Always listen...

Three posts in one day for me! Wow! I went visiting teaching today and I feel like this is definitely worth sharing! Usually with visiting teaching, you are suppose to be the one giving the message, but I feel like I left today with my testimony stronger! I hope my friend doesn't mind me sharing this. I don't think she would!

We started talking about mini vans b/c our friend just got a new one. My friend that we were visiting was talking about how she really hated mini vans growing up and she said she would NEVER buy one when she got older. Well, her husband was out of town for a couple days and she woke up one morning and thought "I HAVE to go buy a mini van today!" She had NEVER even thought about this before. Never talked to her husband about it and didn't even really need a new car. At the time she had a midsized car. A new car wasn't in the budget and this thought seemed to be out of the blue. For some reason, she just felt like it HAD to happen. She packed up her two small children and went straight down to the dealership. She talked to her husband and told him how she felt and he said "okay, we'll do it." That day, she picked out a mini van and the next day, she picked up her husband from the airport and they went straight to the dealership to sign the papers.

Well, one week to the day that they got their new mini van, they went to her mom's house for a halloween party. They left that night around eight to head home and they were sitting at a stop sign. All of a sudden, a huge truck comes racing towards them and plows right into them!! The people who hit them got out and ran down the street, hopped into another car and LEFT! Soon, firetrucks and ambulances showed up and the first thing they said to her was, "If you were in a smaller car, you would all be dead!!!" They were shocked at how well the mini van had held up, even though it was totaled. At that moment, everything made sense to her! Heavenly Father was looking out for them and b/c she listened to that very strong prompting, they were protected!! I got chills listening to her talk about it. The kids who hit them were doing it for a gang intitiation and had stole the truck that they used to hit this family.

This story amazes me. Like I said before, she HATED mini vans and repeatedly told her husband she would never own one. Despite this, she followed the prompting she had and made a BIG purchase b/c of it. It wasn't a minor thing and she couldn't have second guessed herself or just ignored it. If she would have put it off for just ONE week, it could have ended very badly! I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I hope that I don't ignore promptings I have and can follow her example!

I want to write about one more thing. Some people could hear this story and say, "well if Heavenly Father was protecting them, why didn't He just stop it from happening?" I would have to say that one of our greatest gifts is our agency. Elder Ballard talks about this and I think he puts it perfectly...

"We tend to think of agency as a personal matter. If we ask someone to define “moral agency,” the answer will probably be something like this: “Moral agency means I am free to make choices for myself.” Often overlooked is the fact that choices have consequences; we forget also that agency offers the same privilege of choice to others. At times we will be affected adversely by the way other people choose to exercise their agency. Our Heavenly Father feels so strongly about protecting our agency that he allows his children to exercise it, either for good or for evil."

So I think that this family was protected b/c of their faithfulness and willingness to follow the promptings they receive. Heavenly Father wasn't going to stop it from happening b/c that would be taking away the agency of those kids but He did give my friend the tools she needed to protect herself and her family. What a blessing!