The Thought That Counts

Speaking of hearts and roses, here's one more quick V-Day story before I catch up on other things.

Last month for Activity Days, we decided to focus on love - appropriate. We first had the girls create a paper chain with Valentine themed paper. On each slip they would write down something they could do to show love around the house. (Hurray for service!) They had to come up with 10 different things as there were only ten days left until Valentine's. They struggled a bit to come up with 10 different ways of serving, but we finally managed to get it done with things like doing the dishes, reading a story to siblings, clean their room, etc.

With that accomplished, we put together two bags of chocolates and a handful of paper hearts with the intent to "heart attack" someone in the ward. The initial idea was to heart attack some widows or single women in our ward, but we let the girls decide, and they chose two families that had young kids - one family with two or three kids, and one young couple who had just had their first baby. The girls made little cards addressed to the family with a short "Happy Valentine's! From Cupid" message inside.

We climbed inside the car and headed to the first location. The girls decided they wanted to doorbell ditch the items, so we dropped them off, let the girls run to the door, and then we drove a little way down the street where we wouldn't be noticed. The first delivery went smoothly. In fact, we were impressed with how quick they were. Those girls sure can run! The second house was a little more difficult. They rang the doorbell and then ran to hide behind a nearby van where they waited and waited. No response. I rolled down the window to tell them to come jump in the car, but was "shhhh!"ed in chorus. They tried ringing the door bell again. Then waited and waited. Finally they gave up and came running to the car... just as the door opened.

Four giggling girls flew into the car and off we drove. They were like a band of monkeys chattering away, laughing, pointing, bouncing, retelling their roles with what so-and-so did, and what so-and-so said, as well as remember when this, and remember when that. The second old memories poured out in rapid succession. We laughed along with them, thrilled they had such a great time.

On the way back from dropping off one of the girls, my companion got a text. She glanced at her phone, tossed her head against the headrest laughing, and handed me the phone.

"Hi! This is Sister Lloyd. Did your cute girls just drop something off at our house? Cause the card says, 'To the Petersons." I just wanted to make sure it really was for us."

I burst out laughing. All that planning, running, and hiding - and we still got the cards mixed up. Not a single one of us - child or adult - actually thought of checking the cards before delivering them. Oh well. At least they knew they were loved. We told Sister Lloyd that yes, it really was for them but that we had just gotten the cards mixed up. As for the Petersons, well, no clarification was made, but I am sure they enjoyed the hearts and candy anyway.