Sunday 22 January 2012

Miracles

The Saturday evening adult session of our Stake conferences are always a spiritual feast. Tonight was no exception, the topic was miracles. A number of people spoke about miracles in their lives:

One sister talked about how her stake president had challenged their stake to attend the temple four weeks in a row. She had health issues involving chronic pain that made a trip to Cardston very taxing. It would usually wipe her put for days. She decided to take the challenge though. As she attended each week she found she was able to be limber enough to do all she was required to do driving o, at the temple, coming home from the temple, and in her personal life after returning. Her pain totally disappeared and she was healed. A true miracle.

Next was a new convert to the church. He talked about how hislife had changed since being baptized - all miracles. He talked about how great it was to be part of a church family where people greeted him and cared Bout him and where he could visit with people in their homes. He talked about how is relationships had improved and how he was more patient and tolerant. All miracles.

Then a man got up who had had chronic back pain. Over six years it got worse and worse until he was bedridden 95% of the time. He had someone he had promised that if he read the Book of Mormon with him every day he would be healed and they would go on backpack hiking trips together....something absolutely impossible and absurd at the time. that was in 2011. Over the year they did read together and he was healed. A true miracle. Now he works out daily. He can walk and run and skip, and he does!

A lady spoke who is a single mom. Her husband died when her oldest was ten. She talked about the struggles of being a single mother, and how her children struggled too. She talked about how the oldest got reactivated and went on a mission and was called to the place his father had said before he died that he would. When he got his call it was to a neighboring country to what his dad had named as his mission, but the call got changed and he did end up serving whe his dad had said he would. Her next son has also been called on a mission.

The music tonight was amazing. The opening hymn (The Lord is My Light) set the tone. The intermediate hymn was a special musical number and was amazing. One line was: let me lve and serve and teach those that come within my reach, for that is where miracles begin. After the stake presidency spoke we departed from the planned hymn and stood and sang The Spirit of God. It was amazing!

President Rausch talked about his daughter Emily. When she was 8 she started having seizures. It started with just falling down. She said her leg got tingly and she fell. This stated happening more and more until she was having 40 or more seizures a day. She couldn't do things other kids did because there was always the worry she would get really hurt while having a seizure. They went to all sorts of doctors and no cure was found. A couple years later at the beginning of the school year she was told in a Father's blessing she would ge healed by he end of the school year. A new neurologist came to the Childre's Hospital and found something in an MRI none of he previous doctors had noticed. A surgery was scheduled for July. That wasn't the deal though. She was to be healed before school finished that year. Sure enough an opening came up at the beginning of June. Since mid-June of that year, now ten years later, she has not had another seizure.

President Zemp talked about a friend he recently ran into. Is wife has had severe mental health issues and there has been nothing over the past 20+ years to heal (or help?) her situation. The miracle there has been the husband. He has been blessed with an amazing ability to love and hlp his wife through her struggles. A true miracle.

President Thomas spoke last. He challenged us to trust God and allow him to perform the miracles in our lives he can. He said God has much more in store for us than we can ever imagine.

It was an amazing evening. Just what I needed! I have seen many miracles in my own life and know they are God's grace. I am grateful for miracles and will continue to watch for them in my life.

1 comment:

Renee said...

Dawn, thank you for writing about Stake Conference in such detail! I wish I could have been there and now I feel like I was.