Serving Bree

Serving Bree. 

Excerpts from my journal (names changed)

I was at the library with some other missionaries when we received a phone call. When I pulled out the phone, the caller ID read “Bree.” I had no idea who that was at all. The phone had been passed missionary to missionary in the area. We got out of the library quickly and answered. Rapidly we heard her speaking quickly and frantically. I calmed her down and figured out what we could do to help. 

Bree had a U-Haul stuck in her driveway that she couldn't drive back since she didn't have a license. She was going to go to jail over it if it kept staying in her yard since she couldn't pay the fines. She didn’t know who to turn to for help, but she found our number in the phone from when some past missionaries had met her quite a while back. 

Experience had shown there would be more to it, so I got to planning. I felt that I needed to ask Chase and Karri, a young couple from church, to help out as well as a few other missionaries. I didn't know Chase and Karri well, but I felt they should help.

When we got there thankfully Karri was there as there was also a rambunctious grandchild that needed to be watched the whole time. To our great surprise we also needed to unload the U-Haul at the storage place into the smallest storage unit I have ever seen. I knew from the start that it wouldn't all fit. All of her stuff was in a mess in the back of the U-Haul since her neighbors showed little care in loading it for her when she first got the truck. 

Photo from we-ha.com

Furniture and clothes were everywhere in piles. Somehow we managed to arrange, rearrange, dissemble, and get it all pushed in barely. As we did that I noticed it was getting late for us to still be out. I looked at Bree and knew something. I may not have ever met her before, nor understood what had led her to her current predicament. I did know that she needed help and the few of us were the only people trying to help. I couldn’t leave her there until we had done all we could. This is what I want to be. 

When we got back to her place we said a prayer with her and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She was so grateful and expressed her desire to read it. It may not seem like much, but I have seen people learn how to access Jesus Christ’s power from his sacrifice by reading that book. I couldn’t change her life situation, but I could give her the key.

We talked with Chase about it and in light of the talks about service we had heard the past few days (here are those talks). He and his wife had been talking about needing to do more service and one day later I called them up. One blessing he noticed was that by serving others his worries seemed much less overwhelming. I was glad that we were able to help and give him a good experience.

I saw God’s hand moving us in position to serve for that very moment to help with something that seemed so small to us. He loves Bree and cares about her cares. This was something God cared about. His hand is always moving us around to serve his children.

"...the Lord will move us on that seeming chessboard to do His work" -Elder Ronald A. Rasband