Listening to General Conference on the treadmill

Like every other school day, I took Rhiannon to seminary this morning and then fought the urge to go right back to sleep.  It's dark then, and the couch looks pretty cozy!!!  Usually I give in and enjoy that 40 extra minutes sooooo much.

But today was different.

I felt I needed to listen to conference AND get a little exercise, so I walked into the guest bedroom, set up the treadmill, and started walking while I listened to a recent General Conference talk.

The next 40 minutes were very special to me.  President Eyring's talk about the law of the fast and fast offerings was the first message of the Saturday morning session, and it was the best talk or lesson I've ever heard on fasting.  Period.  My eyes teared up as he talked about the faithful woman from Sierra Leone, too.

I still had time to kill and some treadmill to pound, so I clicked on President Packer's talk.  I felt my heart breaking a little bit because his words were very slurred in his advanced age and I could only pick up about every 4th word.

I quickly got off the treadmill and read President Packer's talk instead of listening to it on my little iPhone screen.  You know what I discovered?  He gave the best talk I've ever heard about the power of procreation, creating life, and why it must be guarded, why saving that til you're married to someone you love eternally is crucial.  I'm so glad I read it, and I will definitely share that with our kids.

A few minutes remained before I had to pick up Rhiannon, so I skimmed talks and picked Elder Ballard's talk titled "The Greatest Generation of Young Adults."

Because of the guidance of the Holy Ghost, I felt strongly to share it tonight in our institute class, even though there is a lot of other material to cover.  That talk is important.  It needs to be shared, studied, and reviewed over and over.

What an amazing start to my morning!  These messages from living prophets touched my heart today as I walked on the treadmill.  It was a funny place to have a spiritual experience, but one that I will treasure and think about through the rest of the day and week.

The gospel is true.  And it makes me happy!

Our friend Sundown

This weekend has been very special for our ward family.  A wonderful investigator and friend, Sundown Hittu and her son Ben were baptized last night.  This has been a 6-month+ journey for Sundown, and she has been an inspiration to our whole ward as she has overcome addictions, discouragement, trials and fear.  We have all grown from her faith, and we are all so happy for her!!!

Bishop Washburn, Sundown and Ben Hittu, Sister Taylor and Sister Lazarotto

Elder Haroldsen with Sundown and Ben

When Jason and I showed up at the baptism (at President and Sister Bull's home in their pool--still no stake center here in Ridgecrest to use a regular font), our bishop Ephraim Washburn and his wife Kimm talked with me for a few minutes.  He said that I'd been very helpful to Sundown when I'd shared my testimony of repentance with her, that there were so many like me who were sharing this day and her joy with her.  

I wanted to write about that particular night with Sundown because it illustrates one way the Holy Ghost works and how prayers can be answered in simple ways.

On Wednesday, March 11th, I had the random idea to text a few friends and see if they wanted to ride together to the Relief Society dinner that night.  Sundown was the only friend able to go that night, and I was happy to pick her up.  (Now, I rarely offer rides to RS night--I like making quick getaways, haha!)  The activity was wonderful and we all enjoyed the sisterhood and love that was felt there!  As I pulled into Sundown's apartment complex afterwards, we talked in the car for a bit, and Sundown talked about the process of the baptismal interviews she had to do and how painfully embarrassing it was for her.  She was so sad and upset.  I paused a moment, feeling impressed to share some personal experiences but feeling awkward about it, but I took the plunge and shared one of my own experiences with repentance, how I had felt those same feelings, in the beginning.  But I also said that I was grateful for full, true repentance because ultimately that embarrassment gave way to deep gratitude to the Savior for His Atonement and an understanding that it was real, that it was for me, and that Christ knew me and loved me.  

It was a quiet, special moment that I will never forget.  How grateful I was to find out later that those few minutes, talking in my van at night in the parking lot, helped Sundown jump those last few hurdles.  I hope she knows how much she is loved and admired and cherished!

Live Nativity

Another Christmas activity that we enjoyed this year--the live nativity put on by members of our stake at the meetinghouse.  It was open to the public, so people could either drive by or walk up and stay a while.  There was beautiful music playing in the background--the whole scene was very quiet and peaceful!

One of my favorite moments was when "Mary" handed the baby Jesus to one of the three wise men. Mary was played by Leah Lauritzen (recently married--not sure what her married name is!) and the wise man was her dad, David Lauritzen.  It kind of took my breath away for a moment, to imagine what that might be like, if Mary really had passed her baby around for others to hold, for others to cradle the Savior in their arms.

Thank you to those who put this together and to the special people who played parts in the Nativity and stood out in the cold for so long!

Listening and following through

I sent out an email to family yesterday about some stories I heard at church on Sunday.  The stories were so profound to me that I wanted to add them to the blog, too.  That way, when I come back to them, I can remember again how I felt in that meeting.  

In our women's meeting at church, the lesson was from our Relief Society president on listening to the Spirit and following through on promptings we receive.  The moral I got, after listening to some amazing experiences that happened to people I knew, was that it doesn't matter if you think it's from God or just a random thought--if it's not hurting anybody and it feels right, you should follow through, and quickly!

The friend sitting next to me in the meeting is a newlywed. She and her husband moved to Ridgecrest in October.  She shared about something that happened to her husband a few weeks ago.  He was working out at the gym on base lifting weights, and he had the thought to go get on one of the bikes.  He hates cardio, but he followed through.  Just as he got to the bike, a janitor lady that he was friends with walked over to the water fountain near him and collapsed to the floor from a heart attack.  An ambulance was called and she got to the hospital and stayed alive for 15 hours, enough time for her family to come say goodbye before she died.  The crazy thing is that the bike and water fountain were in this out-of-the-way spot where no one goes.  There's no telling how long the woman would have laid there before someone found her.

Then an older friend talked about driving on the highway and having the thought to get over in the other lane.  She ignored it a couple times and finally moved over.  Just as she did that, a deer ran onto the highway, jumped over her car, and kept on going.  If she'd been in the other lane, there would have been a bad accident.

Then our teacher said she felt inspired to talk about this topic of listening and following through after an experience her family had gone through just this week.  She and her husband own a trucking business, and one of their drivers called from a little town in Texas saying that he felt really sick and needed help getting the truck back.  Our teacher was listening to this conversation and felt right away that she needed to call some members of the Church to check on him.  She didn't know how to do that, but felt inspired to get on the Church website and quickly located Church members, strangers to her, and asked them to go check on this friend at his motel.  She was worried they'd think she was crazy, but asked them anyway.  A branch president and missionaries went to check on their truck driver, who was experiencing kidney and liver failure by then and was obviously suffering from something worse than a flu.  He received a priesthood blessing and was life-flighted to a big hospital in Texas because he was having a heart attack and other complications.  Their truck driver friend is not a member of the Church, but he is grateful for the blessings he received, calling them "when the men prayed over me," and he is making a remarkable recovery.

As you can imagine, we were all very touched by that lesson and the stories that were shared.  I'm sure there were lots of other stories that could have been shared, too.  I'm thankful that I was there to hear the lesson, especially since I was itching to get home at the time and watch the Super Bowl. :)  I would have really missed out if I'd skipped.  :)