When You Put Others First

I definitely have some backdating posts to do to catch up on some events that are worth documenting, however I always want to start with the most current and then do some back logging when the guilt becomes too much to put aside. This picture was taken back in April, but I haven't had a chance to post any for a while and really love these three boys in my life and couldn't resist.

This post is actually being driven from the Sunday School class I was in while visiting my inlaws' ward today for my sister-in-law Crystel's farewell (she's leaving for the Los Angeles spanish speaking Visitor's Center Mission). Toward the end of the class, which the lesson was on family history and temple work, Stuart shared a recent story that involved Wynn and his cows. A comment was made about how it was hoped that Wynn wrote in his journal about what happened as it would be a great testimony for his grand-children about doing temple work and the blessings that come. I thought that I didn't know if Wynn kept a journal and another comment was made about how sometimes people do not or cannot keep a record of their life, however if we have the opportunity to write things down for others we should. I committed myself right then that I was going to sit down this evening and document for Wynn but especially for his posterity this faith promoting incident that occurred last week.

Wynn and Phyllis usually attend the temple on Thursdays, however if you are the owner of cows then they don't always work into your schedule, except for Wynn this time. He had gone up to Smiths Mesa the day before and left some hay in the corral for the cows as the land up there was quite dead and dry. He hadn't seen the cows for most of the summer and fall and was starting to think that he might of lost them for good. On Thursday he was quite tempted to head back up to Smiths to see if he got lucky having any show up and possibly corral them. He decided against it and him and Phyllis headed to the temple. Friday morning Wynn, Adam, Tyson, and Lincoln bundled up and went up to Smiths to check on the status of the cows and to their amazement and wonder found all of the cows, including 3 calves that were born during their stay up there, all in the corral with the gate shut and locked. Prudencio (sp?), the name of the guy Wynn did the temple work for the day before is who came to his mind. He just knew that because he put doing the work of the Lord first, particularly Prudencio's work, then some help was kicked back his way. Wynn walked away that day with one less day of having to cuss the cows out (actually I could be wrong because they went up to check on the cows obviously not knowing what they were going to find because they had to come down and get the horse trailer and go back up and get them, so I don't know how herding them into the trailer went. All Tyson could talk about when he got home and at dinner was how, "we got the cows in the trailer and dad said, 'we got em Tyse, we got em'" Adam thought it was funny the things that Tyson retains in his memory from the experience. All Tyson could do was just repeat to me over and over what happened and what Adam said.

A quote was shared from a classmember today that went very much along with Wynn's experience. Elder David B. Haight quoted John A Widtsoe who wrote : “I believe that the busy person on the farm, in the shop, in the office, or in the household, who has his worries and troubles, can solve his problems better and more quickly in the house of the Lord than anywhere else. If he will … [do] the temple work for himself and for his dead, he will confer a mighty blessing upon those who have gone before, and … a blessing will come to him, for at the most unexpected moments, in or out of the temple will come to him, as a revelation, the solution of the problems that vex his life. That is the gift that comes to those who enter the temple properly.” (“Temples and Work Therein,” Ensign, Nov 1990, 61) I had to chuckle as Wynn's cows quite often are "problems that vex his life".