28-FEB-2019

Elders,

How is the week going for you? This nice peek into spring has been wonderful. Hopefully all is well with each of you. 

We made a change in our quorum on Sunday. We released Brad Woolley as secretary and sustained Marshall Rudd as the new secretary. I want to thank Brad for all of the effort and work he put into the calling. He is a good elder and a great friend. Thank you Brad.

Mitch led a great discussion on Sunday. We talked about President Eyring’s talk “Try, Try, Try”. We covered a lot of ground in our discussion. It culminated with a call to ministering and charity. I appreciate all of the input and comments. It makes us a better quorum and hopefully better priesthood holders as well.

Mark your calendars for our ward temple night on March 22 (Friday) at 6:30pm. We will be doing a sealing session at the Jordan River Temple.

A couple of weeks ago, we travelled down to Ephraim Utah to see our daughter who is attending Snow College. We made it down without incident, picked her up and went to the local Cafe Rio knockoff. We hopped into the car to go get her some groceries and supplies. I turned the key and the car made a very odd sound. It wasn’t the standard sound when the battery dies, nor was it the sound I would typically associate with a bad starter motor. It was really strange. 

It was President’s Day. We were in the middle of almost nowhere and our car was not going to start. 

Then the little miracles started. There were just too many of them for it to be just a string of coincidences. One of the workers from the restaurant came out to dump the garbage and we asked him about a mechanic. He said there was a small shop a few blocks away called Garage Sale Treasures. It didn’t sound like much of a mechanic but he suggested we call him. The mechanic fortunately was working that day and he was waiting on a part to be delivered from the mighty metropolis of Nephi so he had a few minutes to come and take a look. 

Darren showed up and looked like the ultimate mechanic. His coveralls were more grease than material. After 10 minutes or so of diagnostic work that involved him repeatedly whacking the starter motor with a large hammer while I tried to start the van we determined that it was in-fact, the starter motor that was bad. If the starter wasn’t bad before he got there, all the pounding on it with a large hammer certainly would have had an impact on the diagnosis. 

The next problem was whether or not there was a starter motor anywhere around. He called Napa – no luck. He then tried Autozone and after a long time on hold, they said they had one rebuilt motor. Darren said he’d take me in his beater 1990 VW Jetta to the store so I could buy it. I sent the rest of the family on a long walk back to Lexi’s dorm room, figuring I was in for a long afternoon. After buying the starter motor we towed the van to his shop with the Jetta. All went well until I saw that we had to make it across a muddy field to get to his shop. Somehow we made it in and he got to work.

I’m not completely inept when it comes to car repairs but I figured two things – one it was going to take a couple of hours and two – I was going to pay through the nose. I was worried as well that his part was going to show up and he was going to push me to the back of the queue. I was busily looking for some place to spend the night. I was not convinced that we were going home. I was to start a new job the next day and I wasn’t certain that I’d make the “new hire training” the next day.

Less than an hour later Darren hands me the keys and says he’s all done and would I come try it. I do, and it turns over and starts right up.

He writes me out the bill and I was preparing for the worst – holiday rate – rush job – non-local sucker – etc. I took a look and just about passed out. The labor and tax came to $70.21. He couldn’t take a credit card so he told me to take the car and go to an ATM and come back with the cash later in the afternoon.

I thanked him profusely and promptly paid him. The car has run perfectly ever since. We finished our visit and made it home as planned.

You could call it a string of coincidences, good luck, or small-town hospitality. I choose to see it as a collection of little miracles. God does care about the little things in our life. He is in the details if we seek to see them and find them.

I am grateful for these little miracles that happen all around us. I have been trying to look for the hand of God more in my life. I have made a concerted effort for the last several months and it has helped me. I feel like I am a better person and have a better outlook on life for looking for those little evidences of God’s love.

I hope that you will look for God’s hands in your day to day activities. Have a great week.

This Sunday is a Come Follow Me lesson. The lesson covers the Sermon on the Mount. I hope to see many of you there. 

Happy Day!

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828