Week 13 - Tender Mercies
Dearest Children, Grandchildren, Family and Friends!!
This has been another great week with the Pageant starting. There is a great deal of excitement around here. Dad and I made the mistake of going to downtown Palmyra yesterday to try to find something at the LDS bookstore…..CRAZY!!!! Wall to wall people!! It is so fun to have so many people here, though, and to have the temple busy!! I LOVE serving in the House of the Lord!! I have had some really sweet experiences this week and have been reflecting all week about the tender mercies of the Lord in our lives.
On Monday, I was assigned to a sealing session so I brought names of some Matthews cousins. One group was from a family of five siblings, who had had their temple work, except for sealing to parents, done for many years – one of the boys since 1903. I was proxy for the mother as these children were being sealed to her and her husband and I felt such an indescribable joy that I knew came from outside myself. This sweet mother was rejoicing at the uniting of her family for eternity. I could not help the tears streaming down my face….I know that surprises my children ;-)!
On Tuesday, I was coming home from getting a haircut. Dad had decided to stay home so I was by myself. I was about to turn onto what I was pretty sure the road to go home (a lot of the roads around here wind in and out of farmland and it is confusing at times.) I felt that I needed to pull over, call Dad, and put the address for home into the GPS to make sure I didn’t get turned around. It wasn’t a strong prompting or anything like that but I pulled over. I had no sooner gotten him on the phone than a big semi turned the corner going too fast and went over the center line right where I would have been had I not pulled over. I felt so protected!!
Wednesday I was in the baptistry during the morning shift for 3 hours instead of my scheduled 2 hours. I was exhausted. I came home and just lay on the bed for awhile!! Then, for the night shift, the Lord blessed me so much….again, another tender mercy. I was assigned to the greeter post and was able to help a blind sister as she came into the temple. Then, I was able to get her back to the locker room and then onto the session that I was assigned to. Someone else was assigned to sit by her during the session to assist but I was able to help her at the end. There was such a strong spirit in the session with her and the other patrons. What a sweet, sweet experience!!
On Thursday we were able to go to the dress rehearsal of the Pageant and that was a spectacular experience!! I can’t wait for John and Jeni, Matt and Cathy and their children to see it. They will be here at the end of the week.
Friday and Saturday were so busy at the temple. We had so many patrons!! It was great but exhausting!! I was grateful that I only had one shift on each of the days (Pageant temple schedule) but this coming Monday and Tuesday we will have double shifts….8:00 to 5:30 in the temple!!
Today was good!! It was Branch Conference and the talks were wonderful. We had a great lesson….not for anything WE did but because the Spirit was there testifying. We only had one girl but she shared her thoughts and testimony. Loved it!! Relief Society was good. We couldn’t visit our assigned sisters but we tried to visit two of the members who were in the hospital. In both cases, they had already gone home so that was good news. One was the little eight year old sister of one of the girls in our class. We dropped by her house to see how her sister was and to deliver a triple combination that the President had ordered for the kids in our class. She was so thrilled that we would bring her the book and a picture of the Savior from our lesson. Next week her brother turns 12 so he will be in our class as well. Fun!!!
I am sharing some before/after pictures with you and an analogy that Dad and I talked about. The first picture is of some purple flowers that line the roads now. We actually were going to take a picture of them on the way home last week but they had closed up. There is also a yellow variety but the purple is much more plentiful. Anyway, they are open until about midday and then they close up. Interesting! You will see that in the picture of the same group of flowers from the first picture that we took on the way home from church. It is a little different angle and across the road but the same group of flowers. Dad and I were thinking that this is a lot like some members of the church. Some just don’t want to partake of the “full sun” of the gospel. They want to pick and choose what they learn or how much they serve. The unfortunate consequence of that, though, is that they also don’t get the fullness of the blessings they could receive. We need to ask ourselves if we are closing up our hearts and minds to the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Great food for thought!!
Well, dear ones, this is all I have for this week. I hope you are remembering to look for the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord. They are all around you!!!
Love much and always!!
