I have never worn one of these yellow vests before.
Neither have I. Isn’t it great?
The young sister missionary and I looked at each other and laughed. We didn’t know that being on a mission in the Cebu Philippines mission meant that we would be one of those wearing the famous yellow “Mormon Helping Hands” vests. It felt good.
The day was hot; after all, it is summer in the Philippines. The Toledo Branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had promised to dig holes to plant tomatoes and guava trees and to pull out weeds from a large area for future planting. I watched the tomato planting and my mouth watered for a nice fresh red ripe juicy tomato. The shovels were all in use, so some sisters and I moved to the weed patch. It was covered with a flowering, vining plant very similar to the morning glory |I have continually fought in our yard at home.
We pulled and chopped at the weeds. Sweat dripped off us as we piled up the weeds to form a long roll across the patch. We moved about halfway down the slope before we were called to take a water break and pose for pictures.
Sister Hall, are you ready to go?
We had promised to be in Cebu City by noon to pick up an Area Auditor and bring him back to conduct church audits for the next three days in the Toledo area. The young missionaries needed to get back to apartments to do their morning studies and we had promised them a ride. We made our apologies and started our trip.
When we stop to think about it, everything we do is really service. Only sometimes we also get to wear a yellow vest.