"He Will Direct Thy Paths"

Last Saturday afternoon, the STLs (Sister Training Leaders) invited us to take 3-5 minutes at the upcoming MLC Review Meeting.  The topic was open to our choice---These were my remarks.  Gary added some amazing ones at the end, but I didn't take notes on his, but it was on the same topic. He used the scripture in Joshua: For me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

He Will Direct Thy Paths

"During our interviews last week, President Hathaway told us that he wanted to make sure that the senior missionaries contributed in zone and district meetings to “share our life experience and wisdom.” I guess he was serious about that and here we are.  I am not sure we have much life wisdom to share, but here it goes….

When you are growing up in the Church, there is lots of talk about going on a mission and how elders and sisters are sent to the places that God wants them to serve.  I know I have felt the reality of that in our two missions and I hope that you feel that about your call to Arkansas—and if not yet, that at some point in your mission, you will learn that truth—you were meant for this time and for this place.

But I want to let you know that being in the right place at the right time doesn’t stop when you are released from the mission field.  It should be a goal for your entire lives—to be where God wants you to be. And the same way that I know that we are supposed to be serving in Arkansas at this time—I feel that way about every place we have lived throughout our lives.

Let me share an example.

I grew up in eastern Washington and then in Amarillo, Texas; Gary grew up in Syracuse UT.  When Gary and I got married, I was an “anywhere but Utah” person—"the mission field.”  We settled into Springfield, MO where Elder Hall was working at the time and we both assumed that we would live there and raise our family there.  As we drove around, we would talk about buying some acres near Marshfield or other small towns in our ward boundaries.

In the fall, we had bought a small house and were preparing to move there.  However, one of my brothers was getting married in the Manti Temple at the first of November, so we made a quick trip to Utah for the wedding and then down to Texas for the reception and then headed back to Springfield to close on our first home and move in.  Literally our apartment was already mostly packed.

However, the whole time we were in Utah, I kept feeling like we were supposed to move to Utah—not my plan, of course, but the feeling was consistent and returning over and over.  Finally in the car ride from Amarillo back to Springfield, I told Elder Hall—I had the weirdest thought while we were in Utah—that we were supposed to move there.  The relief on Elder Hall’s face was obvious. He told me that he had felt the same thing but told Heavenly Father that He had to tell me, because I didn’t want to live in Utah.  So we closed on our house and sold it the next day to a buyer our real estate agent found.  Our stuff was loaded on to a moving truck and we headed to Provo—thinking that perhaps the reason was for us to go back to BYU. Two days after finding an apartment there, Gary got a job for a computer company on Hill Airforce Base in Layton, UT which is north of Salt Lake. We diverted our moving truck to Sunset, Utah, where we had find an apartment—a miracle for another day. The first Sunday we walked into our Sunset Ward—the bishop called us into his office and told us that the ward council had prayed us there.  That they had a great need for more adults with current temple recommends.

I don’t know how God makes that all work—why we as a newly married couple couldn’t stay in Springfield, MO, like we planned? And how we could be moved from there to a struggling ward in Sunset, UT—but I know it happened.  And it happened over and over to us as we moved throughout our lives—even moving back to Utah once again 28 years ago.  Being where the Lord wants us to be has made all the difference and brought a richness and joy to our lives in ways that staying in Springfield could never have done.

One of our life scriptures:

Trust in the Lord with all thy hearts

And lean not to thine own understanding.

In every way acknowledge Him,

And He will direct thy path.

A scripture with our invitation—

Trust the Lord----

With advice—lean not to thine own understanding and with gratitude

And the promised blessings—and we testify He will direct thy paths."