Ministering

Since last April General Conference, when President Nelson changed Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching to ministering, we have had many talks and direction given to us about what this means. We have noticed a real change in the way members are approaching this, and have seen the positive results from these changes. I would like to share one small example of the sweetness of this.

  On Halloween night, John and I were surprised to find trick-or-treaters knocking on our door. Since we have moved twice in the last five years, and have lived in area’s where it is hard for kids to go trick-or-treating at, we have not had any of them visit us. I guess we had just gotten out of the habit of preparing for them, and on this Halloween we were very surprised at that first door knock and the smiling “ghouls” that confronted us with their outstretched bags.

Of course we were delighted, and while John asked them what their “trick” was, I scrambled to find candy to give them! We had not planned for this, but luckily, I had a small stash that we would take to the homes of the children we have been doing Family Home Evenings with these past few months. However, we ended up getting so many kids that night, that I had to dig out two bags of plastic, candy filled Easter eggs we had not used last April, and then threw those into the Halloween candy bowl! The kids didn’t mind. I think they thought it was a very intriguing thing to get on Halloween, and all of them that saw the eggs, picked one out!

My ministering story: We got a knock on the door and there was one, sweet little girl,  trick-or-treating all by herself. She was dressed in red, and carried a devil’s staff with her. She very timidly said, “Trick or treat”.

“Okay, what is your trick”, John asked. The girl got a stricken look on her face and said, “I don’t have one.” We could instantly tell that she thought we would not give her any candy, and she was very embarrassed. Before we could say anything else , a young boy at the top of our driveway yelled out, “It’s okay, I will do a trick for her!”

I laughed and said, “Of course!”  He then proceeded to do some kind of wiggle-dancing thing and then waved at all of us. John and I  both realized that this young boy, of about eleven years old, did not want the girl at our door to not get her treat, and was doing his best to fill in for her. We  looked at the little girl and asked, “Do you know that boy?” She smiled and shyly said “no”. We gave her several treats, and she again smiled happily and went on her way.

This is a simple story, but it reminded me of the simple things we can do to minister to others. Little things we can do that are not hard, and yet can make another person happy and even feel loved. Love and service are the two things the Savior has stressed that we do as we strive to live his gospel and keep his commandments.

I love the joy these kids have in pretending and dressing up! To end with, here are a few of my Halloween pictures!