Mormon Helping Hands

On Saturday, May 8th we had our stake Mormon Helping Hands service project. We helped at Eastlawn Cemetery in Sacramento. We started the morning by polishing headstones. When we finished that job we moved on to weeding around gravestones. We all had a good time and even Ava helped polish and weed. She enjoyed weeding the most.

Rich's thoughts: It was a good experience. I was happy to help out. There was a big turnout and I look forward to doing this next year.

Lisa's thoughts: I loved participating in this service project. It was great to see hundreds of people show up to beautify the cemetery. I was proud of the youth from our ward that ended up cleaning the VERY dirty mausoleums.

Personally, I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace as I weeded around the grave sites. I enjoyed reading the names and dates. I thought about these people and wondered what they were like. Some of the graves were really overgrown and it made me sad to see that maybe they weren't cared for or visited very often. It felt good being able to provide this service and let these individuals know just because they are gone they are not forgotten. I know it sounds pretty wimpy, but a couple of times after uncovering a grave I became emotional and shed a few tears. It was weird, but I felt like the individuals were grateful and that made me happy. I really hope we do this service project again next year.

Here we are bright and early on Saturday morning. Ava is pretty tired still but she warmed up before the morning was over.

Ava and I polishing the headstones. We learned later we weren't suppose to polish these headstones but only the marble ones. Ooops!

Ava helping weed around the headstone. Notice she has one of my gloves.

Me weeded. I got my gloves back from Ava.

Ava having a good time in her awesome yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" vest.