Pulling Handcarts

I had the special opportunity, thanks to Camille Hoff, to work 2 shifts in the Houston temple this week. Rather than just my regular Wednesday midday shift, I was able to work the Saturday morning session for a bit, which starts 6:20am, meaning that I set my alarm for 4:30am so that I had time to lay there and snooze until 5am! haha! It was rough! Especially since the day before, I had to wake up at the same time.

Ya'll wouldn't believe it, but the Saturday morning shift is packed with people! There are probably at least 30 ordinance workers, or so. Like, I'm just thinking...who says, "Let's go to the temple on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn"?!! There are obviously a lot more valiant people in the church than I am! Haha! I think I'll stick to my mid-day Wednesday shift, thank you very much! ;)

Anyway, before a temple shift starts, there is always a small devotional with all of the ordinance workers. Well, on this particular morning, the speaker said something that really struck me. He said, "You never know what someone is pulling in their handcart." For people who don't know the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members were driven out of their homes due to persecution on several occasions, until they finally decided to trek to the great Salt Lake. Before they left, they built handcarts so they could bring their belongings that they cherished. As you can imagine, these handcarts were immensely heavy. So, the analogy that the speaker was referring to is, that everyone has heavy burdens they are carrying. It was a simple and short message, but it made a great impact on my heart.

Saturday:

My birthday! I'm 25 now, so I'm basically a pro at life! ;) NOT! Haha! I hung out with one of my best friends, Shelby Ward, because she's awesome, obviously! ;) We made lasagna soup, watched the new Book of Mormon videos, and also watched Aladdin. Aladdin was pretty good, but you can't beat the original.

Sunday:

Stake conference! I forgot about the conference being on Saturday too. Adults are supposed to go to that and, I'm one of those now...oops! Conference was good and very uplifting. Afterwards, the proselyting Mission President and his wife came up to me when they saw my missionary tag and asked if I was one of their missionaries. They said that they recognized me and thought they had seen me before. I explained that I was a service missionaries, but that I had gone out with the proselyting missionaries several times and had met them then. The Mission President's wife said matter a factly that I was still a missionary and that she was handing out cookies to all of the missionaries at the conference. I thought it was so sweet and I think I stood up a little straighter and more confidently afterwards. It is nice to hear that what I am doing is just as impactful as what the proselyting missionaries do. Satan can get you down sometimes and make you feel like you're not doing enough, so it was nice to be reminded that what I am doing is enough for Christ.

Monday:

The first time I met Sister Hadnot. She is a sweet lady and very talkative. One of my assignments as a service missionary is that I get to visit with her once a week and bring her a meal to last her a few days. It's a small world in the church. She used to live in Woodville, and she knows the Odoms, which is pretty neat. Sister Hadnot recently had a terrible tragedy happen, and so, by visiting her and giving her meals, hopefully I can help her see that God still cares about her, amidst her troubles.

Wednesday:

I served at the temple.

Friday:

One of my companions, Sister Bush, invited me to help out at a seminar for the local Women's shelter. Even though I had to get up at the crack of dawn, I'm still glad I went. It was super interesting and I learned a lot. The volunteers are so sweet and very knowledgeable. I hope I can work with them someday. I currently won't have time in my schedule, but I'm hoping that someday it will change to where I can help out.

After the Women's shelter, I hurried over to the distribution center. I made it with one minute to spare! I had training for a few hours at the computer. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but, sometimes we have to do stuff that isn't entertaining, and that is okay. I'm happy that the majority of my service will not be behind the computer screen. After some training, the time I had left, I helped on the floor. One lady walked in with two nervous women. She explained to me that they recently had been reactivated and needed to be fitted for sacred clothing. After warming up to me, one lady excitedly exclaimed to me that her children had been baptized the previous weekend. I congratulated her, and after talking with her and the other two, it turns out that they were from Natchitoches and were in Houston since the Baton Rouge temple is currently being remodeled. And get this- one of the ladies, Sister Clark knows my grandparents, Mimi (Mary) and Papaw (Gary)! It was super neat, and I enjoyed getting to know them and helping them get the things that they needed.

Saturday:

The Ellis' had another mission gathering! Apparently they hold one once a month. It was nice to get to see all of the other service missionaries again and visit and catch up. We have a new missionary named, Elder Fears. We all thought that he said Elder Fierce at first, haha! He's kind of quiet, but he has some good comments and he is funny. I think he said that he's going to be working with Catholic charities, but I can't remember. All of the service missionaries have a special place in my heart.

Sister Ellis has the whole house decorated for Halloween and it's adorable. We had mummy pigs in a blanket, bean soup, asparagus, and pumpkin cookies! Yum yum! She spoils us! She told me that we (The Ellis' and I ) are going to go check out a couple places on Monday, so I'm super excited.

Things I'm grateful for:

Emmalee, new friends, comfy shoes, good hair days, pumpkin reese's, gas tank warning lights, shelters, Book of Mormon Video bloopers, being serenaded by Sister Bush during comp. study, and Oliver's snores.