So around a few corners and down a couple of streets from our house is a very convenient market. It's logo kind of looks like this:
A favorite of ours actually. A nice place, that's not too large to get in and out of in a few minutes, tidy, fresh food every day, clearance prices that are scarcely beat, and the workers are friendly. Yes, they are very friendly. A little TOO friendly! In fact there was one worker there in particular who happened to be foreign, which maybe explains a little bit of why her behavior was so, well, foreign. She just always seemed a little too overjoyed when the children and I would walk past the threshold and into the store. She would come running over to us to greet us with all the enthusiasm of a faithful four legged friend. Now, don't get me wrong. I love a friendly greeting, and if I know you by name, by all means, please! Come up and greet me with an amiable hug, but I had NO idea who she was and she would dote all over my children. My children didn't like it. It made them uncomfortable. It made me uncomfortable. This strange lady coming up and pinching my children's cheeks, giving them hugs, she even went so far as to kiss one of them at one point! This became a problem. My favorite convenient store is not so convenient anymore. To the extreme of when I pulled up to the store to grab a few things on the way home, my 2/3 year old would say "No! I don't like this store! I don't want to go here! No!" I, completely understanding, would find myself dodging into the store to avoid further frenzied greetings and to help keep the peace with the children while in the store. I would wait to enter until I could see that her back was turned, or she was helping a customer so that we could limit our encounters with her to one per visit! This was getting ridiculously out of hand! I had to do SOMETHING! What could I do? I didn't want to be rude. I thought about leaving a comment for the manager, "Dear manager, your employee is too nice. Please tell her to be a little bit more rude so that we can feel comfortable and at home here. Thank you. Sincerely, Cold Shoulder" No. I didn't want to get her in trouble for being "too nice". What was I going to do??? And then eureka I've found it! The light bulb flashed on and the angel on my shoulder said,"You could give her a Book of Mormon." and the devil on my shoulder said, " Yeah, if you give her a Book of Mormon then she'll want nothing to do with you like a bunch of other people did when you gave them a Book of Mormon. And then if she tries to bombard you in the store, you could just say, Hey! How's that book comin? And that would surely ward her off!" Yeah, I thought! That has about a 95% chance of working! I'm doing it! I had figured it out! I, in all my maliciousness, was going to give her a Book of Mormon! I know! Evil aren't I!?
Well, I thought, if I'm going to give her a Book of Mormon, I might as well do it right. The next time I went to the store I asked her where she was from. Romania! One Romanian Book of Mormon coming right up!
Well, it had to be ordered, but I didn't get around to ordering it and I just figured well, I will be going by the distribution center in a few months I can pick one up then. So months passed. And I stopped taking my children with me to F&E, and she stopped harassing me so much. In fact, I wondered if someone else had left a complaint to the manager about the problem with their nice employees. She backed off and became simply nice.
Finally I made it to the distribution center and I got the book even though I didn't need it as much for its originally intended purpose, but I got it anyway because this is what I had decided to do so I was going to do it! I traveled back home and planned to write in the book and give it to her, but there was no pressing need anymore so I didn't worry about it too much. But every now and then I began to worry. I have to give her that book. I got that book in Romanian for her and it's still sitting there. "Why haven't you given her that book yet?" would come into my mind. Frankly, now that she wasn't such a threat, I didn't want to bother her. But I had to now! I had committed!
I couldn't ignore the promptings that I was feeling to carry out my initially malicious act.
I decided to stop putting off what I knew I should do. I wrote my feelings of the book in the front, and tied a lovely ribbon around it, and I took one of my biggest guns! My second daughter who is all together charming and adorable and one of the things that started this whole mess in the first place! I handed her the book, knowing that it would probably mean a lot more to this lady to receive it from one of my little darlings that she adored so much than from me. I told Brenna that if, with a big smile on her face, she could give it to the lady, that would surely earn her a piece of gum! ;) We both knew that this is always a deal that she can't pass up!
As we drove to the store, finally with the book, I was just a little nervous and tried to think of how to make the situation as perfect and smooth as possible. I thought how ironic it would be if she just happened to be off and not working that day! I parked my car in front of the store and as I did so I saw 4 men dressed in suits getting out of their car right next to me. They looked at me, and one of them paused and called to the others for something. He approached me and handed me a pamphlet. Jehovah's Witnesses!!! Of course there would be other missionaries there the day I decide to bring a Book of Mormon into the store!!!! Oh well, what can I do but press forward. We walked into the store and looked for her. Man! It was packed! Every register was being used and they are all self checkout! This worker runs all of the self checkouts and she was busy! Hmm. We decided we would just have to do our shopping first and hope it died down enough. We finished our shopping and even dawdled for a few minutes waiting for it to die down. We began checking out while she was still busy helping customers and what do you know? Our register is demanding that we "Please wait for assistance". I smiled and waited. She came over to help, a little bit ruffled, I signaled Brenna to go in for the kill! Brenna handed her the book. Here was the moment of anticipation! Would she welcome it?? She took it, and looked at it fondly and sighed, "Oh. I have always wanted a book from the Mormons. But I never got one. I have always been curious about it and wanted to learn more about the Mormons. Thank You! Thank you so much for giving this to me! That was so nice!" and as she spoke tears welled up in her eyes and she pointed out how she had gotten goose bumps, and she was so grateful! I couldn't believe it! I was taken aback! I was touched and awed! That was the first time I had ever gotten that reaction when I had given a Book of Mormon away! And it made me smile and laugh a little inside to see how the Lord had taken my frivolous "maliciousness" and made it into something useful! I am so grateful for his wisdom! And I look forward to seeing what happens with this!
As for my neighborhood F&E we took care of the personal space invasions. F&E is a great store! However, I do have to say how ironic I find it that I am still dodging in and out of aisles because now the Stock Clerk is STALKING me and telling me that he's glad to see me again!!! BWAAHHHH!
"Every Breath You Take" Police
