Friend to Friend

The Secret Ingredient

By Sister Cristina B. Franco

Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency

Adapted from “The Joy of Unselfish Service,” Liahona, Nov. 2018, 55–57.

Heavenly Father wants us to serve others. My Primary teacher was a great example of service. When we came to Primary, Sister Antonietti always brought a chocolate cake. I hated chocolate cake! Everyone else liked it. But I never ate it.

One day she asked me, “Why don’t you try a little piece? This cake is made with a special ingredient.”

I agreed to try it. And guess what? I liked it!

Many years later my mom told me what Sister Antonietti’s secret ingredient was. “Sister Antonietti didn’t have much money,” my mom said. “Each week she had to choose between paying for a bus ride to Primary or buying the ingredients to make the chocolate cake for your class. She always chose the chocolate cake. So instead of riding the bus, she walked more than two miles [3 km], each way, regardless of the weather.”

Sister Antonietti’s secret ingredient was the love she had for others!