Hugs for Diana’s Husband (& Diana, too)

My husband likes me to tell the story cause he is afraid he will get too teary eyed.  Only since he  joined the church has he found out that real men can tear up and not be embarrassed.  Every time  we are in a fast and testimony meeting, he will nudge me if a man gets emotional and says, “see someone else gets like me”. I am trying to convince him that this is part of a testimony and how the Holy Ghost talks though us in this way some times.

I tell this story to you as I am have tears falling down my face thinking about it. He came from Indiana to Salt Lake City, UT in 1973 to visit his brother after a going through a hard divorce.  The only thing he had heard about Mormons was that they had horns.  So he kept asking people where all these people were and they thought he was crazy.  Anyway, we were living about 2 streets from each other for several years, but never met even though we shopped in the same grocery stores etc.  We finally met in 1977 at a party and I knew there was something special about him. He was not a member, but I was always the type to see the good in others and thought maybe I could change him.  In the meantime we fell in love and got married in 1979.

He was always supportive of me going to any church meeting or activity that I wanted, but he said he didn’t want our children blessed or baptized until he knew if my church was brainwashing us or not.  I had a 4 year old daughter when we married, so he didn’t say much about her going to church.  Anytime anyone in my family had anything at church, he would go and just tease my family that they better wear a hard hat or the roof might fall in.  When our son was born 3 years later, he wanted him to be blessed.  Home teachers were allowed in our home, but he asked them not to talk about religion.  However, I could discuss anything I wanted to about what I had learned and he would even come and chat with visiting teachers.  Of course, our Bishop being the wise man he was, sent Converts and people he knew had lots in common.  And low and behold, one visiting teacher was from Indiana and a convert.  She would sit and spend lots of time conversing with him during my visits.

I had a few health problems back then, and he marveled at the support and meals that the ward rendered.  My mom always teased him, that we would convert him one way or another, but she hoped it was while he was living.  Anyway, in 2005, he became very ill and ended up in the LDS Hospital with a collapsed lung.  After being there for 30 days and having lots of support from ward members at home, he was talking  a lot about how the church always came through for us when we needed them the most.  One night he got a high fever and could not stop shivering, so they took an xray and said his other lung was collapsing.  I asked him if he would like my brother-in-law and nephew to give him a blessing and he consented.  They rushed up and before taking him into surgery, they allowed the blessing.  He says that before they started the blessing, he remembers everyone being in the room and as soon as they laid their hands on his head, the room went dark and he felt a warm rush go from head to foot. He said that he felt like the Spirit of Jesus or something else was entering his body.  Then as soon as the blessing ended, he saw everyone in the room together again.  He was rushed into surgery and when he awoke in Intensive care, he asked me if I thought they might have a Book of Mormon that he could read.  I told him I was sure I could round one up, but probably not until he got back in a regular room.

As soon as he was released to go home, he started wanting all kinds of questions answered.  I got hold of my visiting teacher and her husband was the stake president and we asked him if he wanted missionary discussions.  They invited the missionaries to their home and we came too.
After dinner, when, the Sisters asked us we knew anyone who might want the discussions, he piped up and said “As a matter of fact…”. They almost fell off their chairs cause no one said anything to give a hint during dinner that he was not a member.  Anyway, the stake president and his wife came to all the discussions at our home and within about one month, we had a baptism.  There must have been about 100 people from our ward there and everyone just stepped up and planned the whole thing for me.  Unfortunately my mother had died a year before, but we could feel her and my fathers spirit there.

Two months later, he was asked to say the prayer in Stake Conference.  Our stake broadcast to about seven other wards.  Of course, I didn’t let him know this until the day before as he had never ever prayed publicly before.  His  prayer was one of the best  and most sincere prayers I have ever heard.

Two years later, we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and my dream finally came true. At the marriage and sealing about 20 people from our new ward attended.  To this day he just tells everyone that the Lord just has to get through to stubborn people in different ways to get them to listen.

I can attest to the effect that lifetime members have on converts. But we need to be extra vigilant to let them know how much we love all of them and make sure they always feel welcome.  This need to include those who have fallen away.  They definitely need our attention.  Our present ward is having a great success with members being reactivated in this last year and I personally feel, they need our hugs too.  I never did lose my testimony or stop believing anything through all these years. However,  I  certainly wasn’t always as active as I wanted to be.  However, lots hugs, notes and vigilant members pulled me through too.