Just doing a lot of Home Teaching ? Part V

6.      Some things that have provided us with a little diversion and a lot of fulfillment have been service projects that the ward has scheduled or that we have found on our own.

Every other year there is a big event at the fair grounds for the agricultural community. It is locally known as 3i. The three i’s stand for “Irrigation, Industry, and Implements“. Farmers come from as far as Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, etc. and the vendors come from even greater distances. A member of our ward has made a deal with the show producers to have our ward members come in at the end of each day to pick up trash and clean up the area. This is the way they pay for the expenses of their youth programs.

Because this is important to the ward, we decided we would help with the work, but because the agriculture business is so important in this area, we decided we also needed to go down during the time the show was open to learn more about the issues of concern to the agricultural community. It was a very interesting few hours. We saw lots of modern farm machinery – stuff we wouldn’t have even imagined might exist.

The irrigation systems that are essential to agriculture in this part of Kansas are visible to all who drive in the area (or fly over it), so that wasn’t really new. They were showing some refinements in the systems, though nothing changed the basic designs. (In an earlier posting in this series we showed some aerial photos from Google World that show these round irrigation circles.)

The most interesting thing we learned was that a lot of farmers devote a large share of their time to maintaining their equipment. Some of the most sophisticated displays were in connection with this maintenance work. We saw specialty tools that we had never imagined before. Farm automation is really big business, but the maintenance of all that sophisticated equipment is often handled by the individual farmers rather than manufacturers or repair businesses.




The skill levels of the farmers exceed all of our expectations, and are really worthy of very high regard. In this respect, the farming culture in Kansas rivals what we saw in Germany.

One really important area was with regard to welders. They had hundreds of different kinds of welders on display, and there were a lot of welding specialists willing to pass out information and literature about this important aspect of farm mechanics.

Truly, it is the agriculture industry that has the right to brag about their expensive vehicles “that cost more than a quarter-million dollars each and are only in use for two weeks a year.” It makes the Ferrari and Lamborghini owners look like selfish children just playing with expensive toys. The 3i show really taught us a lot of respect for the people here.

Things are big here, but this picture is a little deceiving.  The truck tractor is a miniature, but the tractor in the background is really big.  Note the man standing in the picture.

There have been other service projects too, and whether it is helping to haul bricks, paint picket fences (like Tom Sawyer), move a sister’s household into storage as she prepares for her “Internet-enabled wedding” (Boy! There are getting to be a lot of those nowadays !), or helping to weed a garden for a family that can’t do it themselves anymore – all such service activities give back in reward more than the effort put into them.

One of our activities that had a surprising effect on us was connected with Memorial Day. While we were in Germany we increased in our interest in cemeteries, and we have stopped at several here in Kansas. (Pictures in previous postings show some of the things we have studied in cemeteries.) Such places may give us one of the best opportunities we will get to study how people perceive themselves or other family members. The messages on tombstones are often very fascinating.  We are accquainted with the Catholic Asebedo family, and it is not surprising that they chose a picture of the Last Supper for the gravestone of the parents of the family.

Memorials to war veterans invoke strong feelings, including a respect for our country and the sacrifices that were necessary to establish and preserve it. Other tombstones, however, can also be very fascinating as the inscriptions are quite often very heart-felt.

With a little imagination, we can catch a tiny glimpse into someone else’s life, and it raises our estimation of all men and women in the process. It teaches us to look for the good in people, and bemoan the fact that most of the messages of the media nowadays focuses only on the bad.

We have also participated in projects with the Elders Moving Company and Box Collection Agency. Twice we have had our living room filled with boxes that we have collected to help a ward member who was preparing to move. We had a new family move in just a few streets to the East, and when we heard that they had emptied their boxes and were trying to get rid of them, Elder Howlett went to pick up some for another person who is preparing to move. We got into a conversation, and they wanted to know about our family and earlier missions. He left after a while, but came back with Sister Howlett to meet others of the family a little later, and the new sister confessed that the earlier conversation had convinced her that it was time for them to have another baby. I have no idea how that came to be the conclusion of the conversation, but the Lord must have planted the message. We now expect to be here in Garden City long enough to see another baby blessed in Church. (This week we finish the first 6 months, so we have another year in this assignment.)

We have made shopping trips to Goodwill to find clothes for a member who needed something to wear to church. Then there were projects to sew on buttons, put in hems, etc. Elder Howlett has even been involved in fixing sewing machines for members. Such service opportunities are fulfilling.

“And thus we see . . . ” that service is a two-way blessing.