Before I get to the miracles I have to share an embarrassing story. You think once you hit a certain age these things would stop happening but a las I'm a kid at heart and I think these things will never stop happening...My first shift of the day was in parking. I asked the most questions in my little group so the head parking guy made me in charge, oh joy. Well unfortunately that job required a walkie-talkie. I knew I could not be trusted with this and probably should have protested more.
I was drinking water like mad that day because it was well in to the 100's with no cloud coverage. I of course had to use their fancy port-a potty and you know where this is going....I went to use the foot flush lever and before I knew it, the walkie-talkie that was secured to my skirt waist band fell right into the toilet, right down the shoot.. I stood in awe what are the odds it would go straight down with no possible retrieval allowed. Oh boy. I found a friend who was working security and asked if he had a walkie talkie and he said yes. Then I asked if I could have it. He then asked what would he use. I said he can be the person who has to tell someone that they flushed the walkie talkie... Only me.
It was during this parking detail that I met another volunteer named Itzel, upon hearing my name said, wait are you Lesley Howe? I said yes. She then said that she has a book of mormon that I wrote in that she reads regularly. She quoted some lines, I then asked her if the "Lesley" name was spelt with an "ey" not "ie" I had no memory of this. We exchanged numbers and she sent me a a picture of the dedication...It was me! She joined our church 10 months ago. She said she always wanted to meet me. What a tender mercy for both of us. What are the odds?! I wrote a dedication in a Book of Mormon over two years ago and gave it to a missionary from my church. I do not do this often and this may have been a one time deal. What are the odds that in a city of over half a million people, I would meet the lady who received this book? And that we both would be assigned the glamorous job of working outside in the Tucson heat managing traffic and the tour guide flow outside? And that because we were working the outside job it allowed for more casual conversations so we were able to talk about this inspired serendipitous coincidence. Elder Bednar said this about tender mercies:
"the Lord’s tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Faithfulness and obedience enable us to receive these important gifts and, frequently, the Lord’s timing helps us to recognize them.We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance (see 1 Ne. 1:20)."
The scripture he referenced at the end of his talk is a scripture that my family has memorized and is often quoted.
It was such a great day! I recently started working out with Robin every morning at 5:45 am, man that's early! The day after the dedication I so didn't want to wake up to workout, my legs were so tired. My sho joice wasn't good and I was on my feet for 12 hours. But since we are new workout buddies neither one of us have cancelled and I didn't want to be the first :) So I got up we did a fantastic workout. When I was driving home looking at the beautiful dessert I thought, Heavenly Father I love my house so much and the thought came to me "Thank you for working in MY house "
On friday we took our family for a tour. Bella and Olivia each invited two friends for a tour. Benjamin invited his co -worker and I invited one of my oldest and dearest friends Alexandra. We have been friends since age 7, over 30 years of friendship!
One of Liv's friends was challenged by some sister missionaries to go to the open house, he contacted Olivia the Mormon girl he knows and hinted at wanting to come. Liv of course invited him! We where at the church waiting to start our tour. One of Bella's friends was running late. And because of that delay, Benjamin met his co-worker and his wife who he had previously invited to go after a lengthy religious discussion but they couldn't make a day and time work. This Co worker knew Liv's friend, what are the odds?!
It's been so great to hard all the temple miracles, I'm sure we will hear many more stories to come.
