Last summer was our first summer here and I was impressed with how fruitful this area can be. It was fun to watch the growth of the farmer’s fields and to see so many successful gardens in my neighbors’ and friends’ yards. It was fun to grow a few plants of our own. But what we grew was nothing like what Sister Rose Countrymen grew. Her backyard was full of many healthy growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs, including raspberry plants. She had mentioned that she needed help picking raspberries. So I gathered my buckets and my family and we headed to Rose’s house to help her pick raspberries. I wasn’t quite prepared for what we saw. There were rows and rows of raspberry bushes! Each bush was bursting with red, ripe, juicy raspberries. I got to work picking, happy to be there with my children and to be of service to Rose. I can see why she needed help picking. Once you start picking raspberries, it’s hard to stop because you keep finding the hidden ones and soon you get lost in the bushes hunting for every hidden red raspberry there is. After a while, our buckets were full and Rose was sweet enough to let us take them all home with us!
My family and I had gone there to help Rose with her garden, but in the end we were the ones who were blessed the most. We left her house not only with buckets FULL to the brim of raspberries, but with happy hearts. We took those raspberries home. We washed them, we threw some of them in the freezer and we made jam with the rest. The jam is since gone, but we are still enjoying the taste of the frozen raspberries and are reminded of how, when we serve others, we’re really the ones being blessed. Just as our buckets were full of raspberries after serving Rose, each of us can have the experience of filling our spiritual buckets when we serve others.
Sacrament Meeting Talk: March 19, 2017