It started out like a typical Saturday.
I slept in a little bit and decided to go for a run to start training for that half-marathon coming up (yeah I need to get working on that). But as I was getting ready I receive a phone call from my friend Ben. He said he had a random favor to ask of me. As it turned out, a family member of his was getting sealed in the Provo temple and his aunt who wanted to attend the sealing needed somewhat to babysit her four deplorable, I mean adorable kids. :)
Ben also called our friend Azya and so I picked her up and we headed to the temple. We had a blast playing with these kids! We played toilet tag, duck-duck-goose, Simon Says and even who can lay down in the grass the longest. Azya and I liked this game. :) But naturally, after a long time of playing outside in the sun and taking frequent breaks to the water fountain, one of the kids needed to use the restroom.
So, we decided to take all of the kids in to the waiting area just inside the temple. Azya went in with the girls and a nice man went in with the boys to make sure they knew what they were doing. I waited just outside the bathrooms to make sure that none of them ran off. I started looking around the room and when I turned to face the glass door we had entered through I saw right outside it our friend Harrison McCullough suit, mission name tag and all! I was shocked and SO excited to see the look on Azya's face because she was very close friends with him. I went into the hall and said the two words that took about 10 seconds to gather from my jumbled brain, "Elder McCullough!" We talked for a few minutes until Azya joined us. If I thought I was in shock, she was paralyzed. There is not much greater than seeing a friend that you have already said goodbye to for two years!
In case you're not amazed let me explain that I nearly missed that phone call from Ben, Azya just barely got out of a doctor's appointment, and a small child had to go to the restroom at exactly the right time. Don't tell me miracles don't happen.
Shortly after we went back outside, the kids' parents came out, thanked us, and handed us a 20. We took it to Costa Vida and got a wonderfully filling lunch which we enjoyed on a picnic table at a nearby park.
Earlier that week, Azya and I had decided to go to the TRC (this is where missionaries are able to practice teaching with investigators that come in or often times members roll playing as an investigator...Azya and I soon found out that it's hard to pretend to be someone that you're not when you've grown up in the church your entire life). My friend Mark who was also at the MTC preparing to go to Farmington, New Mexico had told me in a letter the times he was assigned to go to both the temple and the TRC. His temple trip happened at the same time I had class on Wednesday morning and I just didn't really feel good about planning to meet up with him. We decided the TRC would be both fun and good practice for us as we prepared for our missions. And really what is the chance of us ending up with him as one of our missionaries? What is the chance that at a place with multiple buildings, multiple floors, and multiple hallways that we would run into him??
To make it more exciting, we got there a few minutes too late so we were missing the block of time that he was scheduled for. So you can imagine my surprise when I turned down the hallway that I had been assigned to go to and saw right in front of me the back of Mark's head. I knew instantly that it was him and I froze on the spot. I think what got him to turn around was actually when Azya said my name as a way of asking if I was aware that my best friend was standing in front of me. We talked until they told us we had to get in our rooms and even took some funny pictures. It was so wonderful to see my friend!
The rest of the day was spent shopping (mostly for me) for mission clothes. We had a blast and decided to never go shopping together again because we end up buying everything.
I have a strong testimony that we are not alone, that there is someone watching over us, protecting us, blessing us, and loving us no matter what we do. This is a testimony that has grown day-by-day, week-by-week, and eventually year-by-year.
It grew on that day that I felt there was no way I would make it to class on time to take the quiz we always had at the beginning of American Heritage lab days having come straight from a doctor's appointment, every light seeming to stop me and clearly not respond to my needs.
It grew on that day that I was able to play a memorized piece for an audition with hardly any memory slips (something that I had struggled with immensely and had a really bad experience with) and then make it into the Symphony orchestra.
It grew from so many experiences that I cannot even count where I looked back and thought,
"That was not me...I could not have done that alone"
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