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My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement,
our support, our comfort, our kindness be they family members, friends, acquaintances,
or strangers. We are the Lords hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve
and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us. You may lament I can barely
make it through each day, doing all that I need to do. How can I provide service for
others? What can I possibly do? Dozens and dozens of Primaries challenged the children
to provide service, and then those acts of service were recorded and sent to me. I must
say that the methods for recording them were creative. Many came in the form of pages put
together into various shapes and sizes of books. Some contained cards or pictures drawn
or colored by the children. One very creative Primary sent a large jar containing hundreds
of what they called warm fuzzies, each one representing an act of service performed during
the year by one of the children in the Primary. I can only imagine the happiness these children
experienced as they told of their service and then placed a warm fuzzy in the jar. One
small child wrote, My grandpa had a stroke, and I held his hand. From an 8-year-old girl
My sister and I served my mom and family by organizing and cleaning the toy closet. It
took us a few hours and we had fun. The best part was that we surprised my mom and made
her happy because she didnt even ask us to do it. An 11-year-old girl wrote There was
a family in my ward that did not have a lot of money. They have three little girls. The
mom and dad had to go somewhere, so I offered to watch the three girls. The dad was just
about to hand me a $5 bill. I said, ‘I cant take it. My service was that I watched the
girls for free. From a 4-year-old boy, no doubt written by a Primary teacher My dad
is gone for army training for a few weeks. My special job is to give my mom hugs and
kisses. Wrote a 9-year-old girl I picked strawberries for my great-grandma. I felt good inside!
And another I played with a lonely kid. From an 11-year-old boy I went to a ladys house
and asked her questions and sang her a song. It felt good to visit her. She was happy because
she never gets visitors. It takes someone beyond mere hired service, beyond institutional care
or professional duty, to thaw out the memories of the past and keep them warmly living in
the present We cannot bring them back the morning hours of youth. But we can help them
live in the warm glow of a sunset made more beautiful by our thoughtfulness and unfeigned
love. My brothers and sisters, may we ask ourselves the question What have I done for
someone today?