The Gwilliam Family: For History's Sake

November 7, 2026

For History's Sake

Aubrey's Christmas package is officially on its way to Washington and then to Argentina, I am glad she will have some love from us on Christmas day. I had fun gathering things for her over the last few weeks (Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, Temu.)

I even made some bookmarks using cute mission stickers that I had printed from a logo on their Facebook page. I was really happy with how the stickers and bookmarks turned out. I ordered about $40 worth of little gifts from Temu. They have such great prices, and I especially love all the custom things you can order.

I'm disappointed in myself for not taking a picture of the pile of gifts before boxing everything up. It sat on our kitchen countertop for days—days and days! The mess was driving me crazy, but I was trying to gather everything from all the different places and keep it in one area until I could ship it.

Here are the items Aubrey specifically requested: a Plan of Salvation object lesson, WWJD bracelet, lip stain, teeth whitener, insoles, personal care items, and Nerds Clusters. Everything else was just to add a little extra love and surprise. I am especially excited for her to receive the photo calendar and bookmarks. A pretty complete list of what we included is listed below.

This is what we are sending for her companion: an Argentina backpack, a bracelet, candy, and two custom keychains. One keychain says "He Lives," and the other had her mission emblem on it, similar to the stickers I used for the bookmarks.

We needed to get the package to Seattle before November 22 so it could be flown personally to Argentina and delivered to the mission home. Since we're leaving on a cruise November 15, we wanted to make sure it arrived in Washington while we were still in the country and reachable, just in case there were any problems.

Shipping wasn't cheap. It cost $45 to send the package to Seattle, and then it's another $18 per pound to have it flown to Argentina and dropped off at the mission home. I think it will be 6 plus pounds. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to do a secret shopper experience at USPS, which took $30 off the shipping cost. That helped.

Aubrey's birthday is in January, so I had originally thought about including birthday gifts along with Christmas-or dividing this one up a bit. But since we weren't allowed to wrap anything because of airport customs, I decided not to try to separate the two occasions. We'll probably just deposit $50 into her bank account for her birthday so she can have a little extra wiggle room in her monthly budget.

I am glad the kitchen counter pile is safely on it's way to Hermana Gwilliam. Hopefully, when she opens it in Argentina, she'll feel a little bit of home and know how much we love her.

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What we included in her package:

photo calendar-Walgreens $17
laminated bookmarks w/ mission sticker to handout to zone
extra stickers w/ mission logo-Temu
extra bookmarks to make more w/ mission stickers or sheep stickers if she wants
sheep stickers-Temu
3D print Plan of Salvation object lesson-Etsy $25
3D print Restoration object lesson-Etsy $35
Restoration nail object lesson-Lowes
WWJD (What would Jesus do bracelets)-Temu
cute hair ties-Temu
6 different custom keychains for Aub, her comp and her mission leaders-Temu
Argentina drawstring backpack-JCPenney clearance-$5
Diet Coke chaptick $5
Elf lip stain-$6
teeth whitener-$40
other personal care items-$30
insoles-$13
candy-Nerd Gummy Clusters, Rainsbow Sour Strips, Twix, Sour Gummy Worms etc
two Argentina bracelets-Temu

I made probably 25 bookmarks. (Confession-I used Aubrey's washi tape from her supply in her closet.) I also sent ribbon separately for her to loop through each bookmark so the ribbon wouldn't get bent.

The mission stickers I had made from the mission FB page. I also had two different keychains made...should have snapped a photo!

An elder came to the mission with lots of the bracelets and shared with other missionaries, but it was before her time. She wanted at least one to wear. These were about $1 each on Temu.

I ordered one for Aub and one for her companion with ¡Él vive! on them. (He lives) I think these might be fun to put on their missionary bags they use everyday.

She asked for a wood laser engraved object lesson, but I remember Brinley's was really hard to see the engraging so I went with this one. We bought one for Braddock to send his way at Christmas. Bri made a 3" Jesus to go with it...since Jesus is the key to everything, we didn't want to leave Him out.

I purchased two of these, but only sent one for her comp. I decided to show Aubrey and ask if she wanted hers now or if she'd rather save for when she got home. She decided to wait.

I threw this calendar together pretty quickly and ordered it for same-day pickup at Walgreens. I tried to use pictures Aubrey hadn't already printed before she left. Of course, the morning I picked it up, Aub posted a bunch of new pictures! There were so many fun ones, and I was so disappointed I hadn't waited just ONE more day to order it.

I was originally just going to include a few pages of the calendar here, but then decided, why not include them all? For history's sake!