Rampant volunteerism

     I have expressed numerous times how blessed I feel to be a member of a hardworking family. My parents both gave countless hours to every community of which they were ever a part. They were not reluctant to sweat or get dirty or give generously to others. The LDS Church is like that, too. Granted, there are some members who may not be quite as giving of themselves as others, but those who are active members are truly endeavoring to follow our Savior in sacrificing time, talents, and energy to benefit others. Pageant season here in Nauvoo is pretty torturous for missionaries serving here. Temple missionaries are all assigned 40 hours a week in the temple. Site missionaries work at least that much if not more. In addition, site missionaries participate in evening shows and are frequently seen in the temple doing ordinance work. Temple missionaries volunteer to help with the shows, pageant, and some even work as site missionaries a few hours a week. During the month of July when the baptistry was starting at 4 am and temple workers were putting in long hours, they logged 600 hours total (just the ones they actually logged in for) helping in the laundry. Nobody asked anybody to do this. People here look for things to do to be helpful and do it.
     Russ and I never feel better than when we are helping somebody do something. We spent a year traveling around the country several years ago doing all we could anywhere we went. There should be pictures on earlier  blogs. This past Monday I didn't get pictures but we spent the day in a barn about an hour from here. It's a 100-year old barn with a roof held up by tree trunks. The posts are actual full trees that just had the branches cut off. Over the years it has been used for cattle but now only houses 4 horses. The base of the trees was buried deep in the ground, deeper now than at the beginning after a build-up of years worth of manure. The bases are all rotting and starting to cause the roof to cave in. We met the owner of the barn when working in the temple laundry. She works there during the busy pageant season. When we told her we were looking for things to do and weren't interested in just entertainment, she told us about her project. Her 83-year old dad has been helping her. They had managed to get 2 posts repaired but had 2 more to go. We dug around the posts, screwed braces into them which we supported by piling whatever pieces of concrete block or boards available, sawed off the rotting bottoms of the tree trunks, dug a deep hole below each post then jacked the post back up to where it needed to be to hold the roof level. Then we added whatever bracing needed to hold it at the right height and using a come-along moved the post to the right plumb line vertically, removed the jack and poured a concrete post to hold up the tree post. The dad and daughter were delighted with our fast progress. It had taken them nearly a day to do each of the other two posts but we were able to complete 2 posts in 3 hours with Russ and me helping. We were sweaty, dirty, but exhilarated to have accomplished something much more worthwhile than watching a movie or reading a book. This desire to help and work hard is my favorite heritage from my parents- next to loving my family, of course.