Time to serve

The phone rang this morning and it was the bishop. We talked about a few people and as I hung up I knew that my plan for the day was out the window. Today I would be working on the sisters in the ward. I started by making bread and texting one lady in the ward to see if I could come over and talk with her for a bit. I knew she wasn’t an early riser, so I figured I could have some bread done before I went to go and see her.

While the bread had been cooking and I thought about the large amounts of beans that were in the fridge, I contemplated asking my visiting teacher to come and help me snap them. We could get in a good chat, and get my “visit” out of the way. I texted her and asked if she was home, and she said she was, and let’s go to lunch. Lunch? Did I really have time for lunch? Ok. I told her I could meet her at about 1:00, which would be between the appointed visit with the other sister and my carpool pick up. I could just make it.

I got it JUST out of the oven before I went to visit. I grabbed a couple loaves and some squash. She was thrilled with the bread and the squash from my in-laws (they gave me enough to share).

I left a few minutes late, but got to the lunch place before my friend had ordered. We talked about her recent trip, and about how hard it is to deal with the death of her husband. She was agonizing over how to pick a headstone. I always have like the benches, and told her so, and she mentioned that she really liked a certain bench, but some of the family didn’t think a bench was dignified. “He’s your husband, and it’s your headstone, too, right? Pick out what you like.”
“I’ll get it, and tell them my Relief Society President told me that the bench was the best.” Ok.

After picking up the Jr. High kids, we had a little bit of time before John’s piano lesson, and I enlisted the help of the kids to snap some beans.

As I left to take John to piano, I grabbed two more loaves of bread, and looked up another sister’s phone number. We had been talking about her yesterday at a RS board meeting, and I knew it was time to see how she was getting along. He husband has Alzheimers. I dropped John off and called her to see if I could stop by. She was waiting for a nurse to come, but had a minute or two. When I arrived, I gave her bread, and told her that I thought it was time she let us help her a little. I said, “We are going to be bringing in dinner at least one night a week, and I’m not taking no for an answer this time. What night would be good for you.” I didn’t really want to bully her like that, but she’s going through such a difficult time, and if there is anything we can do in this delicate situation to help her, then we are going to do it. She agreed to dinner once a week. She didn’t have much of a choice, now did she?

Since the half hour wasn’t quite up, I ran over to another sister’s house to check on her. She’s been seriously sick in the first trimester of her pregnancy, and I just wanted to see how she was. She was up and looked good. Thankful for fresh bread, too. We chatted for only a few minutes, but it was good to see how she was doing, and let her know that we cared.

I was only a FEW minutes late to get John.

Home to the beans. Hooray! Most of them had been snapped!

The rest of the afternoon consisted of pressure cooking these beans. Man, it takes a long time!

As I look back at the day, it was definitely not the day I had envisioned. The laundry did not get touched, nothing got cleaned (except the wheat that spilled on the floor got swept up), I didn’t even make dinner. But I do not regret the service I have given today, and I know that I was guided in my actions today. I got a lot more done in one day than I normally would get done in one day (possibly two) and I know my family will not suffer or begrudge the fact that I didn’t take care of them today.

For FHE at night, I even had my family participate in the service day. They delivered bread, squash and beans to some more people.

I’m thankful that I was able to be flexible in my plans and take the time to serve.