Well, I had an interesting weekend. While initially I had anticipated that on Saturday I would be busy helping Shane dejunk our office area, I received a phone call Friday night telling me about a Relief Society service project that would be taking place Saturday morning at 8 am for a few hours before conference started.
I'll admit, when I first heard the message on my voicemail, I was not that enthused about going. I had plans! I needed to clean my own house! But, after praying that evening, and having a night of remembering every time anyone had ever done service for me when I was in need, I realized that I needed to take part in this.
When I got there, the need was very apparent. WOW. It gave me a whole new perspective on cleanliness and maintenance cleaning. But, I also noticed something else. I had basically been preparing myself to do service with a willing heart. I mean, we teach the young women all the time that if you do service willingly, you will leave feeling good, but if you do it grudgingly, you will not have that experience.
So, for some sisters there, I could tell that all they could see was the mess, and were appalled that someone could let their house get to that point. When conference started we were told that we could go home and watch conference if we wanted to. But I, along with quite a few others, felt like I could listen and clean at the same time. :)
Wether I was blessed to see the inner meaning, or because I was mentally prepared, I don't know, but what I saw when I went into that house, was anguish and despair. I noticed the attempts at organization that couldn't be finished because of all the stuff that they had. And what I felt was compassion and a desire to help them get to a point where they could feel like they could keep their house in a better state.
The gratitude that this family had when we were done...I mean, there was a lot of emotion there, and I was glad that I could be a part of that.
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