All Ellen could say was, “Mom, don't do this. Don;t pretend.”
After the socks had been hung, May had read the Christmas story from the Bible to the children and then recited a few Christmas poems to them from memory—memories of her own happy childhood living in the United States. She was the next to the youngest of a very large and loving family. Her mother and father, although pioneers in a remote area of Idaho, made life—and especially Christmas—very happy., loving and warm times.
As the children went to bed, everyone except Ellen, had visions of sugarplums dancing through their heads. Ellen turned to her mother with one last last plea, “Mom tell them tonight. Let them know tonight that there's not going to be anything there in the morning for them. Don't let them go to bed thinking that they are going to be able to get up and have some surprises. They'll just be disappointed.”
But Mary turned to her daughter, kissed her goodnight and whispered, “I can't Ellen. Don't ask me why.. I just can't tell them that.”
It was midnight now. The children had been asleep for hours, and Mary's husband Leland had gone to bed feeling like a broken man., like he had failed his family completely.
Mary sat by the dying fire reading from the Bible the story of Christmas over and over again. Her mind drifted off to think about her plight here in this God-forsaken land of ice and snow. It was the beginning of the Depression and her husband had heard wondrous stories about the opportunities in Canada. He'd heard that anyone could come to Canada, homestead some land, and , if he had a good team of horses, could hire out to clear other people's land. There would be good money to be made. He'd heard that the opportunities were unlimited.
After two years of not being able to find work in the United States, and after a flood had destroyed their small farm in Willard, Utah, he had moved his family to Canada. But when they arrive, they found that they were five or six years too late to cash in on the great opportunities they had heard about. They did homestead a small piece of land, however. But Spring had come very late for the last two years and Winter had come very early. They had been left with only part of July and part of August for a growing season. All of their crops had frozen and failed for two years in a row.
In October, May had received a letter from her family in Idaho. Her sisters living in Malad and Pleasant View had written to her and told her that they knew times were very hard for her and although the Depression was causing many hardships for themselves, they wanted to know what they could send the family for Christmas.
Mary hadn't written back to them real soon. In fact, it was quite a long time before she did write back. She had much too much pride to tell them how poor and destitute the family really was. Finally, in November, seeing that things that things were not going to get any better, in desperation she had written.
Mary had requested only necessities. She had told them how desperately they needed food, especially wheat, yeast, flour and some cornmeal. She related to them how long it had been since she had been able to bake a cake or cookies because they had no molasses or honey and, of course, no sugar. It had been a year since they'd had any salt to use on their food. She also added that if they could ship just a little bit of coal it would help because it was so cold there, and their fuel was almost down to nothing. She finished her her letter with a request for some old used quilts. All of her own had worn thin and were full of holes, and they could not keep her children warm. Also, she requested some old worn out pants that she could use to cut up for patches to repatch the pants that her boys were wearing. She told them of their desperate need for socks and shoes and gloves and warm hats and coats. And at the very end of her letter she had stated, “If you could find just a dress that someone has outgrown that I could makeover to fit Ellen, please send that too, Ellen is such a little old lady for such a young girl. She worries about the family and about our needs and she carries the worries of the family on her shoulders. She has only one dress that she wears all the time, and it is patched and faded. She's outgrown it, and I would like to fix something that is nicer up for her.”
The week before Christmas had found Leland hitching up the horse to the sleigh and making the three-hour round trip from Hillspring into the town of Cardston everyday to check at the train station and at the post office to see if a package had come for the family from Idaho. Each day he would receive the same disappointing answer.
Finally, on the day of Christmas Eve, he left early in the morning from Hillspring and went into Cardston and sat around waiting for the daily train and checking at the post office to see if the box had come from Idaho. He left at noon, however, to return home to Hillspring before dark, and he left without a package. He had to go home and tell Mary that maybe it would arrive the day after Christmas or some time next week, but it hadn't made it before Christmas.
