.jpg)
I am sitting here so grateful and I just wanted to share. Some of you might know that I am the Relief Society president in the ward that we live in. That means that I am responsible for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the woman that live in our ward boundaries. This morning, I was looking over a list of the sisters I wanted to contact in the next day or two and trying to decide which ones I needed to contact first. Nothing specific came to mind, so I went about my day, getting as many chores as I could done. Just a few hours ago, I was working on a task and suddenly knew that I need to contact a particular sister on my list and that I needed to do it now. I called her and we talked for a few minutes. She thanked me for calling and I hung up. Nothing spectacular happened, but I was grateful to have talked to her and glad she was doing okay.
Less than three minutes later, the phone rang again and it was a phone number that I did not recognize. I answered it anyway and on the line was a woman sobbing. She introduced herself and said that she was a member of our church and ward, but that she had not been to church in a long time. She then told me that her son had unexpectedly passed away last night in his sleep. (He was older, but definitely not old, around forty or so). She didn't even know what to do or how to do it and she needed help. She did not know who our bishop was, but knew she needed to talk to him. I was able to help her get a hold of the bishop and then talk to her a couple of times after to see what she needed and to arrange some help. I got off the phone, promising her I would call tomorrow. And I just sat there, my heart feeling so heavy. I cannot imagine what it must feel like for a mother to lose her child, no matter how old either one of them might be.
Not long after my last phone call with her, the phone rang again. It was the woman I have felt prompted to call earlier in the day. She wondered if I had received a phone call from the sister in the ward who had lost her son. She said that the two of them had known each other years ago, and that for some reason, in the middle of her crisis, the woman remembered her and found a way to call her. The sister on the phone had given her my number because we had just hung up and she knew I was home and that the woman needed to talk to someone immediately.
That is why I am sitting here with such gratitude in my heart. There is no possible way for me to know that a sister in our ward, someone that I have not been able to contact and that has not been to church in a long time, was going to lose her son last night. But the Lord knew. And He knew exactly when she would need someone. And while the whole thing may seem like something small and coincidental, it was not. Because there is a mother whose heart is breaking right now. And although I cannot take away her incredible pain or suffering, I can at least do what I have been asked to do. Listen to a prompting so that I can be in a position to answer my phone and make her unimaginable burden a little lighter.
There are moments like these that astound me. That our Heavenly Father would care so much for us, that He would allow us the privilege of participating in the service of others. Because I am sure the whole situation would have been taken care of eventually. But to a mother who needed to know that the Lord is aware of her and what she is going through, it needed to happen then. And it did. And my heart feels so grateful.