In the Dark of the Night

Have you ever heard that song?  You know, the one from Anastasia?  Rasputin is the star singer? Anyway, it's funny and the actual song has nothing to do with what I am writing about but the title remains fitting.

There are a few --  just a few -- examples of heroes in what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declare as scripture that act during the late evening.  OK, so I am sure there are other examples too in the scriptures that I won't highlight right now but here are a few I find fascinating:

1. The Savior prays late into the night the evening of his capture prior to his trial and crucifixion.  He invites other heroes to join him in acting  late into the night through prayer - but they fall short and fall asleep. 
2. Teancum "steals privily" into the tent of an enemy during the midnight hour to end -- or at least postpone -- an invading army from breaching home lands.  Everyone in his own army is asleep and everyone in the invading army is also asleep when this act occurs.  He did this at the end of a long day of brutal physical combat.  I can only imagine how tired he must have been. 
3. Captain Moroni goes to examine enemy movements in a fallen city once the night falls.  Still during the night, after a long march his own troops made, he require that they build ladders and cords and to sneak into the enemy infiltrated city while they sleep.  When the enemy awoke, they were so scared, they all ran away, and Moroni recaptured the city without a single person in his army dying.  

 I wanted to share a little story from someone who gets it.  Someone who would do something just like those heroes mentioned above. Let me give you one example from his life that illustrates this. Lets call him Jerry.   I was driving home with him one night.  It was late at night and I had an early class the next morning.  I was exhausted from the day's efforts.  Jerry told me he needed some help jumping his friend's car.  She had left it in a nearby town after the battery died when she was getting gas on her way to work that morning.  I told him I needed to go home but that  I would help him if he could get the keys from this girl right then and we could go right away.  He tried to reach her, and found out she was busy spending time with some family because they had just had a death in the family. The poor girl must have had one heck of a day.  They were about an hour drive away.  Jerry took me home and he told me he would just wake up in the morning and go jump the car.  

However, the next morning I found out after Jerry dropped me, he waited for a few more hours till he could obtain the girls keys and then he and another friend went out suuuuper late at night/morning to get the car back in working order.  

Now, I was exhausted that day.  I could hardly face going to help her if we even had the keys around midnight.  But lets think about Jerry.  And also his friend?? What in the world.  What saints, right?  Waiting up, getting the work done that needed to be done in a timely fashion.  They are heroes.  Exhausted, stressed, also needing to wake up early, but they still got it done.  The next morning the girl was so grateful. She didn't know how she was going to get to work that morning and I am sure she couldn't face figuring it out that night before she went to bed after spending a long time with her grieving family members.  

The world is filled with a lot of good. I want everyone to realize that.  Bad things happen, people make bad choices sure, but the world is FILLED WITH GOOD.  It's about time you open your eyes to see it.  And if you can't do that then open your heart and DO IT yourself.  

Better than Hakuna Matata?

I woke up this morning and I honestly did not think that I would be doing any significant secretive service today. I just started another semester of college this week, and between my 16.5 credits and 2 part-time jobs I have been stressed and frazzled trying to get everything done that I needed to.  But that is exactly why I love DAGTW.

 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

Let me tell you what I mean: 

I have been preeeetty stressed today. I have been putting off an assignment that I have been needing to do for the professor who employs me for a very long time.  I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.  So I left one of my classes early so I could spend the rest of my evening quietly hidden deep in my favorite and private study nook on campus.  

I left work at 1pm and everything went just as planned.  I had a great workout.  A little bit of a crossfit workout.  Nothing better. Actually  maybe a girlfriend would also be that nice but since I can't keep those around too long I'll stick with my bike and shoes for now.  (yeah, we broke up last night).  

- ANYWAY - 

I had been studying for more than 30 minutes when my phone rang.  It was from a nice girl I home taught in my previous ward.  She was stranded and needed a ride. I accepted and thought, "perfect, this counts as a good turn right?"  I thought for sure I would feel great about myself for serving and helping this friend of mine.  And I did feel great.  But it was not until I was driving my car talking with this girl that I realized I could do more.  I love serving, it is so fulfilling. People need help. A LOT. I need help A LOT.  This is how I get help, by doing things for others. And if I thought I had a terrible day, surely there were other students just like me who are feeling all the same pressures.  

