Hair Ties and Branch Presidents

I am an ordinance worker at the Provo Temple on Tuesday nights, and I love it! I love it for a good number of reasons. One is that I get to work on the same shift as my friend Coral and she is amazing, and funny, and beautiful! Another is that I love seeing all of the people who come to the temple. It is pretty amazing the amount of work that gets done in Provo. We are definitely a temple conscious people. One more reason is that I often run into people I know. This past Tuesday that exact thing happened and it was so great I decided it deserved a blog post.

I was downstairs in the temple, just before my shift, and my hair was driving me crazy. I really wanted to pull it up, but I didn't have a hair tie, so I went looking for one. They always have some in the baptistry so the girls can pull back their hair if they so desire so that is the place I went. I don't actually ever go their on my shift so I don't really know any of the workers who are there on Tuesday nights, or at least I didn't think I did. Well, I walked past a familiar looking gentleman on my way in and between my seeing him at first and me finding myself on my way out I realized that he looked familiar because I DID actually know him. It was my branch president from the MTC! I approached him and told him I remembered him and we chatted for just a few minutes and my little brain and heart were very happy to have seen a familiar and friendly face.

Then, yesterday I was at work and I got a phone call from this gentleman. He told me that he had gone home and told his wife that he had seen me at the temple so they pulled out their memorablia from when he was branch president and found a picture of my MTC district with the branch presidency from 2003. Then we just reminisced about the missionaries in my district and how our missions progressed after the MTC. He asked me a few questions about what I was doing now and we talked a little bit about our work in the temple. He mentioned how he enjoys working in the baptistry because many times the youth who come are coming for the first time and he gets to make a big deal out of them and the experience and help them to feel special. As I thought about him sharing his opportunities to "make a big deal" out of someone, I realized he really is the kind of man who does that for everyone. Those are the kind of people who amaze me! This man took the time to go home and talk to his wife about me. Then he took the time to call me and talk about experiences in the MTC and find out about my life now. This is the kind of person who I want to emmulate. Thanks President Woods for reminding me that simple acts of remembering someone or taking the time to let someone know you care can make a world of difference and it's something that I can do too!