President Monson
During the most recent CES fireside, Elder Walker invited each of us to read To the Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson. He promised that our lives would be blessed for reading it. I'm almost halfway through, and my life is already being blessed. I love learning all about President Monson's life. How good he is as basketball, that he was Spanish Club President (like my sister), and that he has seen many miracles. His wonderful wife passed away yesterday, and I just hope he knows how much we love him during this time. Here is a miracle I read in the book that touched me and convinced me more than ever how aware Heavenly Father is of every little detail in our lives. He must know me and my name, if this miracle happened. There are no coincidences!
One October the three members of the Temple View Stake President [including Thomas S. Monson] were attending general priesthood meeting in the Tabernacle. They arrived two hours early, hoping to find good seats, and were among the first to sit down. While they waited, President Percy K. Fetzer related an experience from his missionary day sin Germany. He told his counselors that one rainy night, when he and his companion were presenting a gospel messaged to a group assembled in a schoolhouse, a number of protesters showed up, threatening violence. At a critical moment, an elderly widow stepped between the elders and the angry crowd and said, "These young men are my guests and are coming to my home now. Please make way for us to leave."
The challengers stepped back, and the missionaries with their benefactress walked unharmed to her modest home. She prepared a meal, and then the elders taught her the gospel. Her young son refused to join them, skulking behind the kitchen stove where it was warm.
"While I don't know if that woman ever joined the Church, " said President Feltzer, " I'll be forever grateful for her kindness that rain-drenched night thirty-three years ago."
The Tabernacle benches had been filling as he had talked. Two brethren sitting directly in front of them were chatting like old friends, though they had just met. "Tell me how you came to be a member of the church, " Tom overheard one ask the other. The brother responded, and the three on the bench behind him heard his story:
"One rainy night in Germany, my mother brought to our house two drenched missionaries whom she had rescued from a mom. Mother fed the elders, and they presented to her a message concerning the work of the Lord. They invited me to join the discussion, but I was shy and fearful, so I remained secure in my seat behind the stove. Later, when I once more heard about the Church, I remembered the courage and faith, as well as the message, of those two humble missionaries, and this led to my conversion. I suppose I'll never meet those two missionaries here in mortality, but I'll be forever grateful to them. I know not where they were from. I think one was named Fetzer."
At this point, the two counselors turned to look at President Fetzer. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. President Monson remembers that President Fetzer tapped the man on the shoulder and said, "I'm Bruder Fetzer. I was one of the two missionaries whom your motehr befriended that night. I'm grateful to meet the boy who sat behind the stove-the lad who listened and who learned."
President Monson admits he doesn't remember the messages from that priesthood meeting, but he will "never forget the faith-filled conversation that preceded the commencement of the meeting."
One October the three members of the Temple View Stake President [including Thomas S. Monson] were attending general priesthood meeting in the Tabernacle. They arrived two hours early, hoping to find good seats, and were among the first to sit down. While they waited, President Percy K. Fetzer related an experience from his missionary day sin Germany. He told his counselors that one rainy night, when he and his companion were presenting a gospel messaged to a group assembled in a schoolhouse, a number of protesters showed up, threatening violence. At a critical moment, an elderly widow stepped between the elders and the angry crowd and said, "These young men are my guests and are coming to my home now. Please make way for us to leave."
The challengers stepped back, and the missionaries with their benefactress walked unharmed to her modest home. She prepared a meal, and then the elders taught her the gospel. Her young son refused to join them, skulking behind the kitchen stove where it was warm.
"While I don't know if that woman ever joined the Church, " said President Feltzer, " I'll be forever grateful for her kindness that rain-drenched night thirty-three years ago."
The Tabernacle benches had been filling as he had talked. Two brethren sitting directly in front of them were chatting like old friends, though they had just met. "Tell me how you came to be a member of the church, " Tom overheard one ask the other. The brother responded, and the three on the bench behind him heard his story:
"One rainy night in Germany, my mother brought to our house two drenched missionaries whom she had rescued from a mom. Mother fed the elders, and they presented to her a message concerning the work of the Lord. They invited me to join the discussion, but I was shy and fearful, so I remained secure in my seat behind the stove. Later, when I once more heard about the Church, I remembered the courage and faith, as well as the message, of those two humble missionaries, and this led to my conversion. I suppose I'll never meet those two missionaries here in mortality, but I'll be forever grateful to them. I know not where they were from. I think one was named Fetzer."
At this point, the two counselors turned to look at President Fetzer. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. President Monson remembers that President Fetzer tapped the man on the shoulder and said, "I'm Bruder Fetzer. I was one of the two missionaries whom your motehr befriended that night. I'm grateful to meet the boy who sat behind the stove-the lad who listened and who learned."
President Monson admits he doesn't remember the messages from that priesthood meeting, but he will "never forget the faith-filled conversation that preceded the commencement of the meeting."
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