A month went by, and then one day I got a call from the Temple. It seemed that they were in desperate need of someone to run the cash register in the cafeteria from 4:00 to 8:00 on Friday evenings! At first I wondered how on earth I could do that? I didn't get out of school until 3:15, but I'd promised Heavenly Father I'd do whatever He asked, so I said yes. (Of course, when I made that promise I was thinking it would be something like answering the phones again every other Saturday or working in the laundry twice a month or something. But this job would mean meeting all the people who worked in the Temple on Friday nights, if they came into the cafeteria to get something to eat, as well as patrons who came into the cafeteria. How exciting! )
The first night I was exhilarated and in high spirits, but I was also terrified. How on earth was I supposed to run a cash register when I was so bad at math? It would be mortifying to give people the wrong change in the Temple. It turned out that they had a fancy, new, computerized cash register, but then I was afraid I'd ruin it by pushing the wrong buttons or something, and I nearly did.
Things went OK at first. The cafeteria was pretty quiet and the sister in charge showed me how to ring things up, sort of. She had to leave early to go to a ward party, but she assured me everything would be OK. The temple workers and patrons who came into the cafeteria to get something to eat were very sweet and helpful, and while they patiently waited for me to ring up their food they asked me questions about who I was, who I was related to, and how I'd come to be working there. Many of the temple workers were elderly couples, and as soon as they found out I was single they got a special gleam in their eyes.
One little couple looked significantly at each other, then the husband said, “You know, there's a really nice fellow who works in the Baptistry on Friday nights that we ought to introduce you to. He's single, isn't he honey?” he asked his wife.
“I'm pretty sure he is,” she agreed. “And he's tall, and really nice looking,” she twinkled at me. “He has white hair, but I don't think he's very old, and a mustache. You watch for him when he comes in to get something to eat.”
I smiled as I gave them their change, and wondered how many other elderly temple workers were going to get a kick out of playing matchmaker for me. This was going to be fun.
Then, about 6:00, all of a sudden the cash register stopped working. No matter what key I pushed it set off an alarm and I couldn't even get the money tray to open.
“What should I do?” I worried as I hurried into the kitchen to see if one of the cooks knew how to work the register. They had no idea. It was new, and sophisticated, and beyond all of their wisdom. We tried calling the sister who had trained me, but she wasn't home. We tried asking the people who worked in the laundry and the office, but they had no idea what to do either. In fact, no one in the temple had any idea what to do to make the cash register work.
A long line started forming of people who wanted to pay for their meal, so at last I grabbed some paper and started writing their orders down, adding them up, and trying to make change with what they had. Pretty soon everyone in the cafeteria was helping me make change, they all felt sorry for me, and in the end it worked out OK. I don't know if the tall, white haired baptistry worker with a mustache ever came through the cafeteria that night, I was too flustered trying not to cheat anybody, but I sure did meet lots of sweet temple workers.
After we finally closed up at 8:00 I was able to get a hold of the sister in charge, and she told me there was a little button on top of the register that was probably not pushed in. As soon as I found it and pushed it down the register worked, so thank goodness I hadn't really broken it after all. When I added up the orders I found that I'd only short-changed one brother $1.00, which I gave back to him the following week, so things didn't end up too badly, but what a beginning! I was surprised they didn't fire me, but glad I'd made it through the first night. At least it hadn't been boring.
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