Gathering Fast Offerings
My love for Marie didn’t come exactly after I had first met her at the school. I was still interested in another blond when I was 12 that was in my class. I also was not always real excited about gathering Fast Offerings as a deacon either but it was always fun to see if I could get a certain route that was in Marie’s neighborhood. I liked a girl, whose name is escaping me for the moment, that lived just behind where Marie’s family moved. I liked going on that route because it had that girl’s family home in it. I enjoyed going there because she would often open the door and take the envelope to her parents to fill out. She always had a pretty smile and was fun to talk to at school as well. We were in the same class for about three years or so before her father moved their family to Fruitland and I only then saw her very occasionally at common school functions like basketball games and track meets. (I just recalled her name, it was Karla Lewis.) So my years of dedication in service in the church were largely shaped by my parents example but the dedication also in part has to be attributed to girls like Karla and Marie that made me want to do it for reason that could not be quite so largely attributed to my desire to do it for the Lord. It has since become such but I am glad that Marie is still there as a part of it many many times.
