Tribute

No-Not the Tenacious kind of tribute. But just as epic, not 'cause I'm telling it, but because the lady in question is epic.

It came to me while I was trying (in vain) to go to sleep. Someone, not naming names, was very gently snoring. Doesn't really matter in my world whether or not the snoring in question is loud or not. Sound is very hard for me to tune out. Yeah, with 5 kids and that particular problem, you now know why I look zombified. Anyway, had one of those moments where I felt like I should write down on my little pad of paper a prompting. I have been waiting for something to write down on my little pad of paper ever since in General Conference where it was suggested that promptings will come if you are prepared for them. I was beginning to feel like that particular piece of advice didn't pertain to me. Finally something to write down! I groggily and blindly wrote down "Mary Blodgett, tribute" and received my first blessing for following the prompting. I had inadvertently jostled my darling hubby and he turned over and stopped snoring. Moving on, Mary Blodgett was a fabulous lady that I met on my mission. She was in her 80's and had been recently converted to the gospel. She had lived a hard life, but her conversion was thorough to the point that her zeal made the missionaries and life-long members look bad. She had quit smoking to be able to be baptized and said that the money she saved was a sacred fund that she dedicated to the Lord to show her gratitude for being given the gospel. Now, you must remember in rural New England that the areas missionaries covered were very large. Ours was over four hours by car and we were allotted 25 miles each day in our missionary car. Much of our time was spent in arranging appointments to all be in one town on one day when a member could take us there. All of the members sacrificed their time to help us spread the gospel. I remember fearfully asking a mom to take us four hours one way! to deliver a Lamb of God video to someone who ordered it off the commercial. The person allowed us to share a first discussion and then that mom drove us all the way back. 9+ hours with the missionaries, not to mention arranging babysitting and gas money. Anyway, Mary lightened the burden on the rest of the congregation by being our taxi and resident testifier. She came with us at least three whole days a week and used all of her cigarette savings money on gas to find and teach others. Most members were comfortable attending a discussion where interest had all ready been expressed, but squirmed if we needed to take them tracting-going door to door-to invite people to hear our message. Mary was fearless and yet so humble and tracting was her "thing". She had lived all her life without the gospel and could not stand that there were others without the knowledge that had become so vital to her. She loved her fellow man so much that there was no fear in her. She is still a solid component to my own testimony of how the gospel changes lives for the better. She has passed on now, but I have learned that when there is real sacrifice involved, the Lord consecrates that and cements it into a testimony that is special. Mary was special. I love her dearly.