With this, I remembered a classmate of mine - we have the same major and he is in most of my same classes this semester.  It's a good thing I like him because we sure do see a lot of each other. Today he was not himself.  He was absent from our presentation this morning and was late to our afternoon class.  At this later shift, he was absent minded and unfocused.  You could literally see the stress oozing out of him. OK not literally, I mean figuratively -- which I guess now is literally synonym of figuratively?  Bottom line: poor kid.  So, of course I could do something.  So I'm at the campus grocery store right now writing this in preparation to buy ingredients for a fruit salad.  And by ingredients I mean fruit.  Maybe I can write little phrases of praise to him on the fruit.  That would be kinda fun.  Hopefully it doesn't make the fruit taste like Sharpie though haha. 

I hope this inspires my friend to do something for someone.  Because honestly, that is the way to drop the stress.  "Forget yourself and go to work."  And right now that work is serving others.  So if any of you reading this, (all 1 of you), if you are as stressed as I am or my co-worker was today, if you want to get better, don't wait around for some ninja to anonymously bring you fruit.  Go and do something for someone else.  it'll work.  All your worries --- yeah forget about them.  They will go.  It's even better than Hanuka Matata.  

later skaters.

FAILURE

Don't you hate it when you plan something out in your mind and it is just sooo perfect only to find your mind highly overestimates your physical ability...  Even if you go over every fine detail and you think there is no way to go astray there is ALWAYS something to go astray.  So this has happened to me millions of times.  From building sand castles to planning out a perfect date -- my mind always gives me an unrealistic glimpse of what I hope to create.

Even though this has happened so much, each time I think of something new I think, "Oh, well in the past maybe my mind has led me wrong but oh no, this time -- yeah this time this will actually work."  Literally every time.  So the latest and the greatest story is from last week's attempt at DAGTW.

It all began when I developed a relationship with a good friend.  For the sake of remaining as anonymous as possible, we will call him Danny.  Danny is way cool.  Anyway so he has an iphone 6, and of course, the screen is cracked (if you knew "Danny," this would be no surprise).  I had noticed this every since I started hanging out with him.   I don't think it really bothered him too much, but every once in a while he would make mention of it ever so discreetly.  So.  I planned something big.  I found the least expensive professional iphone repair company and made an appointment to fix the screen.  But a secret service ninja can't just let his friend know what his plans are.  He would have to do it secretly.  And that is exactly what I planned on doing.  I knew Danny worked two jobs.  One on his university campus and the other at an office off campus but not far from his on-campus job. So here is how the story went in my overly-positive mind:

While Danny was going from job A to job B, I snuck into job B's office (wearing a disguise) to make a secret kishkumen-esque deal with his co-worker.  His co-worker readily agreed to distract Danny long enough to switch out my iphone 6 with theirs.  I would then take Danny's iphone to my appointment to get the screen fixed and bring it back in an hour and Danny would magically have a fixed screen and have no clue how or when it happened.  

Danny got to work while I was hidden in the bushes behind the office.  Co-worker worked her magic and made a successful switch of the phones.  Work was so busy that Danny never checked "his" phone for the next hour.  Co-worker gave me Danny's real phone and I was off in a rush!! I quickly made the appointment, and was given a discount for my good looks and I raced back to drop the phone off.  Co-worker ever so secretly switched the phones back.  Danny was so surprised when he got off work.  He literally could not contain himself with joy as tears rushed down his face in gratitude for the magically miracle that had taken place.  The end. 


Ok now let me tell you what actually happened.  I wasnt sure how long Danny took to get from his first job to his second.  So I made a friend with a stranger who was sitting just outside Danny's first job.  I told them I would give them a CapriSun if they would call me once Danny left the office.  I made sure they knew who Danny was and then I was off to his second job!  I timed myself driving from the two jobs so I knew how much time I would have once I got the phone call from the stranger.  Beautiful plan right?

I got to the second job but the office was closed.  No one was in there.  I was so frustrated.  I hope they don't ever look at the security cams because I was totally throwing and breaking stuff all over the place.  Just kidding.  So I waited and eventually someone came to open the office.  They showed up about 5 minutes before Danny was supposed to be done with his first job.  TALK ABOUT PRESSURE.

