Serving in the Lord's Vineyard

On August 31st we had the amazing opportunity of going to the vineyard and picking grapes. The vineyard in Madera produces all of the raisins for the Church welfare system. It is a wonderful place to serve. Our ward had four 1 mile long rows to pick. We had a good turn-out and were done picking in just under three hours. It was the hottest, sweatiest and dirtiest I have been since trek a couple of years ago but it didn't matter! It was a joyful place to be. You literally can feel the spirit in the vineyard the moment you step onto the soil. Thousands of people show up at assigned times for a couple of weeks to harvest the 80 acre vineyard. We crawled up inside the vines, with the spiders and other creepy crawly things, to cut the clusters and then laid them out on drying trays. Some of them already had a head start on turning into raisins. Less than two weeks later, another crew went back to roll up the trays and load the raisins into bins to head for the processor. What an incredible harvest. What an incredible experience!!  It didn't matter than I couldn't move a muscle for the next three days without hurting, or that I lost my prescription glasses somewhere in those vines - it was so worth the experience.

Here is a link to a church video about our vineyard.
http://www.lds.org/church/news/raisins-part-of-the-lords-work?lang=eng

 

The California Fresno Mission has the logo "The Lord's Vineyard" also. The joy of harvesting grapes was so rewarding but the joy of harvesting souls cannot be exceeded. As the Lord says in:

D&C 18:15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 

I am already looking forward to next year's vineyard assignment. I am grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I love Him. I love serving his children here in His vineyard.