Well, I successfully survived another day of work. I got my hair cut and went to Institute afterward. For me, it feels like a very successful day.

After I got out of institute, I checked my cell and I missed a call from my boss. She left me a message that was very vague. She told me that I needed to call her that there was something that she would rather tell me tonight than in the morning. Okay, so I start thinking of all the possibilities - something from me doing/saying something wrong today to someone dying to many things inbetween. So, instead of fretting, I decided to just call her. I was standing outside my car in the institute parking lot and freezing to death (btw). Well, it turns out that one of my residents had in fact passed. She was an LDS lady that I almost felt a responsibility toward. She was on hospice and so I knew that it was pretty inevitable that she would die in the facility. I have spent countless hours with her reading the hymns, reading the scriptures, and just talking and holding her hand. She called me her "girl." Well, the last couple of times I visited with her have been on my mind the last hour or so since I found out. Two visits ago, she was really agitated and worried about anything and everything. I asked her if we could read some scripture together and she said yes and told me to read from anywhere. I got her Book of Mormon and just allowed it to fall figuring it didn't really matter what was read but that she needed to feel the Spirit. I got kind of nervous when it fell open to a few chapters before Alma 40 because time after time she had adamently told me that we could discuss anything but death. As I read to her, she just cried. Looking back at what we read now, I feel a distince impression that it was something that she needed to hear. The section we read talked about enduring to the end. Two verses in particular stood out to me that day - Alma 38:2, 5. Look them up, read them, apply them, commit them to memory. She was being reminded to keep her trust and faith in the Lord and she would be delivered from her pain and her afflictions. How wonderful is that? How blessed do I feel now to realize that I was present when she received that instruction? The last time I sat and visited with her was just a few days ago. She just held my hand and wanted her paper that had the serenity prayer on it. She was very confused and kept calling me mama. She just cried and said that she was scared and that she didn't want to stay here. She kept looking right in my eyes and saying, "don't leave me here mama." I wanted to start crying with her. I was able to get her to calm down and breathe and I looked her right in the eye and said, "You know you're loved, right?" and she said she did. I then proceeded to ask her who loved her the most and she said that the Lord did. I then said to her that the Lord did love her so tremendously and that that love overcomes everything we can experience here. She, being more calm then, told me that she knew that and she knew that the Lord will take her pain because he loved her more than enough. It was a powerful lesson for me. She was a wonderful lady - one that most of the staff didn't typically care to work with. I was lucky in that she came to trust me and I was able to see the person that she had been - the person that she truly was. Everyday there are moments when I see a new reason why I am at the job I'm at and why I do well. Everyday I thank the Lord that I can serve in this capacity.

This is my advice/rambles for the day: never let an opportunity to share your love with someone go wasted. As Carol Drayton (my former bishop's wife) said once, "We share love not because someone might not be there tomorrow; we share love because they might be there tomorrow."