A fabulous service project and other uplifting things this week

Every year in April, each ward in our stake is supposed to sponsor a service project. Due to some last-minute cancellations, Marriner and I found ourselves brainstorming possible options last Saturday for a project scheduled for the next Saturday. Not an ideal situation, I know. We thought of a cemetery a mile and a half from our house on a little postage stamp of land, sandwiched between Aldi, the post office and the school bus lot. The cemetery is pretty much abandoned, and thoroughly overgrown. I didn't know it was there until one time I walked from Aldi to the post office and noticed it. By some good luck, the internet told us which church had originally owned it, and we even happened to have a friend in that congregation. Marriner called, found the person who gave us permission to clean the cemetery up, and emails were sent telling everyone to bring their mowers and weed-eaters.

 Meanwhile, I'd observed that mowing a field that probably had poison ivy in it wasn't really kid-friendly, and emailed the other moms in the branch, asking if anyone wanted to have a kid project at the same time. So while the dads and big kids went to hack their way through the jungle, the little kids stayed home and made muffins and colored thank-you cards. When the muffins were done, we took some over to the cemetery workers, then we delivered the rest to the fire station just down the road. The fire man in the station clearly understood his role as a community ambassador, and graciously invited the kids in, gave them a tour of the fire truck, and thanked them warmly for their kindness. The kids felt great! (Which goes to show what a powerful thing accepting service can be...hmm...there's a great little side-lesson for me!)

We returned to the cemetery and found a night-and-day transformation. It wasn't exactly pristine, but at least it was kempt. But the coolest part was seeing everyone dusting off a dirty headstone. It had been knocked over and buried under the grass for who knows how long. Someone had found a hidden headstone, and after that, the kids used shovels and pitch forks to poke into the ground, listening for the "thunk" of rock. When they'd find one, they'd dig it out, get the grown-ups to lift it up, then wash it off a bit. The last one they found was over 100 years old, with these words inscribed on the bottom: "Gone but not forgotten." Pictures were taken for Find-a-grave and Billion Graves, and we hope that this person will be remembered in even more ways. Everyone admitted to being a little touched to see these people remembered in a small way. In another instance, Brother Spanbauer finished a section, then felt like he should go back, mowed a little more, and found another little grave. It was wonderful to feel the influence of the Spirit as they worked. As everyone finished up, Ellis and Lillian picked dandelions and buttercups and put them on top of the headstones. "Gone but not forgotten."

The little things that combined to make this such a touching service project are too many to be listed: finding a contact for the cemetery so quickly, good traffic, beautiful weather, with the rain holding off until we were done, nobody coming down with poison ivy, even though there was plenty in the area...we felt the hand of the Lord over and over again. I don't know why He particularly wanted this project to succeed, but I know it blessed and lifted my spirit, and I'm grateful for it!

On Sunday, we invited all the branch Young Adults over to watch the Worldwide Devotional. Not so long ago, we were the Young Adults, and we remember how great it was to be invited to the Bishop's house. So even though we have a little house with lots of crazy kids, we decided to invite them anyway. We had ice cream before, and had a great time chatting, then watched the devotional. It was about marriage. Marriner and I had a great time. It was pretty enjoyable to us to sit back and enjoy not being in that phase of life any more :) The talk was wonderful, and after the devotional the YSA's started asking us questions about how we decided to get married. It led to a whole big follow-up devotional (Q & A format) from President and Sister Merrill :) It was neat to be able to be a living testimony of how great an eternal family is, and to support what Elder Cook taught by our example. We were very glad we had invited them over. And I'd like to give Lige credit in the permanent record - as the devotional started, we asked him to put away the ice cream and toppings, so it wouldn't melt. We came back and found the kitchen cleaned to a sparkle. What a sweet act of service!

In Sacrament meeting earlier that day, Sam and Lillian had shared their testimonies. Lillian was trying to encourage Sam to not poke her all through sacrament meeting, and convinced him to go share his testimony instead. She helped him practice what he wanted to say, then he showed it to me. But when he got up, he was nervous and a little jumbled. We asked the YSA's if they'd been able to understand what he'd said. "Ummm...about half" was the answer. Which is pretty good - that's as well as he would have been understood in English, too! Then they added, "But Lillian - she sure has some flair!" "Lige, he seems like a very serious signer." Yeah, they nailed their personalities just perfectly!

So, that's the week in a nutshell! Now Marriner (who is reading over my shoulder) is telling me to go to bed, so I'll talk to you all next week!