Mom/Grandma/Sandy
This has been another great week with the Pageant starting. There is a great deal of excitement around here. Dad and I made the mistake of going to downtown Palmyra yesterday to try to find something at the LDS bookstore…..CRAZY!!!! Wall to wall people!! It is so fun to have so many people here, though, and to have the temple busy!! I LOVE serving in the House of the Lord!! I have had some really sweet experiences this week and have been reflecting all week about the tender mercies of the Lord in our lives.
On Monday, I was assigned to a sealing session so I brought names of some Matthews cousins. One group was from a family of five siblings, who had had their temple work, except for sealing to parents, done for many years – one of the boys since 1903. I was proxy for the mother as these children were being sealed to her and her husband and I felt such an indescribable joy that I knew came from outside myself. This sweet mother was rejoicing at the uniting of her family for eternity. I could not help the tears streaming down my face….I know that surprises my children ;-)!
On Tuesday, I was coming home from getting a haircut. Dad had decided to stay home so I was by myself. I was about to turn onto what I was pretty sure the road to go home (a lot of the roads around here wind in and out of farmland and it is confusing at times.) I felt that I needed to pull over, call Dad, and put the address for home into the GPS to make sure I didn’t get turned around. It wasn’t a strong prompting or anything like that but I pulled over. I had no sooner gotten him on the phone than a big semi turned the corner going too fast and went over the center line right where I would have been had I not pulled over. I felt so protected!!
Wednesday I was in the baptistry during the morning shift for 3 hours instead of my scheduled 2 hours. I was exhausted. I came home and just lay on the bed for awhile!! Then, for the night shift, the Lord blessed me so much….again, another tender mercy. I was assigned to the greeter post and was able to help a blind sister as she came into the temple. Then, I was able to get her back to the locker room and then onto the session that I was assigned to. Someone else was assigned to sit by her during the session to assist but I was able to help her at the end. There was such a strong spirit in the session with her and the other patrons. What a sweet, sweet experience!!
On Thursday we were able to go to the dress rehearsal of the Pageant and that was a spectacular experience!! I can’t wait for John and Jeni, Matt and Cathy and their children to see it. They will be here at the end of the week.
Friday and Saturday were so busy at the temple. We had so many patrons!! It was great but exhausting!! I was grateful that I only had one shift on each of the days (Pageant temple schedule) but this coming Monday and Tuesday we will have double shifts….8:00 to 5:30 in the temple!!
Today was good!! It was Branch Conference and the talks were wonderful. We had a great lesson….not for anything WE did but because the Spirit was there testifying. We only had one girl but she shared her thoughts and testimony. Loved it!! Relief Society was good. We couldn’t visit our assigned sisters but we tried to visit two of the members who were in the hospital. In both cases, they had already gone home so that was good news. One was the little eight year old sister of one of the girls in our class. We dropped by her house to see how her sister was and to deliver a triple combination that the President had ordered for the kids in our class. She was so thrilled that we would bring her the book and a picture of the Savior from our lesson. Next week her brother turns 12 so he will be in our class as well. Fun!!!
I am sharing some before/after pictures with you and an analogy that Dad and I talked about. The first picture is of some purple flowers that line the roads now. We actually were going to take a picture of them on the way home last week but they had closed up. There is also a yellow variety but the purple is much more plentiful. Anyway, they are open until about midday and then they close up. Interesting! You will see that in the picture of the same group of flowers from the first picture that we took on the way home from church. It is a little different angle and across the road but the same group of flowers. Dad and I were thinking that this is a lot like some members of the church. Some just don’t want to partake of the “full sun” of the gospel. They want to pick and choose what they learn or how much they serve. The unfortunate consequence of that, though, is that they also don’t get the fullness of the blessings they could receive. We need to ask ourselves if we are closing up our hearts and minds to the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Great food for thought!!
Well, dear ones, this is all I have for this week. I hope you are remembering to look for the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord. They are all around you!!!
Love much and always!!
Mom/Grandma/Sandy
Comments
Post a Comment