When there is a gathering for the male adult group in Zion, I prepare meals, selecting a dish among the menu they like. Although they are exhausted after working all day, they come to church right after work to study the Bible. Whenever seeing them, I want to make something for them and I care a lot about creating the menu.
One day, I decided to make pittu, a traditional Sri Lankan food. I needed a special pot to make pittu. Pittu is thick and has a long cylinder shape, so a pot that fits the exact size is needed. When you put dough into the pot and steam it for about eight minutes, appetizing pittu is made.
Although I decided to make pittu, I was a little worried because the helping members and I had never made it before and we also had to make a great amount. After praying, we started to cook according to the recipe I received ahead of time. Fortunately, we had two pots, so if we properly made the dough, we would be able to complete cooking on time.
However, there was a glitch in our plan after we steamed the first batch of dough. We put the same dough in the two identical pots for the same period of time. However, the pittu from one pot came out well-cooked, but the pittu from the other pot crumbled as soon as I took it out of the pot. I wondered why the pittu from one pot crumbled under the same condition.
As this process kept repeating, I had to decide whether or not I would continue to use the pot that didn’t work well, because it was causing me to waste time instead of helping. I decided to use it one more time just to be sure. If it came out ugly again, I would get rid of it. This time, I increased the cooking time longer than the other pot.
After putting the dough in the pot again, we waited anxiously. At the moment I took pittu out of the pot, we exclaimed, “Wow,” with joy. A really nice looking pittu came out and didn’t crumble at all. I was glad that I had waited. After that, we were able to cook and produce good, nice-looking pittu, using both pots before the male adult group meeting ended.
On that day, I not only learned how to make pittu, but also gained a spiritual lesson. The pot that didn’t perform its role properly for a while and then did after we waited a little longer looked like us.
We were all called by God as instruments of the gospel in this age, but we haven’t carried out our mission well for a long time. If we were changed, it is only thanks to God who has been waiting for us. Aren’t we stacking up blessings by participating in the movement to preach to seven billion people because Heavenly Father and Mother are waiting for us until the end without giving up on us, even though we are slow in realizing how blessed we are? I will repay God for Their grace by carrying out my duties of the gospel more faithfully.