Divine Design
I debated on weather or not I should share this experience here. This is a public forum and some things feel too personal and sacred to put out for everyone to read. But after thinking about it I felt prompted to go ahead and share it. I think it might bless those who read it as it blessed us.
We took Walker to Beehive Clothing/Deseret Bookstore to get his garments and temple clothes today. When we left the house we had no idea what the Lord had in store for us. 💛
When we arrived at the store we got our of the van and before we got two steps we saw Ryan Bollschweiller (he was one of the Young Men’s leader’s in our Ward for several years). His family moved out of the Ward a couple of years ago and the last time we saw him was at Campo’s graduation last year. Walker and his son Corbin graduated together. We chatted and had a great visit. He was so happy for Walker and excited to hear he is going to be learning Spanish for his mission. He had served his mission here in Arizona and also was Spanish speaking. He said it has blessed his life knowing Spanish. He’s in the construction business and he uses it everyday! He asked us to be sure to let him know when his Farewell will be so so he can be sure to come! We said our goodbye’s and thought that was neat running into our old friend.
We go inside and start looking around. One of the employees spotted us and Walker’s “special” paper — his temple recommend that 1st timers receive (it’s a little bigger than the one you get after you’ve been once). Her name was Tiami. She was so helpful, funny and made us all feel relaxed. She pointed us in the right direction and explained everything we needed to know. We were so grateful for all of her help! You might think that is “typical” but it’s not always the case. I felt so at ease with her and she had Walker laughing and it meant a lot to me.
Once we got everything we needed we got in line to checkout. When we got up to the register the girl said the woman who was in front of us left money for us to pay for all of Walker’s things. She said whatever is left over to just give to us in cash. I instantly began to cry!! Jared and I just looked at each other in awe and he starts to tear up too. The girl at the register sees our reaction and she beings to tear up! Walker leans over and gives me a great big hug, but he’s also giggling because he knows I’m a crier. LOL! 💛 We’ve never had anyone do something like that for us before. It was so generous and unexpected! The total for his things came to a decent amount of money but there was a few dollars left over after all was said and done. It was humbling.
We wiped our tears and headed over to the bookstore to look around. Walker wanted a new temple recommend holder and were searching around for them–they had rearranged things since we’d been in last. We found them and he found one he liked. It has a picture of the Gilbert Temple on it. Then we decided to look at the case of CTR rings just to browse.
Just as we walked over to the case I spotted Sis. Cathy Lamerouex. She and her husband are Walker’s Temple Prep Teachers. She came over and we visited for a bit. We told her why we were there and she was so excited!! She noticed we were looking at the rings and wanted to know if he’d found one he liked. We said we just started looking and he hadn’t made a decision yet. She said if he found one she’d love to buy it for him. 💛 We looked at each other and just couldn’t believe it!! We felt like we were in some sort of dream. Walker decided on a Spanish version of the CTR ring. It says, HLJ. Which stands for Has Lo Justo. Choose the right and/or be just. We loved that!
We followed Sis. Lamerouex to the register and she generously paid for his ring. I had to capture and remember this day and snapped a quick picture of them together. 💛
After she left we paid for Walker’s recommend holder. The money the woman left for us paid for all of his clothing and with the little bit of change left over it covered the cost of his recommend holder too. It was the “perfect” amount!!
Thinking about Bro. Bollschweiller, Tiami, the woman who left the money for Walker, and Sis. Lamerouex, there is NO WAY all of this was coincidence that we crossed paths with each one of them today! Elder Rasband gave a talk called, By Divine Design (click link to read) in General Conference in Oct. 2017.
He talks about how the Lord places people in our lives when we need them and how aware He is of each one of us. He quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell: ““None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence.’ This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design.’”
Our lives are like a chessboard, and the Lord moves us from one place to another—if we are responsive to spiritual promptings. Looking back, we can see His hand in our lives.”
Today our eyes were opened to the Earthly Angels He placed in our path to bless and help us.
Four different people who had to leave their homes at he exact time they did. Traffic that had to be timed just right to get them to the bookstore exactly when they did. Us arriving when we did and things timed to the exact minute of when it happened so we would intersect at the moments we did. It’s sort of mind boggling when you think about it. It’s a miracle to me! <3
Today was a testament to me of how aware the Lord is of Walker. He loves him so much and we all felt it so strongly. There is no denying it. I’m grateful I was able to be there to witness it. To be apart of it and to share my testimony of what happened to Walker and the family. I didn’t want it to be overlooked or rationalized away.That is what the natural man in us tends to do. But I know God is so proud of Walker and his decision to serve and bring the Gospel to His children in Tampa, Florida. The Lord is anxious to bless and help us. I know He is blessing Walker to help him to prepare so he can be successful.
My friend Lynda Trudeau has sent 4 boys on missions now. She was giving me advice on sending sons to serve. She shared a lot of wisdom with me and some incredible stories about her boys and how they grow and mature in the 2 years they are gone. But the the thing that stood out to me the most after our conversation was she said you’ll see so many miracles. For your missionary AND your family. It doesn’t mean things won’t break or bad things won’t happen but you’ll be blessed with tender mercies and miracles to be able to handle whatever comes your way. She shared a time they were having struggles with money issues and didn’t know where the funds would come from to cover the expenses that had come up. Out of the blue they had a refund they weren’t expecting show up in the mail and it was exactly what they needed to cover their bills. She had story after story of tender mercies that happened in her family.
Today, we were blessed and we were able to see it first hand. We are utterly humbled! <3
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