Service is Fun!

Saturday, we went with the Missionaries from our zone to Eisenhuttenstadt for a service project. Della, one of our YSA's,  grandmother needed help in her yard to get it ready for winter.  Della's grandmother is not a member of the church and mostly does not like Mormons, but she likes the missionaries.  We arrived about 930 after a 1 1/2 hour  train ride.  We were served breakfast of hot tea (herbal) and little sandwiches.  We then were given assignments.  Dan and I had to convince her that we liked gardening, she thought we should just watch.  I was given the assignment to rake all the walk ways, over 100 yards of them and gather up the leaves and take them to the compost area.  Dan and the Elders cut down tree limbs, moved rocks, pulled some weeds, and trimmed some bushes.  The Sisters were assigned to dig out a couple of plants and trim the bushes in another part of the garden.  Her garden was big!  It was about 5x as big as our backyard at home.  Dani, you would have loved it.  There was a pond, grass areas, plus lots of individual garden areas filled with trees and plants.  The weather was perfect for gardening.  It was cool, but sunny.  It was great working outside in the garden again.  It is funny the things you miss.  We worked for about 4-5 hours and then it was time for lunch.  Della's grandmother is from Poland so she fixed us a polish meal of wurst and white cabbage.  Surprisingly, the cabbage was quite good.  It had cabbage, peaches, ginger root, onions, and some bits of meat in a sweet and sour sauce.  We also had apples and pears from off her trees which were mighty tasty.  She then served a piece of apple cake made from apples off her trees. We were full after eating.  "Ich bin zot!"  We then took the long train ride home, tired but happy.  Della told me that her grandmother's heart was softening towards the church because of service by the Branch members and the missionaries.   That is a good thing since Della will be going on a mission after the first of the year.