Mary woke up out of her reminiscing sleep with a chill. The old clock on the wall showed that it was 3:30 AM. The fire in the old stove was all but out. She decided to put a little more fuel into the stove so that it wouldn't take so long to start in the morning so that she would be able to cook the last little bit of wheat that she had for breakfast. She looked up at the sad little mended socks still hanging empty and felt that her heart was hanging just as empty.
Outside, the wind was blowing about seventy miles per hour and the snowstorm had intensified. After she added a few lumps of coal to the fire, she was about to put out the lantern and go to bed for a few hours when suddenly there was a knock at the door.
Mary opened the door to find a man standing there. And, for all the world, he looked exactly like what she would expect Santa himself to look like. He was covered with frozen snow and ice. His hat, his gloves, his boots were all white, and for a moment she was startled into believing that Santa had really come and knocked on the door,
It was the mailman from Cardston. He belonged to the Church and he knew the plight of the family. He told her that he knew of their waiting for the package from Idaho. He knew that there would be no Christmas without it. That evening as he was finishing up a long day of delivering mail all around the area of Cardston, he was glad to be in. His horse was exhausted and cold. It was one of the worst days they had had so far that year with the blizzard and the cold wind and he was very anxious to put his horse in the barn, park his sleigh and go home and spend Christmas Eve with his family.
Just after he got in and put the horse away, someone from the train station came up to him and told him that ten large crates had arrived from the States for the Jeppson family. It was only about four in the afternoon, but already it was dark. The storm was getting worse. The mailman told the man from the train station it was just too late. There wasn't anything he could do about it. He did say that the day after Christmas, though, he would see that those crates did get out to the Jeppsons.
He went home and was very disturbed. He talked to his wife about it and together they decided that the only thing he could do was to take the crates out to the Jeppson's little isolated farmhouse in Hillspring. He would have to find someone that would let him borrow a fresh horse and also borrow a sleigh with sharp running edges on it.
After he finished telling Mary about his decision to come, he brought the crates into the house. Mary told him to go over by the stove to get warm and thaw out. She took his horse out to the barn and when she looked at the poor animal, she knew there was no way that horse could make the trip back to Cards ton that night. She went back into the house and asked him if he wouldn't just stay until morning to let himself and the horse have a chance to rest.
He told her “No”, that it had taken him about eight hours to make a trip that could usually be made in about an hour-and-a-half, and he said that if he were to leave right now and go back, he would still be able to spend Christmas afternoon with his family.
Mary reminded him of the condition of his horse. She said that it had icicles hanging from its nose, mouth and ears, and that there was no way that horse could make it back. But, he still insisted on going, so Mary told him that she would harness up their horse because it was in a lot better condition to make the trip back.
She then went in and got some of Leland's clothes and had the mailman take off his wet, frozen clothes and put dry clothes on. While he was doing that, she went back out to the barn and harnessed up their horse. Back in the house again, she fed him what warm food she could muster up.
The mailman then headed back to town. It had taken him eight hours to get there because of the severity of the storm. By this time it was about 4:30 and going on 5:00 in the morning. He probably wouldn't get back till noon or after if he left now. Mary thanked him as best she could, but she always said that there just were not words enough to express her thanks. After all, how do you thank a miracle, and a Christmas miracle at that?
As soon as he left, Mary began to unpack the crates. She only had an hour or so to get ready before the children would wake up. At the top of one of the crates she found a letter from her sisters. They told her that quilting bees had been held all over the Malad Valley, and from these six thick, warm, beautiful quilts had been made to be seat to them. They told her of many women who had sewn shirts for the boys and dresses for the girls, and of others who had knitted the warm gloves and hats.
The donation of socks and shoes had come from people from miles around. The Relief Society had even held a bazaar to raise money to buy the coats, and all the sisters and nieces and cousins and aunts and uncles from all around had got together to bake the breads and make candy to send. There was even a crate half full of beef that had been cured and packed so that it could be shipped, and lo and behold there were two or three slabs of bacon and also two hams,
The closing of the letter had said, “We hope you have a Merry Christmas, and thank you so much for making our Christmas the best one we've ever had!”
