PRIESTHOOD POWER

Happy Middle of September!

Hope this email finds you all with smiles on your face and ready to face ANYTHING that is thrown at you because you have the gospel power to combat it, right?!

We were given an great lesson by Kelly Beeson this week in Relief Society.  She took us on a plane ride.  She was the non member sitting next to us and she had us explain to her as we would to a perfect stranger knowing nothing of the gospel, the restoration.  It kept us all on our toes.

Kelly was blessed to work on the FARMS project while she attended BYU.  There she was given an assignment to record and type letters that were written by Orson P Pratt.  Something powerful that she said as she was able to share her experience briefly with us was that while she was reading and typing she felt time and time again “ This man REALLY saw an Angel!” She said it was amazing that even though he ended up leaving the church, he NEVER denied the experience that he had with Joseph Smith!  What an awesome testimony she gave, having experienced reading the actual letters where he recounted it with others.

Something that I was thinking about A LOT during this lesson was The Priesthood.  That is definitely something that sets us apart from other religions.  We have holders that have been given that power from the Lord in our day.

Growing up without the priesthood in my home, I often prayed for better understanding of this power and the miracles it can bring forth.  Because of my intense desire to understand and experience the power in my own life, I have been given poignant experiences with the Priesthood that I will treasure forever.   One inparticular was standing out to me as I heard all of you sharing in RS this week.

I have shared before with you all that I worked many years in the EFY program (Especial For Youth).  This program is for the 14-18 year olds of the church (although we do have a number on non members attend as well).  It is set up like a bible style camp and is held in college campuses all over the world now. 

We have a special day in the week program that is a spiritual day.  It happens on Thursdays.  This is the day that all the youth and leaders dress in their Sunday best and we have mini classes talking about our worth and virtue to the girls and missions to the boys.  Then that night it ends with testimony meetings.  It is the day all counselors and leadership look forward too, the day of miracles some of us call it.  You see the light finally come on in some of your most challenging youth’s heads and you see a light of testimony starting to grow.  This day at EFY is always solemn and special.

Of course we give our Youth a break from the spiritual things and they eat lunch and have some free time.  On this particular day that I am going to talk about, I was at BYU-Idaho.  I was incharge of keeping the youth from butting in the lunch lines etc this day.  Having 800 youth come to eat at relatively the same time, is a challenge and this day hadn’t proven any less of one.  The lunch room was crowded, loud and boisterous to say the least.  I was talking to the youth and laughing with them when all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I noticed something startling.  I noticed a youth go down and begin to have a seizure.

We had just had a training that VERY morning while the kids were in classes about how to react in an emergency situation. I watched fellow counselors move in as we were told and we formed a circle around this girl with our backs faced inward as to not cause a scene.  It worked amazing.  Only a few youth had seen what was happening and we were able to keep things calm and continuing on as normal.  As I sat there on the outside of that circle I could here the priesthood holders discuss what her full name was with her sister who was there and then without any warning the ENTIRE lunchroom went SILENT.  A hush fell over that lunch room.  You couldn’t hear one noise (not even the voice of the men giving a blessing) all you could feel was this OVERWHELMING sense of calm and spirit. 

I as well as many other’s had tears flowing down our cheeks.  It was a power like I hadn’t felt before, it was tangible, it was so powerful it HUSHED a sea of 800 hungry, boisterous teens.  The only way that I knew that the blessing was over is that as soon as the AMEN was done the teens in the room started to carryon like nothing had happened. 

I reflected on that experience all day.  I was so touched at the reverence that the youth showed for the moment of healing that was taking place.  I wondered how in the world they all knew to be quiet at the same time as the blessing was being said. 

That night as I got my girls settled down for bed they said, “Meg, can we ask you something?” I said of course.  “What happened in the lunchroom today?  Why did we feel so compelled to be reverent?”

