Elder Bednar's Visit

I finally have found some time to sit and write about Elder Bednar's visit back in October. The missionaries had eagerly awaited his arrival. We were each given two articles to study on faith and the missionaries diligently studied and prepared to be able to converse on the topics he had given him. There was a lot of organizing to do before the event. We had wanted to have a photo of the whole mission and had permission to do that, but we were not quite sure how to go about it.... how could we organize having all these missionaries together... where could we do the photo... was there any place that would work to get the temple and all the missionaries in the same photo, all 200 missionaries. So Mark and I wandered numerous times around the temple scoping it out. There is a little park next to the temple which we also looked at as a good spot for the photo. Then as time drew closer, the weather was predicted as rain. Sister Smith in the office said "don't worry it's not going to rain". We told her there was an 80% chance. She said, "don't worry, it won't rain". So, we got bleachers and chairs and tried to align them all in the parking lot outside the temple in a way that could fit 200 missionaries. As the week went on, it became very obvious that there was a very high probability of rain and it had been raining throughout the week. Sister Smith still told us not to worry, but we went inside the cultural hall anyway and arranged how we could set things up inside. Anyway, the day before we were still told by Sister Smith it wouldn't rain. I said "how can you have so much faith in this?" She said, "you don't understand what happens here around the Spokane Temple. When they were building the temple they were preparing for the open house but because of so much rain they had not been able to pour the sidewalks. Without the sidewalks of course they couldn't do the open house. So, as they got to the final days of the time they had to get the sidewalks done, they had it scheduled to pour the sidewalks and the company called and said -obviously we can't come because it's going to rain. So the temple building committee called Salt Lake and said they were going to have to postpone the open house because of not being able to pour the sidewalk. Salt Lake told the temple committee to go ahead and pour the sidewalk even though rain was expected. They called the company back and said they wanted them to plan on coming. They objected and said there's 100% chance of rain. The temple committee said that's okay, we want you to plan on it anyway. So, they came the day that it was scheduled, and this was the last possible day that it could be poured to have it ready for the open house. It was raining in all of Spokane Valley, in the whole valley where the temple is located.... except for about a half mile to a mile circle above where the temple is. They were able to pour the sidewalks and get everything finished as needed. So, that is why Sister Smith said not to worry about the rain with the photo. On the morning that Elder Bednar was coming, and we set up the bleachers and the chairs and everything outside, and sure enough, it was overcast with a few rain drops, and there was a 90 percent chance for rain, but we had faith. All of the missionaries came in from the outlying areas around 1:00 to 1:15. It was so fun to watch them greeting each other. Some of them haven't seen each other for many, many months... even some perhaps not even since the beginning of their missions and they were just so excited to be together. They had a great socializing time. After a while we lined everybody up on these bleachers, crossing our fingers that we really were going to fit them all on. 197 mostly young men can take up a lot of room! The night before we had looked at all of the files of every missionary to find how tall he was. Then we calculated how many needed to be on each row. I made a big poster telling them what row they should stand on depending on what height they were at the start of their mission. Some of them didn't go where they were supposed to, but it was okay. Everybody fit, and Mark and I sat down and we took a few great photos to try it out. We gave the missionaries a break, and said ...okay, five minute break and then back in again. Elder Bednar should be here then and we'll take the photo of us with him. After 10 minutes, we saw Elder Bednar and quickly had all the missionaries come back and get in place, we took two pictures and were done. Then the missionaries just flawlessly and reverently, with such dignity, quietly left those bleachers and went inside for the meeting. It was just great to see them so disciplined . They were so excited just to have an apostle, what an incredible experience that was for all of us. They felt honored and showed it and it was wonderful. We had one missionary who unfortunately was sick. He was so sick and couldn't come, but everybody else was there and many of them had come from as far as almost four hours away, so it was a long way to have traveled, but it was great. Elder Bednar's time with us was very rewarding for everyone. He was there for three hours and mostly just had the missionaries ask questions. As he answered them, he covered many, many topics. We talked a lot about the articles that he had them read and the missionaries were so well prepared and asked him very thought provoking, meaningful questions. There was a lot of discussion on prayer and how we shouldn't just pray for things. Instead as we do pray -- first-analyze the situation and see what we can do to make the thing we are praying about happen. Then pray that we have the strength to do this rather than just saying bless them. More the approach of ...help us talk to them that we can help and inspire them that they can do that. He talked a lot to us about how "it's not about you". He shared some great reminders about forgetting ourselves and focusing on others in all we do. I am very impressed with many of our missionaries' ability to do that. They are very impressive for a group of 19-23 year-olds. There was also a lot of discussion about the spirit and letting the spirit work in our hearts... Take the time to ponder and reflect. The three hours went by so quickly and we were all very rewarded from it. Right after the conference we came over to our home and had dinner. That is a story in and of itself, but I will have to write about it a little bit later. I've had a lady now helping me cook, so that I a little bit of the pressure is taken off me. In this case, I couldn't have done it without her obviously or I would have had to miss the conference. We had a nice dinner with Elder Bednar, Elder Rasband, Elder Perry (our area 70) and his wife, Brother Akers (the organizer), us and Geoffrey. It was short since they raced off to do firesides in various areas that evening. It is amazing the schedule they keep.