Poor little old lady....

I was at Walmart tonight and apparently it was "strangers start a conversation with Jeni" night.  First an obviously confused elderly gentleman asked me if I could help him find some medication. He had pulled a label off his old bottle and it was the "Major" brand.  The one you get from the post pharmacy.  He also thought it was "stomach" medicine, but the label was for cold medicine. Poor guy. I tried to explain, but he wasn't getting it, so I directed him to the pharmacist. I hope he helped him find what he needed.  But the second stranger was the interesting one. I was in the camping section getting bug spray for camp (with the most deet I could find!!!) and there was an older woman picking up one of those little camping stoves.  She looked at me and said, "you never know when we will have a tornado or another bad ice storm".  I responded that it was always good to be prepared, and then she started.  She told me all about this preacher she had been listening to that he was saying the end is near and that they needed to buying emergency preparedness materials from him. She said, "I can't afford to pay what he was asking.....I think he is making quite a profit".  She was telling me all about freeze dried products and how she wishes she could afford them. She told me that she doesn't have the Internet because "we probably won't have electricity for much longer" so why bother.  She was telling me about the bullets for her .22 she just bought.  I felt so bad for her. This preacher had her scared to death!!  She started to walk away and then turned around and said, "you know, I've been asking around about food storage and my friends keep telling me I should talk to the Mormons"  I almost lost it right there.  I thought, well......now I've got to tell her. So, I told her I was Mormon and I have never seen a stranger so happy to hear this news. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree and she turned her buggy around, got in her purse and pulled a pen and paper and said, "what do I do???".  So, knowing this was going to make it impossible for me to get everything I needed before I needed to pick up Aileen from gymnastics, I went ahead and talked to her. Luckily, just a week ago, I went over to my friend Jenny's house (who is awesome in ALL things and has awesome food storage) and learned a little more about food storage and preparedness. It is not my are of expertise and something I have always struggled with and am just starting to get into. Anyways, I told her about our church preparedness website (she has a friend that she uses their Internet) and a few other websites I knew about.  At the end she said, "I don't have much money and I am just so worried I'm not going to be ready" So, I said, "This is what I believe......if you are doing all you can, the Lord will make up the difference. " She agreed this was probably true.  She just literally looked so terrified of the coming "end of the world".  It made me think how grateful I am for the leaders of our church who lead and teach with love, not fear. Who counsel and direct and are stern when they need to be, but always from a place of love. There is no "financial gain" for them, no "putting the fear of God" in us. I wish people knew it is not God or Christ we need to be afraid of. Anyways, it was interesting and no, I didn't get everything on my list, but apparently I needed to talk to this lady......cause no way that was just a coincidence. :)