The Blessings of Service

I have been serving in the Draper Temple as a volunteer housekeeper for almost 3 years.  I have been pondering if its time to be done or if I want to continue volunteering.  I enjoy it so much, but I've been having some weird issues with my back and sometimes the bending and lifting can be difficult - and cleaning in long sleeves and in a dress - I sometimes sweat my guts out - which is just lovely.  Today was no exception, but I just had the sweetest experiences.  I was just leaving the baptistry bathrooms, with the steam from the showers in there, I was pretty misty.  A cute Baptistry temple worker stopped me and asked me what my job was.  I told her all the things we do...and she said "I noticed you are sweating - and its cold in here.  I'm freezing."  I explained I just had been in the steamy bathroom and she nodded - and said - "your job sounds so appealing to me.  To have so much to do.  Sometimes we just wait for someone to walk by to direct them."  I told her that my committee is always looking for more volunteers and she said..."I don't know if they would have me, I just turned 80 - and I'm sometimes not as alert as I need to be."  I told her she was amazing to be there at all and went on my way.  I began to think about how she would rather have my job, and how she saw the value of being busy in the Temple in the very specific way that I get to be, and I began to appreciate what I get to do there in a way I hadn't before.

An hour later I was in the ordinance workers dressing room bathroom emptying the trash and another temple worker who I had passed several times throughout my cleaning, stopped to chat with me and she looked at me and noticed the sweat on my face and grabbed a tissue and came toward me.  I reached up to take the tissue and she shook her head - and said "you just stand there and breathe" - and she proceeded to wipe my face with such love and said - 'take a minute and just stand here'.  I had to fight the lump in my throat from her kindness.  I sometimes feel invisible in my life.  I live alone. I'm self employed.  I have a lot to do, and often not a lot of people around me.  I often feel like I'm just working alone, sweating life on my own.  This sweet sister saw me, she looked at me.  She appreciated my service, and just loved me for a minute, and how sweet it was!

I just felt so loved at the Temple today.  I felt known and appreciated.  I felt less worried about how much I sweat, or the strain in my back than ever before.  I felt like I had an important work to do.  I am so grateful to have such an assignment.