We just finished dishes after lunch. Going to church at 9 am is sure nice, in that it gives us larger, unbroken periods of time on Sunday. Everyone is sitting around eating red hots and playing a game together.
I had a weird dream this morning. I was doing dishes when I turned and noticed you standing in the kitchen. As it is with dreams, I was surprised to see you here, since you were on a mission in Africa. You seemed a little down, so we gave you a hug, told you that we loved you, and lovingly sent you back out the door to your mission. My dream was probably just a result of the chili I ate on Saturday (since I’ve never had a dream that meant anything), but if you ever do get a little discouraged and need some encouragement, know that we love you and we’re proud of what you’re doing, that we know you will survive and learn great things from it, then get back out and go to work :)
I spoke in Lewisville 2 today. It was an interesting experience. My topic was The Rescue, Ministering and Home Teaching. I prepared my talk a week early, but just wasn’t feeling the inspiration on this topic. As I was driving into the parking lot, I had a series of thoughts that I knew would make the talk less awful. As I got into the chapel and started writing them down, I had a few other thoughts fall into place. I ended up giving a pretty different talk than what I had prepared, and it turned out much better than what I had prepared.
Sometimes I wonder what we’re supposed to learn from the “last minute help” we get from Heavenly Father. I have had the occasional experience when I knew what I should say or do immediately, when things just fell into place and I felt guided from the outset. More frequently, however, it goes the other way and the real guidance comes at the end after I’ve tried other stuff. I don’t know what it is, but there’s probably a deep eternal principle there, if I could just figure it out.
This week’s advice: I don’t know if Nephi would have been ready to slay Laban before Laman was chased away, all their precious things were stolen, and they had run for their lives. Had they found Laban right off, would Nephi have been prepared to follow through with what the Lord needed him to do? I don’t think so. How many times are the things we try first actually the lessons that prepare us for the solution we needed to arrive at, but were unprepared to embrace until after the experience? May have answered my own question from above.
Your mom is writing too, so this is just a supplement. We love you. Keep the faith.
Dad
Here’s another entry for Faith & Evidences:
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Grandma Ormond’s Blessing
This is another one where I’ll state that I’m not sure that my experience reflects accurate doctrine, but it is accurate.
When we moved back to Idaho from school in California. we took the opportunity to visit Grandma Ormond frequently. She lived in a nursing home in Rexburg, and we would drop in with our kids or individually on a regular basis. Grandma had great longevity genes (related to Elder Perry) and a pleasant, amicable personality. At age 95, she had a serious fall, and the medical complications looked grim. In the hospital, she became unresponsive, and my Mom asked me to give here a blessing.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to give a priesthood blessing to someone in dire circumstances, it’s a weighty responsibility. I especially feel the need to KNOW what the Lord would have me say in the blessing when using his Priesthood. In this instance, I felt complete confidence that this was a minor issue, and blessed her that her doctors would be able to quickly treat her, and that she would regain her health. Within just a few days, the doctors realized that they had crossed a couple of medications which produced a negative side-effect (coma). They changed the medication, and she immediately pulled out and recovered.
Fast forward a couple of years. Grandma had taken another hard fall one night as she tried to go to the bathroom, and had become unresponsive. My mother asked if I would come and give her a blessing. As I sat briefly with both of them in Grandma Ormond’s room, I felt that Grandma Ormond wouldn’t recover from this, and began to wonder how to give a blessing that releases someone from this life. As I laid my hands on her head, I felt something totally unexpected. I felt that I was standing in as proxy for my Grandpa Ormond, who was the rightful priesthood bearer to give this blessing. I knew that Grandma needed to be released from this life and that she would die very soon. I also felt my Grandfather’s impatience, as if there were important things that they two needed to be doing, almost as if her death were a formality that had been postponed long enough.
I don’t remember specifics of the blessing, other than I released her from this life by the authority of the Priesthood, and that my mom cried as I said it. After I finished, and sat with mom, Grandma Ormond’s breathing began to be more and more labored, and she passed away about 40 minutes later as we sat peacefully in her room. My mom was understandably emotional, commenting that now she was an orphan. It was an honest statement, without a hint of facetiousness. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen her vulnerable.
The experience was special to me, and together with experiences I’ve shared as a missionary, or when we received financial help from Grandma 5 years after she passed away, has made me wonder about our eternal relationships and how much influence our ancestors have in our lives here. It certainly felt as if familial ties were actually deepened here and in eternity. I’ve wondered if many of the events in our lives here operate under the direction of the priesthood, through our deceased ancestors as the ministering of angels. Regardless of the answers there, I have experienced the power of the Priesthood as I’ve been inspired to know things I could not otherwise know (the future), and to participate in eternally significant events.
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