These youth had absolutely NO IDEA that there was someone that was having a seizure. They had no idea that someone was administering a blessing. All they knew is they were compelled to be reverent.  That was such a testimony to me and to them, of the power of the priesthood.  It has power to compel you to be reverent if it needs to.

That day (as well as many others since) I was taught such a valuable lesson and my faith in Priesthood power was strengthened and made alive again.  I am so thankful for the restoration of the gospel.  For the Priesthood power that it brought back to the earth.  I am thankful that daily through the worthy men in my life I have access to that power. All I need to do is call upon them to bless me with it. I am thankful for the youth of the church that taught me that miracles still happen and who were in-tune to the change in their behavior and made it possible for all of us involved to feel that HUSH that came into the BYU-I lunchroom that day.

Sisters, may we never take this blessing in our lives for granted.  May we be compelled and reverence this gift that we have been blessed with.  May we always feel comfortable to ask for it to bless our lives.  The Priest brings amazing power in our life if we will allow it to work.

Keep pressing forward with faith Sisters!!  Have a great week!!  YOU CAN DO IT!

The Power of the Priesthood

Happy July Sisters!!
I am so sorry that I missed you last week. I actually got sick on the fourth from too much partying with the Layton Bunch (HAHAHA). I went to bed at 8pm and just blanked getting you emailed. I am glad to be back this week with you. What a great month to remember our freedoms and the things that we get to experience as members of the church in this country! We don’t have to hide behind who we are or what we stand for. We don’t have to keep our beliefs in members homes and be silent in public. We don’t have to live in fear that our very lives are in jeopardy because of our beliefs. We just basically have to live them! What an amazing feeling that is for us as Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

Today we were taught well by our lovely Michelle Hansen about The Priesthood and the blessings we receive in our life from this worthy holders of God’s power. Many Sister’s shared such touching stories about how it has blessed their lives or the lives of family members directly and I was so filled with gratitude from the things that they shared.

I wanted to share part of my life with you today about how the priesthood has blessed my life and I hope that through writing this will make sense because I have never recorded this is writing.

Many of you know that I was raised by a single Mom alone. My Dad wasn’t in the picture until my adult years. I never had the priesthood in my home and from an early age I recognized the difference of feeling that was from visiting other homes with worthy priesthood holders. It was something that I thought about often but not so sure I expressed it as much through prayer, although I definitely discussed it within my being a lot. I had to come to terms with this emptiness I thought I had as a youth. I longed to be able to KNOW what it felt like to have a Father’s Blessing, what it felt like to wake up sick in the night and have the Priesthood there to administer to you without having to call an uncle, grandpa or ward member out of their homes to do so. I think the Lord knew that this was something that tormented my little soul and he started sending me very SACRED experiences with the Priesthood which helped me understand that this was HIS Priesthood and no matter who the messenger was, HE was the source. I have several experience with this power that I could talk to you about today, very spiritual to me, but the one that came to my mind as you were all sharing today was when my cousin was in need of healing and I was able to witness the true Priesthood at work.

My Mother comes from a family of 11 children in which she is the oldest and the only single one. Growing up “Aunt Kim’s” house was the house to be at! Mom always made it fun and let us destroy, play, create, and eat so we all loved to be there! Mom and I were also the babysitters of the many nieces and nephews she had. At one time in my life my Uncle had just gone through a bad divorce and was working a lot and so Mom and I helped to care for his daughter, who he had full custody of, from when she was still using a bottle. We had been doing this for many years. At one point the courts allowed her mother weekend visitations. She was to get Jessica for a day and had to return her to us at a certain time at night.

On a particular weekend Mom and I were at home (I was about 19) waiting for Jes to arrive home and there was no sign of her. We started getting nervous as to why she wasn’t there. We were watching the news when a breaking story came on that there was a 5 year old girl in ICU at Primary Children’s due to a drug overdose from her Mother. We just had that feeling that it was her and called and confirmed it with the hospital. Another Aunt and I rushed to Salt Lake while Mom stayed home and tried to contact her Father and other family members.

