Secret Surprises

When my mom was little she had a grandmother named grandma Lucile. Whenever my mom would go on vacation, grandma Lucile would get presents for them, and on the day they were going to arrive home, she would have their presents waiting for them on their bed. You never knew what you were going to get so it was always a surprise. It also gave the kids something to look forward to when coming home from vacation. 

This weeks family home evening (a time usually monday night when you have a family lesson together), was delivering presents to our cousins coming home from their 3 week vacation. We bought water guns for all the boys, a notebook, pens, and a highlighter, for the girl in the family, a teething toy for the baby girl, chocolates for the mom, planet stickers for one boy, a white board and markers for another boy, a book for the last boy, homemade granola for the dad, and to tie it all together a loaf of our homemade bread, and a letter saying how much we missed their family. 

The best way to deliver surprise presents is to lay them on their beds individually, but we didn't have a key to their house. So instead we had to sneak through the gate and lay their presents on their back porch were they would easily find them, when getting out of the car.

The next day (today), they came home and found the presents and thanked us, so our mission was made successful. Doing this taught me that you don't need to be leave your family to go to a different country to be a missionary, you just have to be nice.