Serving in Quarantine

 Most quarantine rules have been lightened throughout the United States.  Things (and people) are slowly trying to get back to normal.  But leading up to where we are was difficult for many.  I fear the repercussions the length of the quarantine has and will continue to have on our economy.  I'm not saying it should have been done another way (because there still is so much that we don't understand about the virus to really know what the right thing to do is), I just fear the repercussions.  Like, how is all this social distancing going to affect depression and the need to be around other human beings?  Is it going to make already introverted people want to continue to distance themselves from others even more?  I guess I could go on and on with my questions but ultimately, what has happened has happened.

But I did try to control what happened in our little world as much as I could.  Though I definitely could have done better (like not sleeping as much as I did) it was important to me that I continued to serve people around me.  

Soon after the state of Utah started to shut things down, I wanted to give something to the people still working so that the rest of us could eat and get the supplies we needed in our homes.  So much attention was on the health care workers on the front lines taking care of those who were dying from the virus.  And rightfully so.  But I wanted the people working at places like Wal-Mart to know that their jobs were important too and that we needed them.  So I put together bags of mints, with the saying below, together to hand out at our Wal-Mart in Lindon.

It really is a joyful experience to witness people's faces light up when they receive something they were not expecting.  We had some left over so we took the treats to some local stores nearby that were still open.

I have a friend who is going through Chemo and so I have left little notes in front of her home, every few weeks, like this.  "No Hair, Don't Care" is one of her favorite sayings.  I still haven't told her it is us and I don't plan to.

 I did, however, want Russ and Carolyn Hansen to know that we wanted to see them very badly while we were visiting in St. George but couldn't because of the virus.  So we left this message in chalk ( by their home) and they sent this picture back with the rocks spelling out "xo" -hugs and kisses.

I have continued to be active in my calling (with the help of my teaching partner) by leaving a goodie or activity, every week, with the children in my primary class that I teach.

I have sent letters to old friends with life savers inside (with the above picture on a sticker that I put on them), I have brought over donuts to the families that David and I minister too, we have made sure that friends who don't have the priesthood in their homes can still get the sacrament, and I have left notes and goodies in secret.  When I started all of this, I wanted to be a good example to my boys and I wanted others to not feel isolated.  But it turned into something almost selfish!  I found myself needing to stay active and just wanted to find more and more ways of getting out and letting people know that they were not forgotten.