Gary is loving the opportunity to serve in the Syracuse Temple and continues to make himself available to help out when needed as everyone is adjusting to a new temple with lots of new workers who are learning so much. We did sealings together on Thursday and the sealer was a man from our stake who had served as a stake patriarch until his wife passed away a few years ago. He is sweet and amazing and we had an enjoyable time being together doing sealings there.
Jena and I headed home and for other appointments after our assignment, but Gary stayed as he had volunteered to help with the afternoon shift which was short some workers. He ended up being assigned to help in the south baptistry and was able to help with recording and also helping with confirmations. It was there that his miracle happened (which I share with his permission.).
An older woman, Sister Lui, came in to do baptisms for the dead...probably in her late fifties, which is a bit unusual, especially because she had come by herself, not a family group as often might happen. She came into the room where Gary was helping with confirmations to complete that part for her family names. When she saw his name, she asked him if he had ever lived in Hong Kong. A long time ago, he responded, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She started to cry and said, "I have been looking for you for a very long time....and then she shared this story....
"In 1990, we were living in Hong Kong with our four year old daughter. I became very sick and went to the hospital but they didn't know what was wrong with me. I called you to come and give me a blessing. You were out of town when I first called but you came to the hospital that night and gave me a blessing. I don't remember anything that was said in the the blessing. After you left, I went into the bathroom and threw up over and over again, until I could no longer stand and the nurses had to help me back into my bed and then I slept through the night. In the morning, the doctor came in and asked me what had my God done for me? He said that the medical staff had not thought she would live through the night. A few days later I was discharged and went home never knowing what had been wrong. I didn't really think too much about it, was just grateful for the priesthood and for the blessing." Her story continued---
Ten years later, they returned to Hong Kong because her father-in-law was ill and was at the very same hospital where she had been. When she walked on to the floor, the same charge nurse was there along with others and they immediately began talking about her--the one whose God had saved her. She said it was at that time it really hit her that she had really been close to death and the nurses were witnesses of the miracle. Since then she had tried to find Gary to share this with him, but didn't know how to find him."
Gary reminds slightly her bearing her testimony in Church soon after her hospital stay about the power of the priesthood, but he hadn't known the rest of this story. He would never have recognized her nor connected her with him giving a priesthood blessing.
What are the odds that Gary and Sister Lui--35 years later--would end up in the same baptistry (remember we have two) in the Syracuse Temple on the same afternoon in June? This was a tender mercy and answering this sweet sister's desire to share this testimony with Gary.
I stand in awe of our Heavenly Father and His great ways to parent us with mercy, love, and tenderness all the days of our lives!
