I Am A Witness

After the hectic (but very enjoyable!) summer, Mr. J and I have taken a retreat for a little relaxation before school starts next Monday. We are in Park City enjoying the mountain air. This morning we took a brisk walk along the Rail Trail. The sun coming up on the mountains sent a tickle up and down my spine. This world is so beautiful!

Yesterday we went with some friends to Sacrament Meeting and they happened to be going to hear a mission speak at the Spanish Branch. I once studied Spanish but have never had much opportunity to practice it so I enjoyed every minute of listening and singing in Spanish. Afterward we went to their home to visit for awhile and they took us out back to their farm and YES! picture is of me and a bison and a zebra. Those of you who know me well and how much I don’t even enjoy the company of dogs and cats are laughing right now. But as you can see I was a bit timid about the whole experience. Being in the same pen as a bison is not something I thought I’d be doing, but the experience was amazing. Those creatures are sooo big and powerful—and this was a small one!

I learned a lot last week during Education Week. The surprising thing to me is how much the Spirit teaches me while I am speaking. You expect it while preparing and studying, but right while I’m speaking things come into my head and I learn. For example, I was sharing the story of the people of Alma who were put into bondage by Amulon. The bondage and subsequent servitude had become a tremendous trial to the people and they cried out to the Lord for help. He answered by saying, “I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage: and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions” (Mosiah 24:14).

As I read that verse aloud to the class and came to the words about being witnesses, the Spirit whispered that part of the reason I experienced Grizelda is so I could testify afterward that I know the Lord does visit us in our afflictions. And so I do testify. He helps us. He visits us. I know it.