Helping others feel loved

Week after week over the last several months I would notice that the missionary meal calendar was empty. Since the pandemic started, the missionaries are not permitted to eat with members inside or outside their homes. The only way to provide meals to the missionaries is to drop food off at their door. I guess that has affected the number of meals being provided. Both of the sisters had come to our ward as missionaries during the beginning of the pandemic and have not met many of the ward members at all in the months they had served in our ward. One of them was in the MTC at the start of the pandemic and was reassigned to Richmond instead of her original foreign assignment. 

Even the week of Thanksgiving their meal calendar was empty. On the day before Thanksgiving, I called the missionaries and asked if they had a Thanksgiving meal coming and it just wasn't on the online calendar and they said No. Our family was having Thanksgiving dinner on Friday (instead of Thursday) so I told them that I would bring them a full turkey dinner on Friday. I asked what each of their favorite dishes were for Thanksgiving and made sure to include it in our menu too. 

We delivered - turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, bacon apple brussel sprouts, stuffing, and corn casserole. Plus dessert of cheesecake bites and macaron cookies. 

After that meal delivery and talking to them a little bit, I decided for the season of service I was going to take them meals twice a week for the next few weeks. I asked them to let me know some meals that they love and either do not know how to cook themselves or would not make for just the two of them. 

Here is what their meals have been so far:

• copycat Café Rio (recipe) burritos with bottled root beer
• Pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, baked beans, roasted vegetables, and apple hand pies
• Homemade mac n cheese with toppings broccoli, kale, ham, bacon
• Christmas brunch (chocolate rolls, breakfast casserole)
• Baked rigatoni (no tomato since there is an allergy, so I made a roasted veggie pesto sauce) and salad
• No-bake cheesecake, homemade blueberry topping and cherry topping

We still have plans to deliver more meals. 

As I thought of specifically Charise during this season of service, she loves to make others feel special. I wanted to make sure that the sisters did not feel forgotten during this Christmas season and felt loved. I love to make delicious food and hope that others love it as well. 

As Chuck contemplated what he would do, he thought of the way that Bill so eagerly serves others in his ward and his community. When a member of our ward called Chuck to help install their new microwave, Chuck was excited to help them out. What he thought would be something simple, quickly turned into a project that required more extensive rebuilding of the cabinet, but he reported that he was happy to spend the day serving the family because he thought of Bill.