Our missionaries were fortunate enough to be involved in helping the Salvation Army again this year in their annual event to feed a Thanksgiving meal to the homeless of Washington DC. The missionaries spent time in the kitchen beginning on the Saturday before Thanksgiving doing prep work. They continued helping on Monday and Tuesday morning and then on Wednesday, missionaries came to the Washington Convention Center to serve the meal to 5,000 people. Other missionaries were involved in the clean-up in the kitchen.
On Wednesday, one of the head chefs asked about hiring our group next year because they are such dependable and hard workers. President explained that this was service for us and that we would never accept payment for helping. Walter said that of all the groups who volunteer, he knows that every year we will be on time and that everyone will be cheerful and work hard. Quite a compliment about your sons and daughters.
This first group of pictures shows our involvement in helping with turkeys from freezer to table. This covers a number of days.
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| Elder Vanaa and Elder Roomataaroa lift the 22+ pound turkeys from their freezer boxes to the cart. |
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| Here are only a few of the carts of turkeys that are needed. |
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| Elder Peterson, Sister Nakatsuka, Sister Gros and Sister Quintanilla show their excitement about starting. |
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| Chef Dave demonstrates how to remove the turkeys. Sister Miller, Elder Vanaa and Elder Gooman observe. |
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| Front to back: Elder Garcia, Elder McDonald and Elder Moore work. Sister Matsumori supervises. (Big word meaning she doesn't work but takes pictures.) |
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Left to right: Elder Peterson, Sister Quintanilla, Sister Brown and Elder Goodman.
Notice the turkeys on the carts behind. They are wheeled into the walk in refrigerators. |
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| Two days later - Elder Mataele, Elder Fisher and Elder Brown watch Chef Dave demonstrate how to carve the turkey. |
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| Elder Porter tries his hand at carving. |
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Left side front to back: Elder Brown, Elder Porter and Elder Watts.
Right side front to back: Elder Sanchez, Elder Raasveld, Elder Fisher and Elder Mataele. |
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Left side front to back; Elder Mataele, Elder Fisher, Elder Raasveld and Elder Sanchez.
Right side front to back: Elder Stoor, Elder Watts, Elder Porter and Elder Brown. |
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| Sister Porter stirs the turkey wings in a pot to make the stock for the stuffing. |
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| The day before Thanksgiving: people assemble in the convention center for the turkey dinner. |
Now back to some other pictures. The missionaries take the metro to the convention center where they meet and then go up to the huge kitchen.
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| Everyone squeezes into the large freight elevator. |
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| I was going to try to identify everyone but decided there was no logical way of doing it. Just say these are the great missionaries of the Seneca Zone. |
Once inside, the head chef, Dave, teaches everyone their duties for the day.
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| Chef Dave demonstrates how to chop celery. Oh, that's easy, you say. Not when you have 6 crates full. |
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| The onion chopping job left a lot of missionaries in tears. |
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| Left to right: Elder Moss, Sister Nakatsuka, Sister Joost and Elder Long open bags of stuffing. |
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| The stuffing is placed in the large containers where it will be stored until it's time to mix later. |
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| Left to right: Elder Branning, Elder Bodily and Elder Dillon sort through the food donations to put like items together. |
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Left side front to back: Elder Hart, Elder Hansen, Sister Finlay and Elder Chapman.
Right side front to back: Elder Gleed, Elder Pon and Elder Roomataaroa. |
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Left side front to back: Elder Valdetano, Sister Gros, Elder Roomataaaroa, Elder Pon and Elder Gleed.
Right side front to back: Elder Chapman, Sister Finlay, Elder Hansen and Elder Hart.
These missionaries spent the entire 3 1/2 hours chopping celery and onions. They weren't slow - there were just that many all headed to the stuffing. |
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The turkeys are all done. So now the missionaries move on to opening pies and placing them on trays to be baked.
Don't worry. What you haven't seen is the clean up in between. All of the surfaces are washed and then sanitized before the next items are brought out.
Left side front to back: Sister Quintanilla, Sister Brown and Elder Peterson.
Right side front to back: Elder Goodman, Sister Lewis and Sister Brown. |
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This group is now unwrapping sweet potato pies. (The other group had apple pies.)
Left to right: Elder Moss, Elder Long, Pat (another volunteer), Sister Joost and Sister Nakatsuka. |
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| Another job - open containers of sage, nutmeg and cinnamon. |
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| Left to right: Elder McDonald, Elder Bodily, Elder Garcia, Elder Dillon, Elder Branning and Elder Moore tackle the jars of sage. |
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| Elder Branning and Elder Dillon now move on to opening bags of mini marshmallows for the sweet potatoes. |
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Left side front to back: Elder Wery, Elder Snow, Elder Gremillion and Elder Rushton open cans of gravy.
Right side front to back: Sister Chan, Sister Morotti, Elder Gillespie, Elder Williams, Elder Arnett and Elder Olsen join in the can opening. |
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Left side front to back: Elder Munoz, Elder Alca, Elder Lowry, Elder Larson and Elder Furugen cut the now baked pies.
Right side front to back: Elder Flores Sister Bowman, Sister Holt and Sister Porter join in cutting the pies. |
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They can't believe all of the cans!
Left side front to back: Elder Olsen, Elder Williams, Sister Morotti and Sister Chan.
Right Side front to back: Elder Rushton, Elder Gremillion, Elder Alca and Elder Wery. |
The day before Thanksgiving there are many volunteers who join together to serve the homeless.
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| Missionaries left to right: Elder Szabo, Elder Fisher, Elder pon and Elder Jelitto. |
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| Missionaries left to right: Elder Clapier, Elder Kuddes and Elder Tanner. |
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| Elder Croft with two volunteers. |
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| Our missionaries were assigned to cover the "blue" section. |
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| There are plenty of servers, but the lines to get food move slowly. |
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| These missionaries were in line for twenty minutes to pick up food. |
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| Left to right: Sister Schoemaker, Elder Standing, Elder McDonald and Elder Lim. |
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| Five elders are sent off on an errand -they bring back cases of water and soda to be served. |
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Left to right: Sister Clement and Sister Avelar.
Sister Clement arrived to the mission field the day before. I'm pretty sure serving tables wasn't part of the MTC curriculum. But she along with all of the missionaries did it with a smile. |
And even though the missionaries were dressed in their proselyting clothes because they were serving downstairs, they were recruited by the kitchen because they needed reliable help.
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| Elder Croft and Elder Clapier begin the clean-up. |
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| Elder Fisher and Elder Tanner are also recruited to clean. |
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Left to right: Elder Seely and Elder Christensen.
When Elder Seely heard there was a shortage of help, he came to work in his service clothes. |
To show their gratitude, the kitchen staff prepared meals for all of the missionaries each day.
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Left side of table front to back: Sister Lewis, Sister Miller, Sister Gros, Elder Roomataaroa, Elder Goodman, Elder Chapman, Elder Gleed and Elder Hansen.
Right side of table front to back: Sister Quintanilla, Sister Brown, Elder Pon, Sister Finlay, Elder Vanaa and Elder Peterson. |