When we got to the hospital and explained who we were, they sat down and talked to us about what had happened to her. They told us that she was with her Mother (who told them she had full custody) and had been put in a bedroom for a nap. On the dresser there were 5 LSD laced candy conversation hearts. This 5 yr old saw them and OF COURSE wanted them. So she ate all 5 (enough to kill an adult). When her Mom came in she found her foaming at the mouth and called 911. They placed Mother in jail and brought Jessica back to life on route to the hospital. They explained that when we went into her room it will be dark and that we needed to talk in the quietest whispers because the drug makes everything so much louder and she is very scared. He also told us that with the amount of LSD she consumed she would most likely experience symptoms her whole life in some form.

As we went entered that dark, cold room my heart was broke. This poor girl was so scared, hiding under her blanket and having horrible hallucinations. When I lifted the blanket she just clung on to me and was crying asking me to help her. I have never seen such heart break in my life to that point. The only thing I could think of is getting her the help I knew ONLY Heavenly Father had to give. My Aunt stayed with her in the room and I went out in search of the Priesthood.

One nice thing about living in Utah is they will page over the loud speaker to have Priesthood holders come to room such and such and people will show up, which was the case this time. We had 2 men show up. One that only spoke Spanish as well as an English speaking man. In my haste and anxiety I just showed them into the room and told them they had to whisper, without giving ANY explanation of what had happened to our sweet Jes. They asked for her full named and the Spanish speaking brother anointed her for her healing and the other was voice. The most overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort came into the room the second he spoke her full name. In the blessing she was told that in her short years of life she had already been given many trials that people don’t go through in a lifetime and that her Heavenly Father wanted her to know that it was not her fault. He told her that she would be blessed because of these trials and that she would be “successful and live a healthy, normal life and would experience no side effects from these drugs.” By the time he closed this priesthood blessing both strangers in the gospel were in tears and kissed her forehead and left the room. They motioned for me to follow them and with tear stained face the English speaking brother said, “what happened to her?” That was the moment that I realized I had never even explained to them why she was even in the hospital. Here this stranger, through the power of the priesthood, granted her to have “no side effects from these drugs” yet he himself had no idea what he ailment was.

I explained to them a little of what had gone on, hugged them and thanked them for being worthy holders that day and went back to attend to my cousin, who by this time had visitors beginning to file in. I want you to know that Jessica miraculously went home the next day, she has never suffered the consequences of those damaging drugs, she graduated from high school with honors and has a full ride scholarship at UVU.

I understand that not all Priesthood blessings end with the result being what all the family hoped for. But for Jessica that is what was supposed to happen as part of Heavenly Father’s plan in her life and she has been blessed even though she was suffering because of someone else’s negligence.

Experiences like this, the ones I have witnessed first hand, have strengthened and developed my unwavering testimony of the power of the Priesthood, God’s power. I KNOW that God has restored his power to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I KNOW that the same power is on the earth today. I know it because I have felt it. I know it because I have seen mighty miracles come as a result of the priesthood. I saw a very sick 5 year old be released from the hospital the day after she was brought back to life. I have seen health restored, faith restored, ordinances restored, all through this same power. It is real. It is available to all of us!

Whether we currently have it in our homes or not, we all have rights to receive the blessings and can do so just by asking a worthy Priesthood holder. As someone who is in that situation still to this day where I have to go out of my home to ask someone to bless me, I will tell you that it is an honor to these holders to bless you. They receive such peace and comfort from blessing you. I have been told thank you by people I have asked for a blessing stating that they love to serve their Heavenly Father in that way.

The only person that you are hurting by not asking for a blessing, regardless of circumstance, is yourself. Such peace and comfort can be felt through this holy power given to worthy men on Earth.

Thank you Michelle for setting such a great atmosphere for sharing today. I loved to hear the blessings that those among us have experienced and it brought in the spirit so strong. I love you all. Enjoy your week and stay as cool as you can!

Meg