My story is about an important lesson I learned while working on the farm. It was summertime and I was 15 years old. My sisters and I were inside doing our ever-dreaded “Saturday Jobs”. There was no way of getting out of doing our Saturday jobs unless my dad coming into the house to get us to work out on the farm. We loved working on the farm with dad. Anything he had us do was always a lot more fun and a lot easier than the work my mom had us do in the house; however, my mom would only let him take one or two of the three of us who were old enough to go. Therefore, it was always a battle of who would get to go with my dad. This particular Saturday I heard my dad’s motorbike pull up and all three of us ran to the door to see if we could go. I was very happy when my dad said, “I need Tiff to come out with me today I have a job I want to start her on.” I ran to get my shoes and jumped on the motor bike with my dad. We headed out to a field and as we stopped in front of the silage tractor my excitement was starting to dwindle. I soon realized that my dad wanted me to learn how to drive the tractor that would chop all of the hay that summer to store away for silage for the cows. My dad now has a self-propelled chopper but this particular summer he still had his pull behind chopper which, in my opinion, is a lot harder to drive. It had three pieces to it: the tractor, the chopper that hooked on to that and behind the chopper there was a wagon that the chute would spray the hay into. It seemed like a train to me and I thought it looked impossible to drive. “OK.” My dad said, “It’s time you learned to chop hay. We’re short of help and we need you to do it.” I immediately started saying that I didn’t think that was a good idea and I wasn’t ready and I didn’t even have my license yet but he said, “You’re ready. You can do it” Then he proceeded to show me how to work the many switches and levers. As I sat while my dad explained the process to me it seemed I would never be able to do it. There were so many things to watch and buttons to push and all at the same time while you were looking forward to stay on the right row and looking back to make sure the hay was going into the wagon. In addition I had to make sure the chopper didn’t go to fast and get plugged with hay and be on alert for the metal detector, which would buzz so that metal wouldn’t go through the chopper. Once again I said, “Dad, I really don’t think I can do it”. “You can do it. I’ll drive a couple passes with you.” So he drove down one row of cut hay while I watched what he did and he explained everything to me. Then he told me to drive. “Ok”, I said “but you can’t get out. I still need your help.” As I started chopping with my dad in there to help me and tell me what to do it didn’t seem so difficult. “I can do this,” I thought. But then after going down one row and back up another my dad said ok I’ve got work to do. Just keep chopping and a truck will be here in a minute then you can dump the hay in it. Just pull this button and push this and it will dump. I was nearly in tears and I said dad really you can’t go yet I just barely learned what if I ruin everything and break your tractor. What if I mess up really bad? My dad said, “Tiff, I know you can do this. If I didn’t think you could I wouldn’t have given you the job. I trust you.” I swallowed back my doubts and nervousness and said, ok dad if you say so. Then just as my dad was about to leave on his bike I opened the door and said, “But dad what if I need you or have a question where will you be?” That’s when he pointed to the radio below the steering wheel and said. I have my radio all you have to do is press the button and I can help you.
This experience taught me a few great lessons about life. I did learn how to chop that summer. I made some mistakes and I wasn’t very fast in the beginning. I’m sure some of the other workers on the farm probably questioned my dad’s wisdom in letting me drive; but, I got better and by the end of the summer and I loved to chop hay. I found that it was very rewarding. At the end of a long, hard day I could look out over the empty field(s) and think, “I helped do that”. I was a part of accomplishing that huge task. It was very rewarding.
The next lesson I learned was that this life can sometimes be hard and we have challenges that we alone have to face and overcome. We came down to this earth with the ultimate goal of returning to live with our Heavenly Father and we have to make choices everyday that will help us return to live with him. Heavenly Father has faith and trust in us that we can overcome the challenges that we are faced with and make the right decisions so that we can return to live with him. Just like my dad was right there telling me he knew I could do it. Heavenly Father is telling us that he knows we can do it and believes in us that we can endure to the end. My dad trusted me and because of that trust I gained the confidence that I could accomplish the task. Heavenly Father Also trusts us and he won’t give us something that we can’t do. We just need to gain confidence in ourselves to accomplish hard things.
The third lesson I learned was that we are not alone. Just like I had the radio to call my dad when I needed him for something we have ways that we can get help when we need it. We have parents, grandparents, church leaders and most importantly we can always pray to our Heavenly Father and he will hear and answer our prayers. I have a testimony of the power of prayer and I know that when we are faced with a difficult decision or need help with something we can call on our Heavenly Father and he will help us.
