Ouch, he stung me!

Our neighbors went to France for the whole month of July. That is were she is from and her parents live there. We watered their veggie garden and flowers while they were gone. Since they were going to be gone a month and by the time they got home their grass would be 6 weeks long, I decided to surprise them by mowing their lawn while the kids pulled weeds. The kids did a great job at pulling the weeds, but were glad when they were done. Brenton also helped my weed whip around their yard. Jon was off working, but when he got home he helped with the blowing and the last bit of mowing.

While I was mowing I felt a sting on my calf. Sure enough there was a swarm of bees flying up from the ground. They had their home in the grass under ground. You can't really tell from the picutres but my calf was huge as well as my foot. Luckily it was summer and I could wear flip flops. I could barely put on and tie my running shoes. I felt like I had an elephant foot and I could feel my skin stretching and my circulation being cut off. What fun!!!

The neighbors were very happy and surprised when they pulled in 3 days later to a nicely mowed lawn. He was not looking forward to mowing the jungle.

This whole act of service happened at the most perfect time. When my neighbors first left my first thought was, why the heck didn't they mow their lawn before they left for a month. After all, it has already been 2 weeks and really need to be mowed now. I'm not doing it since they didn't care to do it before they left neither do I. Then a few days later my thoughts changed to I should mow their lawn. And a few days later my thoughts were yeah I will surprise them by mowing their lawn and I can even get the kids involved and make it a family effort. They can pull weeds while I mow the lawn. Then I started to get excited about it and couldn't wait till the day came when we as a family could do some service for our neighbor. After I decided all this, I was given 2 topics to choose from for a talk I had to give 3 weeks later. The first one was something on testimonies and the second one was on Selfless Service. I knew the second after I read these topics that I was going to choose Selfless Service. So on August 9 I gave my talk on selfless service. There are benefits to living in a large ward. People are always moving in and of course moving out. This is the second talk I have given since moving into this ward 6 years ago. My last talk was over 5 years ago. I was so glad that just a week before I had decided I was going to perform some selfless service for our neighbors before getting this topic. I only wish I didn't start out with such a negative feeling but am happy as the days went on that all changed. I really enjoyed all the research I did on this topic. I am also thankful for Beth Soelberg who had the most perfect quote to end my talk with. She posted it on her blog 1 week after I got my topic. I had the most comments on that quote. I also had someone call me on the phone that evening to tell me what a great job I did and that she really needed this reminder and love the ending quote. So here is ending quote to my talk.

I Really Lived
"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking the kids to Scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." - Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Thanks Beth