Ministering

I love the recent change in the Church that does away with visiting and home teaching and now focuses on ministering.  While the Relief Society made that focus change at the beginning of the year, I appreciate that it has become a Church-wide initiative for all members.  Kent has always been good at ministering, I've tried to be good at ministering, and I'm wanting the children to learn early to be good ministers.

On Wednesday, I got ambitious and made bread.  I don't do it very often because it always seems like a production, but I pulled out the recipe from Camme Cox I've had for years, and gave it a go.  I mixed everything up in the Kitchen Aid, set it out to rise, did some other stuff as it sat on the counter, formed it into loaves after an hour or so, let it sit a bit more on the counter in loaf pans, then baked it.  It was all fairly simple and the results were terrific.  Four beautiful loaves of bread came out of the oven, one for us and three to give away.

Linda Pugmire had surgery on her shoulder on Monday, but she wouldn't let me bring her dinner.  What's the next best thing?  A warm loaf of bread.  Kent and Brandt had scouts, so Blythe and I wandered down to the Pugmire's house with our bread, to have a visit and see how surgery went.  Blythe likes the Pugmires, especially Taylor, so she came happily along.  We were with them for about half an hour, and then Blythe was ready to go.  

We had a second loaf to give to the Heiners whose two and a half year old granddaughter died last week and whose funeral was on a week ago Friday.  They had been in Michigan before the funeral, and I wanted to show them a bit of love.  The Heiners weren't home, but their daughter Kirsten, her husband Eric, and their three boys were home, outside playing in the yard.  We delivered bread to them and talked for a couple of minutes, then Blythe hit her talking tolerance level and asked if we could go.  We did.

As we began to walk home, Blythe asked, "Mom, why did we have to make visits tonight?  Couldn't you just have called people to talk to them?"

This is a great question and I wanted to give her a great answer.  "Blythe," I replied, "if you ever get the impression that you should give someone a call, you should do it.  That is a good way to keep in touch and see how people are doing.  But if you take time to put aside all the things you have on your To-Do list, it's even better.  Everyone is busy and everyone knows that everyone is busy.  We all have lots of things that need to be done.  So if you actually show up at someone's house to see them, they know that you are setting aside all your "to-dos" to be with them.  They know that you think they are more important than anything else you've got going on.  That's ministering in the way that Jesus did.  He made time for individual people, and we should, too."

We still had an extra loaf of bread sitting on the counter, and as we walked up the street, Blythe said, "What are we going to do with the last loaf of bread?  Can I give it to Sister Cutler?"  Elizabeth Cutler lives across the street from us, was Blythe's Primary teacher last year, and currently employs Blythe to help her dust and do other projects around her house once a week.  Elizabeth's mother is 97, in very poor health, but lives four hours away in Springdell.  Elizabeth has been spending every other week with her mother to give her sister some relief from caring for her mother.  It's been difficult for Elizabeth and Blythe recognized that.  I agreed that a loaf of bread to Sister Cutler would be wonderful, and she carried it over herself, making a little visit and doing her own ministering.  

Then this afternoon, Kent took Blythe for a scooter ride.  They were gone for quite a while, longer than I would have thought a scooter ride should last.  When they got back, Blythe came in and said, "Sorry we were so long.  Dad and I were ministering."

"Oh!" I replied.  "Who were you ministering to?"

"Saneh," Blythe said.  Saneh is a widow who lives around the corner with her somewhat mentally impaired son.  She loves Blythe and Blythe loves her.  "She was outside in the front yard," Blythe continued, "and we stopped to talk to her.  We invited her to come over and have mango ice cream with us tonight."  

We've been planning on having ice cream, so it was okay that she made the invitation.  In fact, it would have been okay even if I wasn't planning on making mango ice cream, because I love that she could see that Saneh needed an invitation to come to our house and visit.  She and Willy both came, along with the Pugmires, and we sat outside on the patio and talked as we enjoyed our ice cream.  It was a lovely evening, and I was delighted by our Blythe's sweet spirit.  She is learning she can be a positive influence on others and do good.  I'm going to continue having her minister with me so that when she turns fourteen and can be an official ministering sister, it will already be second nature to her.