Christmas Eve Gifts

Every Christmas Eve a counselor in the Bishopric in Panasang Ward invites all the missionaries to his home and gives out hand crafted gifts to each one. These gifts are normally sold in a gift shop and are expensive, so it is a very generous offering.
He is part of a group of people who once lived on a small island that was devastated by a storm. All the people on that island had to be evacuated. Pohnpei had a street of shacks that they gave to these people.
This structure of the party is just a gravel floor with a tin corrugated roof. They decorated it with palm fronds and a fabric banner made into small triangles. Plastic flowers were added to a small banana tree for a Christmas tree.
The missionaries presented their nativity program with Christmas songs. We even had sheep crawling on the gravel floor. Last Sunday we spoke in church. Mel told about our nativity every Christmas Eve and how the most coveted role is the sheep. The sister missionaries were there and loved to be those sheep and kept looking at Mel with a sparkle in their eyes.
The display is of some of the hand crafts that were given last night. We brought the extra home for the missionaries yet to come. Ours were the boat and the hand woven purse. The intricate boat was made by the elderly man in a wheel chair just to the left of the little girl. We were truly treated well.