Grandma Roma's Week of Service

My Grandma would have been 100 years old on January 6th of this year. She passed away in 2007, but she was much beloved by all who knew her, so we continue to celebrate her life. When my grandpa's 100th birthday rolled around, the whole family had a week of temple service to honor him because he loved the temple. We wanted to do something similar for grandma.

As some of us got together to figure out how to honor her as a family, we discussed many different ideas, but her Christ-like service just kept coming to the top. She served her family, her friends, her neighbors, in the temple, and on and on. We decided on a family week of service. We announced it months early so that everyone could prepare, and one of my cousins even made magnets to remind us. All of Grandma's 9 children, 56 grandchildren, and over a hundred great-grandchildren got to participate.

During the week, we took time to honor Grandma through various forms of service. To inspire and encourage each other, we posted pictures and stories about our service in our family facebook page. It was such an amazing week! It is times like this when social media is really an asset to our lives.

Our little family did a few different things to celebrate her. We were pretty busy that week, so I was feeling stressed about what I could possibly do. After fretting about it for a while, I came to the understanding that service does not have to be big and grandiose, it just needs to be done out of love. On Monday, I sent a text to a friend who I had been thinking about. It was a simple text telling her how awesome I thought she was for learning to play the organ to give service to our ward. She responded with such a heartfelt thank you. I think it made both of us feel really good. It was a good lesson for me.

Next, I wanted to do something to serve our family. Jonathon had been frustrated that some forgotten areas of the house were messy (i.e. laundry room, closets, master bedroom, etc.), so I dedicated my day to tidying everything up. It took a lot of work, but he was so appreciative when I surprised him.

On Thursday, I took homemade bread and soup to my dear friend who is suffering through colon cancer and treatments. She has had a horrendous year with so many problems and trials. She is now in constant pain and battles depression daily. I didn't know how to help her, so I spent the previous day thinking and praying about what I could possibly do for her. I felt like the Spirit whispered to me that I needed to help her look outside herself and her current situation. As I was trying to think of different things that I could do to distract her from her pain and change her focus, I started creating a list of ideas in my mind. I thought of a few things like a craft project, watching movies together, going on a drive, and working on family history.

When I dropped off the food, she was worse than I imagined. Her hair was matted, she rocked from the pain, and her outlook on life was bleak. She has been through so much that I couldn't blame her, but I knew that it wasn't helpful. I sat and listened to her tell me about her struggles, and then I asked, "What can I do to help take your mind off all this and give you a reason for hope?" It was a direct question because I really wanted her to answer sincerely and not just shrug it off. To my surprise, she asked if I would be willing to help her with family history. It should not have been a surprise though because the Spirit had already prepared me for that very answer. Of course, I said, "Yes!"

Family history is an area where I actually feel pretty confident. I have written 3 personal histories (mine, an aunt's, and an uncle's). I have also done tons of scrapbooks, a children's book, and other family history projects. We sat and talked for two hours about the various projects that we could do. We decided the first step was to photograph all of her old pictures so that we could upload them to Family Search. After we finish that, we will put them into a book, and do some short video clips of some of her family stories.

In those 2 hours, her countenance completely changed. She was no longer moaning and rocking from the pain, and a light came back in her eyes. When I left, she was a woman who had been given a little bit of hope and a mission to complete. I do not take any credit for this because I had no idea what she needed or how to help. Heavenly Father was watching out for my dear friend, and He knew what she needed. This experience does not mean that life will suddenly be easy for her, but I hope that she felt that little tender mercy from a loving Heavenly Father.

Lastly, I wanted to get the kids involved in our week of service. I made a big batch of my mom's famous cookies, and each person chose someone to take cookies to. The kids delivered them to Primary teachers, and I took them to my ministering sisters. It was fun dropping them off with a ribbon that said, "In honor of Grandma Roma's 100th birthday."

I am thankful for the legacy of faith and service that has been passed from my grandparents to my parents to me. It was a fabulous week, and I felt so connected to my cousins, aunts, and uncles who were all serving together. At the end of the week, I had a thought come to me... "The world was a better place this week because of all this service. What a difference just a few people can make when they choose to be more like Christ!"

I hope that we can continue to have the spirit of service in our family because it really can improve the world, even if it is only in our small sphere. Christ went about doing good and so can we.