Two-In-One Mission Christmas Dinner and Concert (December 5)

Back in September or October as we were planning our Zone Christmas party with our prior set of assistants (most of who would be gone by December), we decided to have a dinner on the same day that the mission was having the Annual Elijah Choir Devotional on the first Monday evening of December.  We decided to have it at the Church History Library in the basement Nauvoo Room and to have the dinner catered.  This way our missionaries would be able to have two events on the same day and avoid extra travel and time during the busy holiday season.  We thought it was a great idea.

However, to do it we had to get special permission from the Church History Library to remain in the library until 6:00 and also security to allow us to use the "special" door that would allow us to enter directly into the hallway to the tunnels.  We managed to get that permission and even better-- our access badges were given permission to use that door for the week. .  That avoided having to go up to the lobby and over to another elevator to go down to the tunnels.  With 50 people that wasn't going to be too practical. It also allowed us to roll over the food from the COB cafeteria and not have to use the two elevator process with four carts of food.

And it all worked our great.  The missionaries loved combining the two events on one day, the food was great, and everyone helped clean up because we had to have it all done by 6.  And the concert was beautiful with great music and stories!

(Names are listed in our Collections Zone January 2023 newsletter.)

President and Sister Faerber in the middle
We knew them in Plano, Texas.

President and Sister Holmes standing

Sister and President Jackson in front

Us with Sister Kathy Jones

We put together a PowerPoint display of 80 pictures or so of the zone over the past 26 months which everyone loved.  All six members of the mission presidency were able to attend which was awesome as well.  We had parmesan crusted chicken, strawberry spinach salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed vegetables, rolls and NO dessert since the mission was providing cheesecake after the Christmas concert.  A win for us--saving us a few dollars per person.

We did sing a couple of Christmas carols including our own version of the Twelve Days of Christmas--Collections Zone Style--words below--

On the Twelve day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

Twelve rooms a-storing,

Eleven photos printing,

Ten phones a-ringing,

Nine Sisters serving,

Eight Elders working,

Seven Web Cat entries,

Six mission leaders,

Five books of Saints,

Four cheerful staff,

Three COB meals,

Two donation forms,

And a don-or down in the Lob-by!

If you served at the Church History Library, you would get it and love it!  It made us laugh.  Kudos to Gary who did all the best finishing parts and to the Church History Library zone who gave us the idea!

Although I felt it was a bit rushed and we didn't really get to play traditional games, people seemed to enjoy being together, doing it early in the month, and combining it with the mission concert.  Will pass along the idea to the next zone leaders when we leave....did I mention that Christmas is coming!