Monuments and Melodies: Ladders, Weeds, Branches, Love.

SO MUCH STUFF THIS WEEK.

Hello there.

On Wednesday, we ended up having time that we didn't know what to do with. For some reason we were both more tired than usual, and we had an hour before dinner. So we decided to knock an area. Almost nobody was home, and if there were people home, they wouldn't answer the door or just shook their head at us through the window. We got back in the car and were sitting at an intersection, trying to figure out what on earth we could do. I looked out the window, and what did I see? (Popcorn popping on the apricot tr-- wait...) A man falling off a ladder.

In surprise, I said, "Sister Munson! A man just fell off a ladder!" We pulled over, hopped out of the car and ran over to him. His wife was standing over him and he wasn't moving, but when we called out to see if he was okay, she said, "Oh yeah, he's fine." He had been pulling dead branches out of the tree and reached for one to pull himself up with. Turns out it was just a hollow stick, and he tumbled down. Don't worry, he was okay.

We ended up talking to them for about 20 minutes, and they were both super nice and funny. Although we weren't able to set up an appointment with them, it was a miracle to actually have a good conversation with someone nice after a day full of rejection.

Thursday night we were planning for Friday and we had no idea what to do. None! We had hardly anyone to stop by, and we didn't want to go knocking in the morning, so we took a leap of faith and decided to wear our service clothes (aka normal people clothes) and find people to help with yard work. We knew that Heavenly Father would help us find people to help or talk to, and he did! On Friday morning, we picked a random street and drove there. As soon as we got out of the car we saw a woman and were able to talk to her about the Restoration of the Gospel. Down the road a little we were able to talk to an extremely nice family whose lives had been turned around by following Christ. Then we saw a woman weeding her garden, and we were able to help weed and plant flowers. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed us with the opportunity to talk with nice people and to testify to them!

On Saturday we were able to participate in the Mormon Helping Hands project in Lake Nockamixon State Park. Whoo! Not only did we get to wear the yellow vests, but a good 45+ people from the ward came and over 650 members across the state showed up at various sites to help clean up the parks. Our job was to pick up branches, and it was a lot of fun. At one point I saw Jackie, an awesome ward member, and in an attempt to run to her I accidentally ran into a bunch of thorns. It was so much fun, even if I do have a lot of scratches...

Later on Saturday night the Assistants to the President came and worked in our area for a coupld of hours. They were able to find two new investigators for us to teach, and they really helped us out so much! While Sister Munson and I were out, a man told us that his neighbor might need some yard work. We knocked on her door, and she threw it open and said, "Yeah? What?" (Yay, east coast!) I just responded with, "Your neighbor said you might need some yard work, so we'd like to help." She immediately softened and told us all about herself. We talked for about 20 minutes, and to put it mildly, this woman is very generous and I already love her so much.

What I learned this week is that charity really is the pure love of Christ, and everyone wants to feel that love. People who had no intentions of talking with us were softened by us just wanting to help. I can't even comprehend how much love the Savior has for each one of us, but I know that He love us so much and He only wants to help us.

I love all of you, and I can testify that our Heavenly Father loves us more than we can comprehend, and so does his Son, Jesus Christ. How grateful I am to know that!

Love,

Sister Singleton