Ten and a half months ago, Elder Loveless left Lehi, Utah to serve his mission. He started his service in McMinnville where he stayed for four and a half months. From there, he served in Green Hills for another four and a half months. And just before coming to the Tullahoma ward, he served for a month and a half in the Murfreesboro Young Single Adult ward.
Elder Loveless has a testimony of the power of prayer and that when we intently seek answers from Heavenly Father, He will unveil his mysteries to us. Here is a small piece of that testimony.
Often, in missionary work, we're faced with situations/problems that are past our young 21 year old minds to figure out. Recently, I had one of those situations. My companion and I were told to go visit Timmy at Vanderbilt Hospital. Timmy had suffered a major stroke and his sister called to request that missionaries go visit Timmy and offer him a Priesthood blessing. Vanderbilt being in our area, we were the missionaries to go offer that blessing. We got a lot of these calls because our area covered four major hospitals so we thought nothing of it! As we turned into the room we found Linda, Timmy's wife, being comforted by one of the nurses. Just moments before we walked in Linda had found out that Timmy had passed away. When the nurse informed us of this, I was instantly caught off guard. My 21 year old brain was screaming and yelling, "Oh my Gosh...What is going on?! We are not supposed to be here!!! We're intruding! We need to get out of here!" Then my heart said, "Easy there, buddy. Put on the brakes. Don't worry. I got this one."
As the nurse continued to explain the situation, I just tuned her out so I could say ten, or maybe thirty, prayers in my heart so that I would know how to handle the situation. After, I felt more calm and knew that I was there for a reason, and that I needed to share the Plan of Salvation with Linda. She wasn't a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so I knew, in this time, her knowing God's plan was going to be the only thing that could comfort her. I asked if we could pray with her and then I sat Linda down and explained to her God's plan for us. I explained that death is just simply a stepping stone for Timmy and that, because of Christ's atonement for us, Timmy was in a state of peace and joy and that he will watch out for her. After we explained this to her and shared a few scriptures that we felt prompted to offer, we gave her a Priesthood blessing of comfort. Linda then asked us something I'm not sure I'll ever forget. She explained how her and Timmy were working on getting back to church because Timmy wanted to get sealed in the temple to Linda for time and all eternity and partake of the special blessings that only a temple marriage can offer.
When we were able to inform Linda that that sealing could still take place and she could be with Timmy again, her tears dried and I could feel a spirit come into the room. Then, all Linda wanted to know was when she could have missionaries in her area pay her a visit so she could learn more!
What an amazing story, right?! Oh! Witnessing the Holy Ghost bear witness of the truthfulness of what we were saying to Linda and seeing Linda react to the promptings of the spirit was such an amazing experience for me. My purpose in sharing that story with you was so that you could feel inspired. You could feel a small amount of the desire that Linda had to know that she could still live with Timmy again. That you too would ask God if all this amazing stuff is true!
Welcome, Elder Loveless!
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