Dear Grammie and Granddad,
This year we thought a long time about different things that we could do to share some love and charity to those in need for Christmas. Thanks so much for helping us to keep service in the front of our minds each and every Christmas. We always hope that we can do good for others, but this annual reminder to do service really helps us remember to do specific, measurable things for others each and every year. Our family has been really blessed by it, and we think that that’s the biggest service of all: the service that you’ve given to us!
We were so excited to hear that the church was going to be setting up one of the Giving Machines at Downtown Summerlin in Las Vegas, just a five-minute drive from our house! This is an opportunity that people in Utah have had for the last few years, but this is the first time it’s been in Las Vegas! It was selected as one of only ten places in the whole world that the church would have a machine! We felt pretty special.
The Giving Machine has four sides to it, and on each side there is a window that looks into a vending machine of choices that you can get for people. It was really cool, because when we got to the machine, there were people lined up on each of the four sides, and more came and gave while we were there making our decision.
The rows in the Giving Machine were broken into two categories. One of the rows was for gifts that you could give to people who live outside of the United States. The rest of the rows had gifts that you could give people right in Las Vegas! We talked about how, maybe, the gifts could even go to someone we knew, or someone we might meet in the future. Eliza was especially excited about that.
We decided that we were going to pick one gift from each of the two categories. First, we looked at the one row that had gifts for those who live outside the country.
The gift that seemed really interesting was the gift of three chickens! Mommy and Daddy told us that, if we gave a family those chickens, the chickens would lay eggs, and the family could make money by selling the eggs (or they could eat them). They could also make even more money as some of the eggs hatched and turned into new chickens! Our friend Jett has chickens at his house, and Henry was especially excited to talk about giving them to a family. The chickens were our first gift.
Second, we looked at the many rows of gifts we could give people right in Las Vegas. Eliza immediately pointed out the art kit gift. She loves art, and was really excited to share it with someone else. We decided to get it, so that another kid could experience how cool it is to make art!
When we left the Giving Machine, we felt warm and happy. As we were walking away, we saw a boy playing the violin! His music was really pretty, and we asked Mommy and Daddy if we could give him some money. We did, and he was very happy.
We’re really grateful for the warm glow that going to the Giving Machine gave us, and the fact that it inspired us to keep giving even after we were done. We hope that we can keep remembering to give, just like Jesus gave His life for us!
Merry Christmas, Grammie and Granddad!
Love Eliza, Henry, Chad, and Denise