How many of us get to say we were baptized ON our birthday? THIS GUY DOES!! Loved sharing every minute of this day with him and our wonderful family – Heaven was so close.
Waiting for the meeting to start
Can’t imagine a better way to spend his birthday than with all of our family!
Love this poster made by one of his aunts.
Three weeks ago Jonathan and I went to the temple for some insight on how to get from Tooele, Utah to Prosper, Texas. It felt like a daunting task and we needed help.
While at the temple Jonathan and I received the answer to take a ‘bend in the road’ and, before moving to Texas, we should rent in the Salt Lake area for about 9-12 months after we sell our home. This new idea took us by surprise although I’m not sure why. Nothing about this journey has been “normal”.
I don’t want to write about the bend, but how I learned (without any doubt) that this bend is about making a friend and letting her know that God loves her.
I have to start from the beginning. I was visiting my mother-in-law’s ward a couple of years ago for a missionary something or other and saw this woman sitting by herself in RS. I felt something special for her and decided to sit by her.
Then on another occasion (about a year ago) we were there for another missionary something or other and I noticed this woman wasn’t in RS. I missed her. It was strange to me to feel this because I don’t know her very well, but I truly missed her. I asked Mona about her and was told she hadn’t been out for some time. I felt compelled to visit her after church. I did, but she didn’t answer her door.
Fast forward to three weeks ago when we were in the temple. This woman’s husband was there as well. We stopped and talked to him for a few minutes. Afterwards when I was pondering ‘why the bend?’ the answer came that staying would give me a chance to reach out to this woman and that seeing her husband in the temple wasn’t an accident.
A few weeks went by and it felt like nothing was happening. Trying to decide what community to live in and what schools our children should attend was frustrating to me plus it felt like nothing was happening on our house. I called a friend about some random Cub Scout thing and we ended up talking about how we wouldn’t be moving directly to Texas. She then helped me by letting me process what I was feeling and then just said how it seemed very clear to her that maybe we needed to consider living near this woman. I hadn’t really thought about that because I just thought being in the Salt Lake Valley would be close enough, but considering the idea felt right. Once I was open to this idea then, of course, all the questions started. The biggest one being “should we really narrow down our area near this woman?” The Salt Lake Valley is big, you know. There are lots of great places to live. Narrowing our options doesn’t even let us consider them. I have learned that you have to ask questions in order to get answers and you have to make decisions in order to get confirmations.
I decided that we should live near this woman.
After I got off the phone Jonathan suggested we go to lunch. About half way through our meal a man walked in. Can you guess who it was? Yep! This woman’s husband, the same man we met at the temple three weeks earlier. The moment felt perfect. The timing was perfect. And you could not deny that we weren’t the ones in charge.
He came over and talked to us and told us he was in Tooele on business. After visiting with him for a few minutes we decided to confess. 🙂 When we told him our story he said, “You know, I’ve been driving past this restaurant for years and decided that today I would try it.” He seemed very grateful that we were paying attention and willing to follow the inspiration we had received. I was grateful he was in tune because I needed to feel confident about my answer.
I have learned that without a doubt we are supposed to move to Texas. I have also learned that there are many reasons why we should stay a little longer and that good things will happen during that time. But most importantly I learned that the real reason I’m being asked to stay is so that I can reach out to one person.
God loves His children.
I’m not very good at expressing my thoughts; verbally or written. I’m just not. Some writers and speakers possess this amazing talent that allows them to take their audience to the place they need to be in order to hear the message they are giving. I am not one of them. My writing style is actually pretty boring. And not only that, I think it’s kind of hard to follow me because I start rambling all over the place. One minute I’m talking about the present and the next minute I’m talking about something that happened in 1982. I suppose it’s the conversationalist in me. I’m sure in time I’ll get better, but for now it’s important to me that I just write.
That being said, there are so many experiences I have that literally leave me wondering how people could ever wonder of God’s existence. I think that sounds a little narrow minded, but I don’t know how else to explain it. My life has been filled with “chance meetings” with individuals who showed up at just the right time and conversations timed so perfectly that have left me….speechless. Each has proven to me that God knows me, He knows of my circumstances and He loves me. For this reason it is is important to me to share them.
Write them in my journal you say? Well, yes, I do that too. But from somewhere deep inside I feel encouraged to share parts of my life on this platform. I don’t know how to explain it – I can just feel someone kind of cheering me on. I don’t share everything. In fact, sometimes I forget I even have a blog and then one day something happens and I just have this thought that floats across my mind, “You should write about that.” And I think to myself, ya, I guess that was pretty cool. So I do. 🙂
Do I think this will help anyone? Honestly, I don’t think anyone but my husband reads this blog so I would guess not. (shrug) For now I’m just happy walking by faith.
So, we’ve prayed, read, fasted, studied, pondered and anything else we could possibly do to seek the counsel of Heavenly Father and have decided that we will be moving to Texas. We took our family down there last week and I’m really glad we did. We were able to determine what city we would live in and we just need to wait until our house sells to move down there.
I have felt a lot of peace throughout this experience. I don’t know if it will happen before or after school is out, but I do know that we are in the Lord’s Hands. We have felt Him involved in this experience since day one. I am grateful for the assurance I have felt these past few months. If I hadn’t felt it I think I would have felt like I was going crazy.
Heavenly Father is truly mindful of us and I am grateful for good friends who reminds me of that.
About a month ago some stirrings occurred within our hearts (my husband’s and mine) that it is time to put our home up for sale. It came out of nowhere and caught us completely off guard.
What?! Put our house up for sale? NOW?! But we have a Senior in high school and I just accepted a calling that I’ve only been serving in for four months. Really? Now?
And the answer came: Yes. Now.
Okay, we’ll start getting our house ready to sell and put it up after school is out.
No. Now.
Okay, we’ll put it up once the term is over.
No. Now.
Okay, we’ll put it up for sale now.
Peace…..
But where will we go?
Get your home up for sale.
Okay. 🙂
Peace…..
Most often I don’t understand the Lord’s timing, but I do trust it. I’m very interested to see why we needed to get our home up for sale now and where we will end up moving. It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I am learning so much and am humbled by it all and grateful that our whole family is experiencing this together.
The sign goes up tomorrow.