The Worth of a Cupcake

I have been so blessed in my life to be surrounded by such amazing women. These women teach me things that I need to learn in my life and do so in the most caring and loving ways that touch my heart and my soul.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints has an inspired program called visiting teaching. Women of the church are assigned companions (another sister) and they then go out and visit with assigned sisters of the church. This is a way for each sister to be apart both in the serving and the receiving aspect of visiting teaching.

Visiting teaching is something that I am still trying to have that strong testimony of. I think that through my past year of hardships I have taken on the selfish thought of “I am tired of giving, its time for me to receive.” I don’t want to be like that anymore. I want to be a Janet.

Currently I am in Seattle visiting my mom. Last weekend as we were in the temple we saw one of her visiting teachers working in the temple. On our drive home we talked about how the wonderful women have been a great strength to her during this difficult time.

These visiting teachers had set an appointment to come to our house to see my mom the following Monday at 10am. Monday morning came and 10:30am rolled by with no sign of the visiting teachers. By 10:45 Sister Sainsbury came to the door alone with a plate of cupcakes. My mom and her spoke at the door as I listened in from the other room. Sister Sainsbury told my mom that Janet States had a heart attack the night before and was currently in the hospital. Right before she had called for the ambulance she was busy in her kitchen making these cupcakes for the women she would visit teach the next morning. As she was making them she kept feeling a heavy pressure on her chest that intensified until she said it felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest. In the chaos of heading to the hospital and checking in that night, she called her companion and apologized that she would not be able to go visiting teaching the next morning, but she had made some cupcakes for the women and wanted sister Sainsbury to bring them to the women for her.

When Sister Sainsbury left, my mom and I hugged and cried. This beautiful woman wanted nothing more than to serve others, even amidst her own trial and her own pains. Those cupcakes became the most precious things we had ever seen. They were a symbol of a woman’s love for her fellow sisters and her devotion to her Savior. They were a symbol of sacrifice and of service. All day long we talked about her and how meaningful these cupcakes were to us.

My mom and I cried again the next morning as we heard the sad news that Janet had not made it through the night. Although we will miss her so dearly, especially her constant smile and kind words, I know that she is so happy to be reunited with her husband in heaven. And for all of us who are left behind, I hope that we can learn from her. I know that this is one little experience of how Janet has lived and lead such an amazing life full of service, but this experience is her last one in this life of service and I feel blessed that I was able to experience a piece of it.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, especially to her mom and her daughter Julie.

And as for the rest of us, I hope we can look at our small and simple callings in the church for what they really are, and for how they really bless. Yesterday I got a cupcake and that cupcake has blessed my life and has touched my heart in ways that I can hardly describe. It has given me a new outlook on life when I needed it the most. That cupcake and the beautiful woman who made it have made me want to live a life full of service and to magnify my visiting teaching responsibilities and I am so grateful to Janet for the life she has lived and the example of service that she will forever be to me.