Church today was so great! It was fast and testimony meeting, which means that, rather than having speakers lined up and armed and ready with carefully prepared talks, any member of the congregation is welcome to come up and bear their testimony of the Gospel. Today the meeting was particularly wonderful and the Spirit there was so strong! Feeling that Spirit is something I really need in my life as the mother of 4 young kids. I need my spiritual bucket refilled as often as possible. Motherhood is draining.
The members today who really spoke to me were, first, a friend and neighbor who followed up three of her children and said that she and her husband had tried as various times to encourage their kids to bear their testimonies in church and that she realized that she needed to be an example of that. She said, "It's SCARY up here! I'm shaking like no other!" SO TRUE!! I HATE public speaking and it's worse if I'm trying to speak about something near and dear to me like my love, faith, and knowledge of my Savior. She went on to say that even though it's scary, if she wants to encourage her kids to do it, she needs to be an example. And then she said that her kids were being such a great example to her today by coming up and sharing their sweet testimonies. I felt very much like she was talking to me and she was setting such a good example for me. I am terrified of bearing my testimony. I think I've only done it once or twice in Sacrament meeting ever. Brice tries to encourage me but I just can't! It's too scary.
Next, another friend and neighbor went up. I've gotten to know this sister through visiting teaching. Visiting teaching is a program we use to check up on each other and make sure the needs of our congregation are being met. The bishop can't visit and care for each member himself, so we delegate. Each of us are assigned a companion to go with and asked to visit a few other sisters each month to share a gospel message and make sure they are doing okay emotionally, spiritually, financially, etc. (the men in the ward do the same thing, but they visit and share a message with the whole family). I've had this sister as one of my visiting teaching ladies for over a year now. She is from Ecuador and her English is coming along but it isn't perfect. She is a dear woman with a soft, gentle, joyful, and loving spirit about her. Today she got up and started to speak. But quickly she realized that what she wanted to say was too important to her to struggle with the language. She changed over to Spanish. I caught some of it and Brice clued me in on what I missed. She said that her father had passed away last week (she told me a few weeks ago that he had cancer and wasn't expected to live much longer). She talked about what a great man he was; that when he learned of the gospel he said he would follow the Lord with all his might, mind, and strength and that he did so until his dying day. He was a great example to her and she is going to miss him but that she knows that through the plan of salvation she can be with him again. Hers was a testimony of strength and power; she knows the Lord and she knows that through Him, she will see her father again.
Waiting on the stand to go next after her was a friend of ours whom Brice has gone to school with since he started the engineering program and our two families have become close friends. They moved into our neighborhood last year with our encouragement and we love having them so close. This friend served a mission in Panama and speaks Spanish. When he got up to speak, he shared with the congregation who didn't understand Spanish what the sister before him has said. He told us that she had testified with strength that the plan of salvation and the Gospel are true. He told us that she had shared what a great man that her father was. Then he added his own testimony of the plan of salvation and the truthfulness of the gospel to hers with an equal measure of power and strength. He testified that this is the true and living gospel--living because we have prophets on the earth today to lead and to guide us in the ways of the Lord.
I was in awe at the workings of our Lord. There are many people in our ward who speak Spanish and I'm sure a lot of the congregation understood our sweet sister's testimony, and surely everyone felt her sweet spirit, but for those who didn't understand, it would have been a powerful and special testimony to miss. I felt like the hand of God was so very much in the room and in the hearts of the people, giving our sweet sister the courage to say what she wanted to say in the best way she could and then, especially, in prompting our friend to be there at just the right time to translate for our Spanish-speaking sister. It was a beautiful thing to witness. And I add my witness and testimony to theirs that the Gospel is true, the plan of salvation is real, that Christ lives, and He atoned for our sins because He knows us and loves us and He wants us to be able to return to live with God again, pure and spotless before Him. I have a very strong testimony that the Lord knows me individually. I'm not just another one of those people down there, muddling through. He knows my struggles, my trials, my successes, my heart. He has proven it to me time and time again. He has worked mighty miracles in my life. I see them and I witness that it is the hand of God in my life, protecting me and my family, lending me breath from day to day, my rock and my strength, without whom I would falter and fail and not know which way to turn. The Gospel gives my life direction and purpose. It brings me everlasting and eternal joy. I know these things to be true in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Oh, boy.
See, like this! She's hiding in this tent, naked, sneaking crackers!! Never a dull moment!