We always have opportunities to serve no matter where we live – there is community service, charity organizations, shelters, Red Cross . . . the list goes on. When I lived in Salt Lake I would put in hours of service in various church projects such as the pasta plant, the dairy, the bishops storehouse, the cannery and Deseret Industries (2nd hand thrift store) to name a few. I lived within minutes of those buildings. In Oregon we are located one and a half hours south of the nearest storehouse and one and a half hours north of the pear farm which I have mentioned in a few of my posts.
When I was attending church in my son’s
ward in Utah there was an announcement made for volunteers to clean the Jordan
River Temple which I have learned is the busiest temple in the world. I felt impressed to volunteer if I could and
offered my services. I had assisted in
cleaning the temple two times before and enjoyed having that experience.
I bore my testimony in their ward and
meant to put in a plug for how fortunate the members were to have temples so
near to them but also be able to volunteer to work at a large variety of places
sponsored by the church. But when I
returned home I was reminded of a service that I don’t think most members have
the opportunity of doing and that is feeding the full time missionaries.
Missionaries in Utah are over stakes and I don’t believe are given the same opportunities for really getting to know the members the same way as those that serve in single ward boundaries as opposed to stake boundaries (see here for LDS language on what ward and stake mean) especially small wards (or branches) as missionaries are able to eat with members regularly. When Richard and I lived in Kearns Utah we did have the missionaries over more than the average as we were the ward missionaries at the time.
Pros
and Cons