When Mary's family awoke that Christmas morning, they awoke to what to them was a miracle. Bacon was sizzling on the stove, hot muffins were ready to come out of the oven. There were bottles and jars of jams and jelly and canned fruit that the younger children had never seen before in their lives, and they were not sure what it was. But oh, was it good!
Every sock that was hanging was stuffed full! Homemade taffy, fudge, divinity and dried fruit of every kind were in the socks, as well as cookies like the children had never seen. They weren't sure what to call them.
Later, Mary and Leland were to find tucked in each toe of socks that had been sent for them a dollar or two with a little note that the money was to be used to buy coal and fuel for the rest of the winter and to buy oats and wheat to feed the animals.
For each boy, there was a bag of marbles and each girl had a little rag doll made just for her. But best of all and the most wonderful miracle occurred when Ellen, the very last to get up, rubbed her eyes in disbelief as she looked at the spot where her sock was supposed to have been hung the night before and saw hanging there a beautiful red Christmas dress, trimmed with white and green satin ribbons.
Ellen turned around, walked back to her bed and laid back down, thinking it to be a dream. But in only moments she opened her eyes again and came back out to the joy of the most wonderful Christmas ever. For that morning, with the Christmas dress for Ellen, a childhood had been brought back, a childhood of hopes and dreams and Santa and the miracle of Christmas.
******************************************
Motivated? I hope so. I know I am :) I guess there is also a story from the mail carrier's point of view. I would love to read it. It makes me smile knowing what amazing people live in this world. I'm not sure exactly of Michelle's plans for the ornament. I know she wants to do some sort of dress. I suggested something like this...
This particular dress is from "Say it With Letters". It is cut from MDF and then decorated. It might be cheaper to use chipboard or even paper and cut it out on your Cricut. There is an adorable paperdoll shape cartridge that has super cute dresses. Wouldn't a red dress go perfectly with this lesson? Michelle was even thinking about going to the craft store and getting small hangers to go with the dress. Adorable and cheap.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Year Long Service Project....Wanna Join???
2010 is going to be a year of service for our young women. When we first were called into YW we felt strongly the YW needed a lot of love and attention. We focused on that for a while and now it is time for them to give some of that love back to the community! We are going to pair this service project with the advice from our leaders to go back to the basics. The basics we are going to teach are sewing, knitting, crocheting and being creative :) They will put these skills to use by making hats, scarfs, gloves and blankets all year long and giving them to people who could really use them. We will be giving them to homeless men, women and children. With the economy the way it is now there are more people in need than ever! Let's do some good :)
I'm going to go more into detail of what the exact plan is below but first I have a proposal. As I was thinking about this whole plan I started thinking about how wonderfully cool it would be if we could get other YW groups to join us in this next year. Either join us in making warm stuff (hats, scarfs, gloves, blankets) and deliver it to a homeless shelter in your area or send us the warm items you make and we will deliver them. During this process we will keep in contact, send each other pictures and that fun jazz. The yw will love it! Working with other YW groups for a good cause all over the US...maybe even in different different countries...what a excellent thing to be a part of of! I think this will be a life changing experience for all of them.
I will be doing all the hard work for you! I will send you the patterns of what we are doing. I'm busy altering patterns so you will have one for men, one for women and a kid size. The patterns will all be beginner/easy. Don't know how to knit or crochet? I bet you could find someone in your ward dying to teach you how. If needed I can do a youtube tutorial on the exact items we are making and send it to you or you can just focus on tying flannel blankets (flannel is on sale at Joann's for $2.49 right now!!) If you live close enough come on over and I will teach you:) If you are interested please contact me at beachellfamily02@hotmail.com. I will give you even more details if you are interested. Spread the word...If you know someone you think might be interested pass on my e-mail!
(BELOW: This is one of the hats we will be crocheting. I have altered a few different ways to where the yw will get to choose a style.)
