YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME

Inkling's post about the new little girl in her Primary class reminded me of something that happened around Christmas time at the Storehouse. 

We had a little boy come in with his mother to get their order.  While the mother was shopping for her order, the little boy was looking at and playing with our nativity set.  It was a rather larger nativity set and we had set it up on the table where we have church books, church magazines and newspapers.  The little boy had rearranged all the figurines in the nativity set so that the people were all in the middle in normal fashion, and the animals were facing away from the people.  The animals were facing the little bales of hay that the little boy had put on the outside of the scene.  One of the ladies at the Storehouse walked by and looked at his work and asked if he had put the bales of hay there to "keep the animals in".  I happened to be walking by at the time and said, "No Kathy, can't you see?  It's dinnertime and all the animals are facing that way so they can eat their dinner!"  The little boy looked up at me and nodded and smiled.  :0)

When the mom had finished her shopping and it was time to go, the little boy asked if he could have the nativity set.  This nativity set had been donated to the Storehouse by an ex-Storehouse missionary so we didn't feel like we could give it away (Although if it had been up to me, I would have given it to him).  When I told him that it really wasn't mine to give away and that it belonged to the Storehouse he said, "Do you have a picture of this?"  All of a sudden I remembered that we had a stack of FRIENDS (church children's magazine) on the table to give away.  These were magazines that no one had even colored or written in.  I leafed through the stack and found a December issue.  On the front of the magazine was a picture of a nativity, inside was a nativity that he could COLOR, and there was more nativity pictures inside.  Score!!
When I showed it to him, he was enthralled!  He said (in an excited voice), "Yes!  That's it!"  He was so happy to take that home with him!

Since that day I have had announced in 3 wards for people to bring us their "gently used" FRIEND magazines.  We really don't need anything other than that, because people are always bringing us all the other magazines, newspapers, and even church books to give away, but for some reason we get very few FRIEND magazines.  Probably because the Mormon kids that get them practically wear them out looking at them.  We recently had someone bring in a stack of FRIEND magazines that had no writing or coloring in them either.  Now anytime a child comes in with their mom or dad, we offer them a free FRIEND magazine! 

MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH A 5 YEAR OLD

Remember my 5 year old friend who came into the Storehouse awhile back?  Well, he came back today.  I was in the kitchen finishing the lunch dishes when he came and had just walked out right after they came in.  I wished I would have had a camera to take a picture of his face when he saw me.  He was so excited.  Immediately he said, "Hi!  Come on!  Let's sit down over here and talk!  It's just so nice talking to you!"  What a cute kid!  Unfortunately, the person who was watching the desk had gone off to take care of something and the phone rang a few minutes later, so I had to go answer it, which involved a few minutes of talking, finding out info, and talking some more.  When I finally hung up, there he was standing beside me.  He said, "You need to come back over here so we can talk some more."  Unfortunately his mom had finished getting her order about 5 minutes later so we didn't get to talk long.  When his mom came over to get him, he said to her, "Mom, can she come over to my house sometime so we can talk?  I just love talking to her!"  I told him that I loved talking to him too and I would see him another time.  He said, "Are you always here?"  I said, "Usually, but if I'm not here the next time you come in, just remember I'll be back another time." 

I don't know what it is about this kid, but he sure loves to talk.  He showed me his new CTR ring, and we talked about different video games that he liked to play.  But like I said, we only had less than 10 minutes. 
Part of me wonders:  Is this kid ignored at home?  Is he just drawn to me for some reason?  Is he just a conversationalist? Is it because I ask him a lot of questions about himself?   Whatever it is, he is just one cute kid.