elder bender, ernest's question & booker t. washington

settle in. lengthy but worth it.

today was awesome at church. elder & sister bednar (or as ernest refers to him, elder bender) attended our ward because their son was blessing his new twins. for the self-appointed title as a "non-crier" i certainly teared up enough times to last me until 2020. ben took notes & i will post them later. in fact i've decided that from now on it will be my goal to do a posting a week of something spiritual i've learned...but i think i'm going to make it a separate blog from this one. i was thinking that i could someday print out another "book blog" of spiritual quotes/lessons/thoughts/scriptures to have for when i am older. but i think it would be better to have it separate from the daily grind stuff. anyway back to the day.

elder bednar spoke in sacrament meeting & cried, thanking the ward for helping his son & daughter in-law. (backstory: francine (his DIL) had twins & had a fantastic pregnancy. i had talked to her about lending her caleb's preemie clothes since i had a box full & normally twins are on the small side. but instead, she had an almost 8 lb. boy & 6 lb. girl. holy moses. apparently all went well during labor/delivery & then about a week after having the baby, francine suffered a heart attack. she is maybe only a couple of years older than me & in great shape. the bednars were supposed to be visiting at the time but it happened a couple of days after president hinckley passed away & they had to be in utah. so for almost 2 weeks, the ward pitched in, one older sister actually moved into their home to take care of their 5 kids under 5. because of risk of infection, francine couldn't be around her children & newborns & then once she started to get better, her older kids got sick & she & the twins had to be quarantined again from them. they currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment so you can imagine the difficulty.) then francine spoke, then eric (bro. bednar) then sis. bednar, then elder bednar again. sunday school was the norm.

then for RS & PH meeting they did a combined meeting with both groups & added the YM/YW & elder bednar did his Q&A time. bro. bednar asked ben to say the opening prayer. i would have had wet my skirt if i had to pray in front of an apostle...i have an aversion to public praying as it is...i always make a fool of myself. ben did a great job. we were sitting on the aisle about 4 feet away from elder bednar as he spoke & the feeling in the room was amazing.

he opened the room for questioning, emphasizing several times that if a youth asked a question they would get priority. well what do you know that ol' ernest stood up to ask a question. i'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating. in my mind i kept thinking "please oh please don't let him ask an inappropriate question." the last time ernest met elder bednar he asked him for his autograph. he is a sweet kid & has good intentions but sometimes doesn't understand social etiquette. my honest thought was that i just didn't want anyone to laugh at him. i could have cared less about mine & ben's image...the ward understands the situation & is really forgiving. anyway, as ernest would say,"hargo" (here i go)

"um, i was jus' wondrin' 'bout how come there is only 12 apostles & why ain't there more & how does the church do all the work if there's only 12?"

big exhale from me, i'm sure the entire room heard it. elder bednar was so kind & said "this is why i love it when the youth ask questions. they just ask the best questions. thank you so much." and answered ernest about the organization of the quorums.

you know how people always say "that lesson was just for me" or "that conference talk was just for me?" well that is exactly how i felt. when he bore his testimony at the end of the meeting, he said things that ben & i had been talking about just 3 days ago. there were even questions that have been in my heart that he answered that i hadn't even had the chance to talk to ben about yet.

the best question that i think was asked was, "if you could tell your children one thing to teach your grandchildren what would it be?" the answer was amazing & will be in the "notes" blog. i also loved what he said about compensatory blessings. i truly feel that ben & i have received so many compensatory blessings for being here this year. our lack of temple attendance has not been because of a lack of desire. i have been so worried that because we haven't been going regularly like we used to, our marriage would suffer or the spirit in our home would suffer. but when he spoke of compensatory blessings, i began to cry because i received another testament that we have been watched over & blessed this year. in so many ways. #1 being caleb's health. after having to make regular weekly visits to doctors, physical therapy for him twice a month, meeting with 4 specialists in utah once a month & to go to not having to take him to the doctor once this year is so huge. i know in my heart it is a direct blessing from heavenly father. there are so many other blessings too. financially stronger, spiritually stronger, our marriage stronger. plus we have been challenged so much as individuals this year. i could go on but this is long enough!

after Q&A, he gave an apostalic blessing on us as a ward, then on us as individuals & again the spirit washed over me & testified that what he was saying was the truth & that he was a witness of Christ. i've had the opportunity to be at several Q&A firesides with the bednars at BYU-I but it was nothing like this. it was so personal, he continued to refer the ward as his "family."

on the way home, doing my best to try to hang on to every strand of the spirit that i could while in the car with a screeching fantasia & mumbling ernest, somehow we got on the subject of the boogedy man. and of course, ernest adds his two cents,

"hodon (hold on) that's a wrestler guy. you know, that booger guy. he's all covered in worms an' stuff. booger washington, thas' him."

ben says,
"no, that's BOOKER t. washington. not booger. nothing to do with the boogedy man. or wrestling for that matter."

ernest,
"oh."

this is the exact reason for coming up with the "spiritual blog." because i need to be able to hold onto these amazing experiences & moments of clarity & personal revelation before someone blurts out the word booger. but for now...back to life, back to reality.