THE PLAN:
Early December of this year we will be having a Sunday lesson about service (I will post details later). It will be at this lesson we will announce our plans for next year's service project. Hopefully they will walk away from this lesson feeling inspired and motivated :)
The first few months of the year (Jan, Feb, March) we will take the YW in small groups to the Portland Rescue Mission where they will serve dinner to homeless men, women and children. My point in this is I want the yw to have personal experience serving people in need. After serving these people hopefully they will realize there really are people without homes, cold and that are hungry. When they are knitting that scarf or hat they will be able to visualize that scarf is for someone who really needs it.
Early in January we are having someone who volunteers at the shelter and also someone the shelter has helped come and talk to our YW.
Also in January the teaching process will begin. We will have 4 different groups: a knitting scarf group, crocheting hat, crocheting gloves and a tying blanket group. The first activity will be all about learning the basics. We are dedicating one activity a month and 2 retreats to this project. Our hope is the girls will start working at home on their projects also. I will also give you our retreat details as we get closer. We have one planned in January and one planned in August.
We will be working away until the end of the year. In December we will take the girls to deliver the items they have made. I think we will be helping a lot of people not only stay warm but keep them smiling! Most importantly we as leaders will be doing what the YW program is for, helping the YW "come unto Christ" though service. I can't think of any better way to "stand for truth and righteousness". Make it a great day!!!!
I'm going to go more into detail of what the exact plan is below but first I have a proposal. As I was thinking about this whole plan I started thinking about how wonderfully cool it would be if we could get other YW groups to join us in this next year. Either join us in making warm stuff (hats, scarfs, gloves, blankets) and deliver it to a homeless shelter in your area or send us the warm items you make and we will deliver them. During this process we will keep in contact, send each other pictures and that fun jazz. The yw will love it! Working with other YW groups for a good cause all over the US...maybe even in different different countries...what a excellent thing to be a part of of! I think this will be a life changing experience for all of them.
I will be doing all the hard work for you! I will send you the patterns of what we are doing. I'm busy altering patterns so you will have one for men, one for women and a kid size. The patterns will all be beginner/easy. Don't know how to knit or crochet? I bet you could find someone in your ward dying to teach you how. If needed I can do a youtube tutorial on the exact items we are making and send it to you or you can just focus on tying flannel blankets (flannel is on sale at Joann's for $2.49 right now!!) If you live close enough come on over and I will teach you:) If you are interested please contact me at beachellfamily02@hotmail.com. I will give you even more details if you are interested. Spread the word...If you know someone you think might be interested pass on my e-mail!
(BELOW: This is one of the hats we will be crocheting. I have altered a few different ways to where the yw will get to choose a style.)
THE PLAN:
Early December of this year we will be having a Sunday lesson about service (I will post details later). It will be at this lesson we will announce our plans for next year's service project. Hopefully they will walk away from this lesson feeling inspired and motivated :)
The first few months of the year (Jan, Feb, March) we will take the YW in small groups to the Portland Rescue Mission where they will serve dinner to homeless men, women and children. My point in this is I want the yw to have personal experience serving people in need. After serving these people hopefully they will realize there really are people without homes, cold and that are hungry. When they are knitting that scarf or hat they will be able to visualize that scarf is for someone who really needs it.
Early in January we are having someone who volunteers at the shelter and also someone the shelter has helped come and talk to our YW.
Also in January the teaching process will begin. We will have 4 different groups: a knitting scarf group, crocheting hat, crocheting gloves and a tying blanket group. The first activity will be all about learning the basics. We are dedicating one activity a month and 2 retreats to this project. Our hope is the girls will start working at home on their projects also. I will also give you our retreat details as we get closer. We have one planned in January and one planned in August.
We will be working away until the end of the year. In December we will take the girls to deliver the items they have made. I think we will be helping a lot of people not only stay warm but keep them smiling! Most importantly we as leaders will be doing what the YW program is for, helping the YW "come unto Christ" though service. I can't think of any better way to "stand for truth and righteousness". Make it a great day!!!!
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