Mormon Helping Hands - Ives Run, PA

Just dropping in to share a few photos from our fun Mormon Helping Hands/Stake service day last Saturday.  Our Stake President has been having us do these things for about four years or more on a yearly basis, and they've really become a highlight.  Guy has helped before, but this year, all of the kids were able to join in the fun, including Honor, who was strapped to Steve's back.

It was a beautiful day, as we raked, trimmed, and cleaned up a park/reserve area.  The kids worked really hard, and we all felt a happy sense of accomplishment, of usefulness, and of teamwork.  

There was a lot of opportunity to appreciate the beauty of God's creations.

...and to make new friends.

Afterward, some of the kids splashed around in the nearby lake to cool off, and we made it out of there just before a rather violent hail storm hit!

It was funny, because a sister from the another ward came over as we were watching the children wading, and she said, rather frantically and urgently, "Hey, there is rain coming in.  You guys should get out of the water."  

For a split second, I was like, hmmmm, she's really intense.  I mean, it was a beautiful, sunny day.  But when I looked in the direction that she indicated, I could see that in the distance there was some heavy rain or something coming.  

So I said, 'Yes, everyone get out now and let's get in the car."  We barely made it into the van before the hail hit, and it was pretty bad.  We were blinded for a few minutes, before we could start our journey home.  We watched shingles being ripped off of the picnic gazebo we had been eating under minutes earlier, and Guy actually left in such a rush that he left his only pair of tennis shoes on the dock (we think~!)

It kind of got me thinking, as I started writing this, about how valiant and quick we are to answer the call of people who have our interests in mind...people like, say, the Prophet and other church leaders.  That woman was really no one to me, but she knew something that I didn't, and she was kind enough to warn me...and her warning helped my children and I to get to safety.  There wasn't time to hem and haw about what she had said, there was just one moment of decision: to follow or not.

I am thankful that we answered the call of our Stake President to serve that day, and for the opportunity that this experience gave me to be reminded of a simple, yet powerful truth.