I quickly explained the situation to Danny's co-worker.  In a very Debbie Downer tone, they laughed and told me that was a stupid idea and that Santa Claus wasn't real either.  Literally as they were telling me this, I got a phone call from my stranger saying Danny had left the building !! I had about 6 minutes based off my time early that day.   "Can't you just have a liiiitle bit of hope sister scrooge???" 

After a little bit of sweet-talking, they agreed to help.  They were unsure of how to make the switch but they said they had an idea.  GREAT!!  It was a miracle.  I quickly hid just in time for Danny pulling in to the parking lot.

About three minutes after Danny went in to the office, his co-worker came SCREAAAMING out of the office.

"HERE HERE I HAVE THE PHONE QUICK TAKE IT TAKE IT!!!"

I whipped my head around and my heart sunk and I saw them running toward me with Danny hot on her heels.  Danny must have thought he was being robbed.  oh great. 

To sum it up, things didn't go as planned.  I was still able to convince Danny to let me fix the phone so I wouldn't have to cancel my appointment haha.  But he wouldn't let me pay for it or anything.  And I was discovered.  Some ninja I am.  Moral of the story, don't trust my imagination or Danny's co-workers.

love,

me

New Zealand Miracle

Last month, I was on a plane departing from a tiny little airport in my hometown headed to a nearby state just a quick hour or two away by plane.  I sat next to a Polynesian woman. We will call her Lanai. Lanai had some very interesting stories.  She had many very interesting stories.  In fact, I was so grateful the plane ride was only a short distance because if we had flown across the country I am sure her stories never would have ceased!

However, on of her stories was really incredible.  Her father was a Christian missionary in New Zealand many years ago.  When he had returned and raised a family of his own, he told the story to his children often.

During his mission, he was assigned to serve a small community high up in the mountains.  At first, he struggled to accomplish the tasks to help the community in this area.  He had high hops and big plans, but his offer was not received well by the local residents.  Surely a little frustrated, he was humbled in prayer and concluded he needed to fast to witness a miracle and a change of heart.  Lanai mentioned this particular fast lasted more than the typical 24 hours.  It came to a point when the missionary was so hungry he did not have strength to do continue talking with members of the community.  He was up in the hills, away from any house or person besides one other missionary who was with him.  He prayed that God would deliver just one loaf of bread so he could end his fast and have renewed physical strength to continue his work.  At the conclusion of the prayer, he opened his eyes to see a fresh loaf of bread on a rock not far from where he was praying. It seemed to have appeared out of no where.  It was nothing short of a miracle. The man needed a loaf of bread and prayed in faith and God delivered.   For many many years this was the end of the story.  

We hear stories like this every once in a while.  And quite frankly, I hate to be the scrooge of the day but I always am just a liiiitle bit skeptical of the reality of some of them.  I do not doubt that God has the power to do something like this - absolutely not but they always seem so out of place.  I don't know many of them seem too bizarre to be true.  Perhaps it is a lesson to me to have more faith in modern miracles.   I should have more faith.

Lanai continued on with a new addition in the story.  She had recently met someone who lived in the very community at the very time her father had served as a missionary in.  This woman had a story of her own.  It was a story passed down from her mother.  It was a story of the missing loaf of bread.  The mother was busy making bread for her family one hot afternoon high in the mountains of New Zealand.  Her house was far separated from her tiny town.  As she was making the bread, she for some reason she could not recall, she set it outside on a nearby rock to cool off before bringing it in with the rest of the loafs she had just made.  After a few minutes she returned to the rock but could never find the loaf she had just set out there.  She didn't know where it had gone or what had happened to it.  She said that she would always remember the story however because it all occurred on the same day she was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Later that day she was in town and had met the same missionary who had found her loaf of bread. They never connected the stories until both of their daughters met together in Utah and exchanged stories.  Interesting isnt it?

The point I am trying to make with this story is that miracles can occur by everyday people.  The woman making the bread never knew what happened to her loaf.  The hungry missionary never knew how the bread appeared on the rock.  The bread maker was a modern day angel.  I am sure God directed this exchange.  It was great.  I love stories like this. If we do what we are supposed to and live the best we can, we will be put in situations where we need to be in order to help others and spread the light of Christ throughout the world.

Blog update

Howdy.

In my first post, I mentioned I would use this blog to record my own random acts of service.  Well, that's changed. haha. I mean I definitely will still do that, but don't you just love when Christmas time rolls around and those stories show up on Facebook about people leaving anonymous tips of like 100 bucks to some desperate waitress or someone randomly buying someone else's groceries when they can't afford it ?  I love those stories.  Absolutely love them.

