Helping Hands . . .

I hesitated to publish this post because of the sensitivity of the subject. I usually would not record service performed, but this experience today was so wonderful for our family, and I wanted to be able to remember it. We were able to go down to the Bishop's Storehouse and help serve there. We were there from 9:30 - 3:30. The kids amazed us by loving the work, helping fill orders, and restocking shelves. I was not sure they would be able to last for the whole shift, but the feeling there was amazing . . . so much love. We met some very nice people and families, many with young children. I brought my camera along, put it in the pocket of my apron, and snapped a few shots when there weren't any patrons in the store. I tried to be as quick and discreet as possible, as not to offend anyone, hence some heads are cut off. The senior missionaries made us lunch for our afternoon break, and entertained us with their humor. We left there filling so much gratitude for being able to serve. I think that we got much more out of the experience than those whom we helped. Ryan worked so hard opening boxes with his box cutter ( he loved this ), restocking shelves, following the map around the storehouse, and filling out checklists. He was sad to have the shift end.

Lindsay and Alie were my lifesavers. As each new customer would come in and hand me their order, I would read the items, and they would retrieve them. If it was 4 cans of peaches, they would each get two, and the customer and I would load them in the boxes. We became an efficient team. They loved weighing the fruits and veggies. Every apple was inspected for bruising. Lindsay is going to make 12 horses very happy on Saturday with those "damaged" apples! ( 2 trash bags full ). The girls also helped with restocking and making sure that everything stayed organized, including all the labels facing in the right direction. (Alie particularly enjoyed this.) Alan had Justin, who was such a good little helper. No really. He truly stepped up to the plate. He followed directions, and helped measure the appropriate weight of fruit in each bag. ( 5 lbs.) He also helped restock the refrigerator and move all of the empty boxes with a little cart. The smaller pieces of boxes he carefully folded in half and disposed of. After we were done, we headed straight to 31 flavors for some ice cream. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. The storehouse was wonderful, the produce was perfect, the shelves immaculate, but no ice cream, and as a patron pointed out, no bacon. What a great day for a large dose of a new perspective. . .