From Martha Branigan-Sutton and the book 50 things that really matter to Latter-day Saints:
I remember doing customary “clapping” outside a forlorn slum in Argentina as a sister missionary. The makeshift houses were made of corrugated steel and scrap wood dwellings with worn, dirty fabric hanging down to serve as doors. As we clapped, Nellie, our investigator, appeared, looking as faded as her threadbare dress where a barely visible floral pattern attempted to emerge from the fabric. The flowers may have been bright at one time but were now a fleeting reminder of what had been. She reminded me of a watery sunset that settles over the ocean following the vibrant hues that have just stunned their human audience into a humbled silence.
She pulled back the curtain and the odor of poverty seeped outside. Damp dirt and the smell of lantern oil used for cooking and light combined into an almost palpable scent of hardship. She boiled water from the single pan she owned over a lantern. She had nothing to put into the water for flavor, so we gratefully warmed our chilled bones with warm water.
As we prepared to leave, she looked at us with pleading eyes and hesitated. She plunged a crooked hand into her pocket and brought out one needle and a short, single piece of thread. She offered to sew any small thing we might need mended, perhaps a button. It would need to be a very small one given her scanty supplies, but perhaps she thought she could at least tighten one up.
My companion and I were both from North America. Our clothing, hair, speech, demeanor—even dental care—spoke of another world and a way of life without us uttering a word. Yet she didn’t judge or begrudge. She wanted to give and bless. How humbled we were that she would use her last bit of thread to serve us. She truly had the gift of a giving heart. ~ Martha Branigan-Sutton, 50 things that really matter to Latter-day Saints pg. 59-60
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