So on this blog I am going to throw in a few stories of other acts of kindness that I hear about to supplement the journal keeping of the things I do on Wednesdays.  Right now, I do not plan on sharing this blog with anyone ha but if the day ever comes that I do, and you are actually reading this, then feel free to email me any story of random service that you would like me to post about.  Dagtw4@gmail.com. All stories are welcome.  I love reading and hearing all about them.

Part of my fascination with these kind of stories (especially the anonymous ones) is because of a religious belief of mine.  We read in Christian scripture about the ministering of angels.  We read about many miracles where angels have divinely intervened to bring about some great miracle.  We read about Joshua and Jericho, and Hagar and Ishmael all being aided by angels.

We are also told that angels have not stopped ministering to people today.

"Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?  I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore if these things have ceased... it is because of unbelief"

And the greatest part about this is that God uses everyday people to act as angels for us today.  We can be inspiration to act in good service for others.  Some of the stories that I share that are not my own wednesday adventures will be focused on everyday people who act as angels.  

im out. 

Gathering Steam: Pinterest Style

I recently learned what Pinterest was.  Even more recently learned that there is this thing on Pinterest called -- get ready -- hidden boards.  What on Earth girls use that for is beyond me. However, it is quite handy for a mysterious weekly hidden service ninja (yes that is exactly how I refer to myself) to use to plan out his next "attack."

As I was creating this board and searching for pins to add, I had a little dilemma.  I PRIDE myself in my most original service ideas.  I thought I should be the one making the pins for people to pin instead of me pinning what other people have done! But I quickly humbled myself and actually found some good material I am going to use one of these weeks.  Never underestimate the power of Pinterest ladies and gentlemen. Never.

Introduction

DAGTW it stands for "Do a good turn Wednesdaily." It's an interesting way that I define my weekly attempt to do random acts of service without them finding out.  I know, I know, I should be doing good acts DAILY but I am sorry Mr. Powell but for now this one week thing is my goal.

" Do a good turn Wednesdaily" became a motto of mine my 21st year of life.  I was recently returned home from serving a church mission where I realized the joy I found from randomly helping others.

It didn't start out as such an organized thing but rather I would just look for opportunities to help complete strangers.  I remember one day on the first week back I stopped on my way back home to help an older dude pack some leaves into his yard waste can that had fallen over in the wind.  He was surprised when I did not ask to help (never ask to help, people say no even if they need help) but just did it anyway. And he allowed me to help.  I loved that.   There is something special about people who can ask or accept help even when they don't need it.  However, most humans will never do that.  If you find one that does, keep 'em around.

So I continued to randomly do things for people, but this wasn't enough.  Things started getting more organized when I began dating a really special girl.  On our of our first dates, we had discussed how much we enjoyed doing random acts of service.  We shared family traditions of secretly doing "12 Days of Christmas" anonymously and other related stories.  I think this is when I officially started weekly secret service. This girl eventually left on a mission, and for each day she was gone, I put a dollar in an envelope to create a fund for when she returned.  This way we would have a few spare dollars to fund our weekly extravaganzas. While she was gone, I continued to develop this fun weekly activity.

During her mission, I adopted the name, "Do a good turn Wednesdaily" or DAGTW.  I had a vision for DAGTW that it would spread like wildfire and everyone would join in and we would live a real life "Pay it Forward."  Don't ask if that has been realized yet or not... haha.

When she returned from her mission, I told her about the idea and she seemed less than excited. That's fine, our relationship didn't go anywhere anyways so I was left with a bunch of 1 dollar bills (about 540 of them to be exact) and a single life. The single life is a story for another time, but my Wednesdays have certainly picked up steam.

So with my 540 bucks I set out to mysteriously do nice things for random (or sometimes not so random) people.  This blog is dedicated to my adventures.  I do not know if I will share this blog with others for the sake of keeping myself anonymous, but  I hope to write about each of the things that I do on Wednesdays.  Perhaps if I do ever share with others, it will only help to  motivate them to dress up like ninjas on Wednesday nights and also do nice things for others.  The following posts will be going back in time to the beginnings of my adventures until the present day.  I hope you enjoy and are inspired to get out and do the same.