Yesterday we were asked to forgo our Sunday meetings and participate in a day of service, cleaning up our community from the mess of Thursday's wind storm. Gary came home from a Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting just before 8 am and told me what we had been asked to do. Our Stake President, through instruction from the area authority, and from an Apostle had deemed the the cleanup of the debris from Thursdays storm necessary since the forecast was for more high winds and snow...... without the clean up the possibility of more damage and danger loomed. The task was massive. But we had been asked by our priesthood leaders to get to work and prepare, so we got to work and prepared.......I thought of Pres. Hinckley's story about preparing so that he could sleep when the winds blew.....
Yes, many had cleaned up their fallen trees, but there was so much more to do. We were told by the city that we could place the cut up debris on the curb for pick up this week, and there were piles of stuff everywhere...... So, now we had another problem, if the winds materialized as forecast, the danger would be from the flying branches, not just the falling trees.....just think how fun that would be in 100 mph winds?
Anyway the day of service was long and hard and wonderful. Everyone working together, the old and the young, men and women. There were the organizers, the lifters, drivers, choppers, sweepers, cooks and more. Family and friends working together. There was a little five year old with us who was helping as best he could and then he discovered a bunch of pine cones and began his collection..... We had to remind the older guys that they were older..... And some of the younger guys we had to tell them to stop when the debris removal turned in to basic yard work..... The women came through with food. The Mormons in action were truly a sight to behold....think ant hill or beehive and you can see the busyness of the day......During the clean up there were several times that we waited in line because of the number of people helping just to fill a truck with tree branches.....the scene of waiting in line was also evident at the landfill and other debris drop off locations.... Hayden said at 9:30am at the landfill there were around 50 trucks and trailers entering the dump and at his second go, about an hour later he stopped counting at over 350 vehicles waiting. The line up was out of the landfill, along the frontage road and backed up 500 south.
It is true many hands make light work.
By 5:00pm we were all tired and sore. The City had called all day and the final call was to tell us to wrap things up and be done by 6:00pm. Gary, our ward organizer did a sweep through the ward to make sure we had cleaned everything up... check, it all looked good. The last dump loads were on the way to the landfill for the last time....yes, Hayden was there again for the who knows how many times.... While at the dump Hayden and the Calder boys noticed our Bishop in an other area, he looked like he was looking for something, he was. He realized that he didn't have his phone. The last time he remembered having it was early in the day at the dump. He was looking in the area he remembered dumping his load in. The boys jumped in to help, carefully moving tree debris and calling his phone and listening for it. They were ready to call it a loss when they decided to try calling one more time....
They dialed and were quite but couldn't hear anything; however Hayden could feel a vibration beneath his foot, he gingerly stepped away and there it was the Bishops phone, in working order.
By 6:00pm we were all tired and sore and the fore casted storm had been down graded a whole lot......The thought came to me what if the storm doesn't happen, why did we work so hard and forgo our Sunday meetings? How many people are going to be complaining about the necessity of the effort? However I knew that it didn't matter if the storm happened or not, the important thing was that we were obedient to our priesthood leaders. That we took the time to prepare when we were asked to prepare....great lessons to be taught and learned.....
In the end the storm came through, later than foretasted. It was a wimpy thing, but when you have recently experienced 100 mph winds, 30 to 50 mph winds pale in comparison. No trains circling my home last night and we all slept well; not only because of the lack of howling, but because we knew we had been faithful and obedient. We had prepared, so we could sleep when the winds blew.
MCC
p.s. for those who care or read my blog and also my sisters blog..... I guess we must be related and think a lot of the same thoughts.
And just so as not to be confused....I began writing my thoughts early this morning, but didn't finish. When I remembered I hadn't finished or posted it was nearly midnight. So the event discribed took place on Sunday December 4, 2011.
