Beulah

My heart is full so I had to write.

I wanted to write about someone very special to me.

Her name is Beulah and she's in my branch.

I don't know how old she really is, but she's pretty old.

She loves to serve and she loves to give.

Her favorite thing to say when asked; "how are you today?" is: "Oh, I'm blessed."

She's an African American lady, not so small in frame either and has that southern accent that's hard to understand.

She beams as she says how the Lord has blessed her and her family each time we talk.

This past Saturday, I gave her and her granddaughter a ride to the stake Relief Society conference we had. She couldn't stop smiling. She sat at a small table and cut coupons for the soldiers for two hours until her hand was sore, but she didn't complain.

A nice dinner was provided by the stake, and she gratefully ate every last bite.

When conference was about to begin, I noticed she was no where to be found (along with the whole branch--maybe 5 other sisters). When I finally found her, she, along with our other branch sisters were huddled in the kitchen where our lovely meal had just come out of.

Together in a line, they were all scraping the bottoms of the pots for any left overs to take home to their families.

After the conference, I took Beulah and a few other sisters home. Happy with the leftovers in her hands and spirit spoken words from our prophet in her heart, Beulah dreamily said to me,

"this was a great night, thank you so much" and gave me a big grand-motherly hug.

As she slowly moved each leg out of the car, insisting that she was capable of getting out herself, she rummaged through her beat-up blue bag and pulled something out.

"Here, this is for my boy." she said, meaning Kai who she knew was sick.

The wrinkled old grocery sac was warm in my hand, perhaps from the heat of the Texas night, or maybe because it was filled with love.

When I got home, I gave it to little Kai who was sick in his bed.

With excitement in his face, he opened the bag.

A tiny packet of green lime jello from the church store house and a peach.

My eyes filled with tears as I looked down at this little gift from Beulah.

God knows she has so little, yet her big heart knows no end.

What you might have guessed by now, is that these are special sisters.

What you don't see, is that they live in broken down homes where roaches roam and the streets are dark. Cops patrol their streets and punks rule the neighborhoods.

They truly do not have much, but what you won't believe is how much they will give to you.

Old and crippled, most of our sisters do not have much at all, but what they do have, they give willingly.

I love Beulah and I love my branch.