I Love Lucy at the Soap Factory

John and I went with three other members of our ward last Tuesday to the Deseret Soap Factory in Magna for a welfare assignment for four hours. We have often done assignments but this was our first experience here. After prayer meeting and a humorous safely film we were given our assignments. They also served cheese and crackers, fruit, milk and chocolate milk for the morning break. John and I were working on the line to fill liquid dish detergent containers. I filled the plastic bottles from an automatic dispenser with two seconds to get the filled container off and the empty one on. Another sister screwed the lids on the bottles and John made up a card board box, filled it with a dozen bottles, sealed it shut, and put it on a pallet. You need to imagine Lucy Ricardo on the assembly line boxing chocolates and you will get an idea of what was happening with me. The job wasn’t hard but it was constant. The bottles had to be filled to an exact level. Between the dripping spout and the splashing detergent, if I didn’t do it exactly right on time, I ended up with very clean hands and only had a few major messes where I had to stop the belt. In all John loaded 1320 containers of dish detergent or two and a half pallets. That will make a big difference in a lot of homes! Things I learned:

1. Every job is important and needs to be done well. No job in too mundane.

2. Don’t be distracted. When you stop thinking about the goal, you get into a mess.

3. Don’t become prideful. Even though you have filled hundreds of bottles perfectly, you still have to fill the next one with exactness. If you become lax, you get yourself into a mess.

4. When you’re in a mess, don’t stay there. Repent, change your ways, and move on as quickly as possible. There are always people to help and encourage you.

5. I understood better Grandma Lillian Stead Rogers’ gratitude of being able to come to America and to get a high school education and skills to be a secretary instead of going to work in the noisy factories in England when she finished eighth grade.