experience happened today! I am still overwhelmed and in awe.
This morning, I was thinking about the upcoming General Conference of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was pondering what might be said and how excited I was to hear from our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and also the other General Authorities. Little did I know that a few hours later I would see one in person.
As our Sacrament meeting began, a new baby was blessed by her father. The grandfather of the baby was a doppelganger for President Uchtdorf and the people sitting in close proximity to me were whispering "That man looks similar to President Uchtdorf ~ look we have a member of the First Presidency in our own congregation." I guess the joke was on us!
Right before this happened, our Bishop was pulled out of the baby blessing and meeting by an unknown person which I thought was rather odd. Actually, I thought there had been some kind of emergency. When the Bishop came back in, however, the bishopric rearranged their seating and asked us to have a few minutes of reverence before the sacrament was blessed and passed. As I looked around the congregation, I caught several eyes and those people must've been thinking the same thing as me as eyebrows were raised in confusion as to why we were all sitting there. I noticed the Bishop smiling though, with a knowing smile, and that added more to my confusion.
Suddenly, the side door opened and in walked several gentlemen. As I watched them walk in, recognition slowly dawned on me as I realized one of the men was Elder Bednar. Gasps were audible! As we all sat, dumbstruck, I saw Brother Harker rise out of his seat. Quickly breaking through the awe we were all feeling, we all rose and stood as a show of respect for an apostle of the Lord.
Elder Bednar came to the pulpit and announced that he wasn't here to tell us all to move to Missouri. He had been in the area for many meetings and was supposed to rendezvous with other General Authorities in our parking lot, but had arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule. He joked with his companions that "they should go into the meeting and freak some people out." Boy, he sure did ~ lucky us!!
His testimony was incredible as was his witness of the Savior! My little Rachel began crying. What a wonderful teaching moment for me as a mom, to have her discover what a "burning in your bosom" really feels like and to be able to discuss her feelings. Tyler was blessing the Sacrament for the first time today and I could see the nervousness increase as he realized he might be blessing it in front of Elder Bednar.
The wonderful blessing given to our youth and children was amazing! I am still in awe over the entire experience!
Anna said "Mom, we have seen two famous people this week. Michael from Extreme Home Makeover and Elder Bednar, but seeing Elder Bednar made me feel so much more peaceful." I'm glad she also recognizes the Spirit.
Now we are all the more excited for General Conference!
That's really awesome and awe inspiring Kim. What a wonderful morning.
ReplyDeleteWay cool! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete~Sheila
AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool. I'm jealous he didn't visit our ward!! :-)
ReplyDeleteI got goose bumps reading this!
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the Bishop leaving or coming, and I didn't see the baby; those are new details for me.
ReplyDeleteShelli Garrett was speaking that day, and she was also my visiting teaching companion. During a drive between visiting teaching visits, she told me her experience.
Shelli learned that he was coming before he walked in because she was sitting on the stand, so she watched the congregation's reaction. She told me that my facial expression when he walked in was the most animated.
I saw the same group of men that you did, and Bednar was surrounded by men, but I felt him walk in before I could scan all the faces. It was like the Spirit had just walked in the room.
Even little Toby was silent and attentive and less squirmy than usual; he could tell something was up.