I have had a few friends and family members inquire about Elder Towers' Christmas gifts and where to send them. We received some helpful suggestions regarding just that from his mission home, so I thought I'd cut and paste part of that message for you to see. This was really helpful for me, as I sent him a little nativity set today as a "12 days of Christmas" activity that he can either use for his own apartment or as a fun secret santa project. I ended up sending it to the mission home instead of his apartment. Here is the excerpt from the mission home letter:
As you know, Christmas is just around the corner. What you may not know is that our next missionary transfers are scheduled for Thursday, December 8th. As a result we just wanted to advise you that in order to ensure a Merry Christmas for your missionary we would encourage you to send all cards, letters and packages directly to the Mission Office at 1111 South Cole Road, Boise, ID 83709 before Friday, December 16, 2016. Please don't forget that UPS ground and Fed Ex packages cannot be forwarded and may very well sit in the office indefinitely until they can be hand delivered by the next available elf.
To help you make your missionary Christmas shopping list, please remember that less is best. Missionaries are often transferred every six weeks and transporting all their extra treasures can oftentimes become a burden. Homesickness can become a problem so please help ensure that your missionary can remain focused on his or her purpose here in the mission field, do not go overboard on candy, toys and other things that will distract them. Gift cards are great, as are personal items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant and other preferred toiletries that will go a long way to help offset their $140.00 monthly allotment. Scarves and gloves are always appreciated as the weather turns cold. Also, please be mindful of your son or daughter's companion. Many of our missionaries are from foreign countries and sending packages from their home can be cost prohibitive so they may receive very little at this time of the year.
I love all of these suggestions...especially the one about not going overboard. We'll be sending him things that can only help him as he teaches on his mission...for instance, he asked for a new electric razor (time saver in the morning!), a new watch (his broke), a blue-tooth speaker (to help with instructive videos), some mellow "church-type" music, etc...we'll be sending him all of these things. But $140 monthly doesn't go far. We have an expense account that we sent him up with that helps with things like dry-cleaning, popped tires, etc. So gift cards are a really great option...makes it easy on transfers!
Thank you for loving and supporting our boy! It makes it so much easier for him to focus on his work when he has all of this love and support from home. And I know that he feels the love and support...I know that I feel it. In fact, someone from church told me how she was sending him a cute chocolate bar with a customized Christmas wrapper to him. Such a sweet and simple thing really touched my heart and reminded me that as parents, we aren't alone in caring about him, loving him and wanting him to succeed.
Thanks again, and Merry Christmas!!!
P.S. Here is the link for the 12 days of Christmas Nativity Set...so cute!
http://overthebigmoon.com/12-days-of-christmas-nativity-countdown-printables/
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