Be Nice to the Newbies

The day I met Lisa was our first day in a new ward in a small town in South Carolina. After Sacrament meeting, she came up to me and said, "Hi. I'm Lisa. My husband is the bishop. You're sitting in my pew."

You would think that this would be the axe to any future friendship, but you'd be wrong.

Lisa lived in a trailer on a family compound. Her parents, her cousin, I think her grandparents, and maybe a few other family members, all had houses or trailers on the family's land. Her family had been there for generations. At least four generations of her family were in our ward. It was a small town, and an even smaller ward, if you only counted attendance. If you judged by geography, it was a HUGE ward.

Lisa was the Nursery Leader. I was seven months pregnant, on medication and bedrest to stop early labor, and I had a 16 month old. She offered to take him in Nursery even though he wasn't 18 months yet.

The first day he went to Nursery, he went right in. When we got there to pick him up, he screamed and reached for her. He didn't want to leave.

Since people doubled up on callings, she was also the Compassionate Service Leader and she "made sure all the food came from clean kitchens" when people brought in dinners after the baby came. (Those are HER words, NOT mine. LOL)

Our new baby cried ALL THE TIME. And Lisa would come up to me and take her at church to give me a break. Lisa's oldest cried just like Jessica, so the screaming didn't faze her at all. And I REALLY needed the break because she didn't sleep, either.

Lisa babysat for me all the time. She only let me pay when we were going out on a date or doing something fun. If I had an appointment or something like that, she wouldn't let me pay.

She invited me over for dinner when my husband was gone.

She became one of my best friends.

Then we moved away less than a year and a half later.

I talked to her last year. She had finally moved away. The first thing she said to me was, "I've sure learned that I need to be nice to the new people in the ward." And I said, "You were nice to me!" And she said, "Well, that's because I liked you. I need to be nice to everyone."

It just cracked me up. She was a great friend to me when I needed one and she was always nice and helpful. She was a great example to me. And I never, in a million years, would have thought on that first day, when she said, "Hi. I'm Lisa. My husband is the bishop. You're sitting in my pew," that I'd be thinking of her and missing her eight years later.