After our service project last year, where we were able to get supplies for people getting their first house, we started thinking about people who aren’t able to have their own house. Whenever we can, we try and go to the temple on fast Sundays. We have often noticed that on one particular corner on the way to the temple there was usually a homeless person with a sign asking for help. Eliza and Henry came up with the idea to create kits full of supplies that we could hand out to homeless people when we saw them. We thought it would be a good way to help us feel happy and to help them feel loved.
Toward the beginning of the year, when we were getting ready to go to the temple, we gathered a bunch of things that we had around our house and put them into two small kits, hoping that we would see some people we could give them to. The bags included
Water Pretzels Goldfish Peanut butter crackers Applesauce Mandarin oranges
We were able to give one to someone on the way to the temple. On the way back we decided to drive around until we found someone else to give the second bag to. We drove toward a part of town that has a large homeless population, and ended up finding a lot of people in a large group. Henry said, “I’m about to cry, there are a lot of people!” We didn’t feel like we could give just one bag to a big group of people, so we drove a little longer. Eventually Eliza saw a person on a freeway off-ramp holding a sign. Dad said that he would be kind of hard to get to, but Henry said, “That’s ok, we can still get there!” And we did!
That was such a good experience that we felt like we wanted to do it again, on a bigger scale. We went to the dollar store and got enough stuff to make 10 kits. Each bag included: a water bottle, hand-warmers, socks, toothbrush/toothpaste, word search puzzles, notebook/pen, face/body wipes, hand sanitizer, juice, cookies, chocolate kisses/mints, dehydrated apples , peanut butter crackers, feminine hygiene products, tissues, and bandaids.
We put all of the supplies into ziploc bags. Eliza made sure to put a little note in the front of all of the journals to let people know they were loved ♥️
Then we put them in a couple of boxes and put them in our cars to hand them out as we drove around during our normal days.
We were able to give out our first two during a trip to Utah! There were a couple of people outside of Walmart in Orem, and they were very happy to receive them!
Then, about a week later, we went out specifically to give out the rest of our kits. Dad had worked near Fremont Street, an area with a very high number of homeless people, for the last year, so we started there first.
While we were driving down to that part of town, we listened to “I Feel My Savior’s Love“ and “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.” We talked about how Jesus gave us the Atonement, and how Heavenly Father has given us everything, including the blessings in our lives. We were happy to go and give other people just a tiny bit of the blessings we’ve received.
We were able to find 8 different people in a lot of different situations: people in wheelchairs, standing on street corners, digging in the trash, sleeping on the ground, and setting up a tent for the night. Each time we were reminded how much Jesus and Heavenly Father love these people, feel their pain, and hope that we will help them.
We were so grateful for the chance to serve our brothers and sisters. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of the gospel, but the most important laws are and have always been to love God and to love and serve our neighbors as ourselves.
Merry Christmas, Grammy and Granddad! We love you! Thanks for giving us the opportunity to intentionally love others each and every year.
Chad, Denise, Eliza, Henry, and Sadie (and Finley!)