I Sure Don't Know Why, But Somebody Else Does

Every once in awhile I have an experience that reminds me that God knows the needs of his children. For example, on my mission, my companion Smitty (Sister Smith, that is) and I had the opportunity to go way out to a little village to teach a first discussion. Problem was, the woman was more interested in showing us her farm and her home than listening to ANYTHING we had to say. She gave each of us a bag and as we toured her gardens she hacked vegies of the vines and handed them to us. Most of them we didn't even recognize. Random unidentified vegies. After our bags were nearly brimming, she took us inside to the cellar pantry and gave us bottles of fruit, sourness (a cabbage concoction resembling saurkraut), and more vegies. She gave us an enormous frozen chicken from the freezer and then asked us if we needed more food. We were quite speechless! I mean we'd been trying to teach a discussion and had been shot down so many times our words basically left us. And there we were with our arms full of food that we had no idea what to do with. We'd already been in the village for 2 hours and needed to get back to civilization so we could meet up with our next appointment. So we thanked the woman for her generosity and high tailed it back to Debrecen.



We got to town and didn't have time to ditch the grub at our apartment, so we just took it with us to Margit Neni's house. This woman, Margit, had already committed to be baptized but we had never been in her home. When we saw the conditions she lived under, we were amazed and humbled. She was an 83 year old widow, living alone in a home with no electricity and no running water (keep in mind that Hungary is not a third world country so this kind of poverty was not wide spread). She lived on a very small retirement pension and had scarcely enough money for food. She told us this apologetically as she welcomed us to her 2 room home.



Suddenly it dawned on us why we had "wasted" our whole morning in the village collecting food we didn't know what to do with. We had been on the Lord's errand. We handed Margit the food and she burst into tears. Heavenly Father had known exactly what his daughter needed.



Today I had a similar experience. I had been feeling lately that I need to seek more opportunities for service, so I signed up in Relief Society to take dinner to a family in the ward. I spent this morning planning the menu and running to Walmart, then after school I cooked up an ENORMOUS pot of soup. Huge. I don't really know why I kept adding broth and vegies and noodles to it (maybe I was just hungry?) but I ended up with a large quantity of Italian Sausage Soup.



The family I was taking dinner to only consisted of a husband and wife, so I ladled up a generous portion, along with some artisan bread and chocolate cupcakes and took it over. But as the Mags and I were walking back home, our next door neighbors Camie and Ashton pulled in. Ashton is one of Maggie's favorite people so she ran over to smile in his 4 year old face while I talked to Camie. I just love Camie. I asked her how she was feeling with her pregnancy and she said she'd been having some strange pains and it really hurt her even to walk. I told her how sorry I was and asked if there was anything I could do. She said she'd let me know. But as I crossed my lawn I thought, "Duh, sister. You could take her dinner so she doesn't have to walk around her kitchen in pain." So I did. Since I'd made so much by "complete accident." Camie couldn't believe it and she said it was just what she needed.



A huge pot of soup or a bag full of vegies may just be the thing another one of God's children needs. I'm not telling these stories to illustrate how great I am. That's not it at all. But to show you that even a frustrated missionary or an overwhelmed housewife can help God's work in a small way. He could meet the needs of the world without us, but luckily he lets us help.