Has the Day of Miracles Ceased?

Last week our “Come Follow Me” study covered the many mighty miracles performed by the prophet Elisha. It was a wonderful week reading about all the people’s lives that were touched by those miracles and the great faith that they and Elisha had that allowed the miracles to happen. Despite the underlying story of the Israelites’ continued descent into wickedness, these events highlighted goodness and righteousness that was still found among the people. 

I feel like there are parallels to our modern day lives to be found in all those stories. It’s the “likening the scriptures unto us” part. (1 Nephi 19:23) While so much of the world is becoming more wicked in what seems to be more a much more blatant manner, we and our families can be islands of righteousness amidst the stormy seas, islands where faith, and God, prevail, where goodness and joy is still found, and where miracles still happen. Because miracles do still happen. My family and I have seen many miracles in our lives, and we had another one today.

Unfortunately, Nathan has inherited a tendency towards headaches from me. Before he left for the MTC, he had all the prescriptions he needed, he knew of a variety of things he needed to do to prevent headaches, and his headaches, while more frequent than most normal people experience, were still mostly occasional and well managed. All that changed not long after he arrived in Texas, however. As of today, he has had a headache non-stop for eighty-two days. While he powers through it, like most chronic headache suffers do, it was beginning to seriously wear him out physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. He has been working with the mission nurse and the mission doctor, but neither of them has the expertise necessary to help him break this headache. He has already seen one doctor in Texas, who admitted flat out that he doesn’t know much about headaches, and has been given several medications to try, but neither has given any lasting relief as of yet. 

After I talked to him last week, I was very worried. The mission doc who had put him on the preventative medication had not told him that it was a different class of drug so it would be safe to take his rescue meds with the new one. One a scale of 1-10, Nathan’s headache level had been at a 7 for several days and he had not taken any meds for the pain because he didn’t know if it was safe. He said several times, “I don’t want to worry you, but….” Which of course meant my concern rose very quickly. He looked haggard. And hopeless. And this mama bear jumped right into mega worry mode. 

I began searching for headache specialists in the Fort Worth area and found a couple options that looked promising and were listed as in network with our insurance. I sent all the info to Nathan, but as it was no longer p-day, I couldn’t actually discuss any of it with him. I did get in touch with the mission nurse though, and she and I began exchanging information regularly. She is also worried about Nathan. The mission president has been in Texas for a whole week and a half, so he is still working to get his feet under him. Despite that, he felt like he needed to meet with Nathan. His initial conversation with the mission nurse added to that feeling and after he read Nathan’s first weekly letter to the president, that feeling solidified, and he ended up rescheduling another meeting so he could meet with Nathan. At that meeting, he conveyed to Nathan his great desire to keep him in the mission and facilitate the necessary appointments and such to help him get the care he needs. He also basically commanded Nathan to take the days off that he needed when the pain is high. Nathan came out of the meeting feeling like he had been given permission to take care of himself. His gut instinct is to always put other people first, so sometimes he needs to be reminded that he needs to take care of himself in order to be able to take care of others, so feeling like he had been given permission to put himself first for once was a necessary step in the right direction. It helped knowing he had support, but still the pain marched on.

Around here, we have been praying that Nathan would have the revelation that he needs to get the care he needs. We fast for him regularly and it seems like there are dozens of us putting his name on the temple prayer rolls. In the past month that prayer has expanded to include his mission leadership and the healthcare professionals he is working with. And in the past several weeks, we have added Kevin and I to the list of people that need guidance to know how to help our son. After I talked to him last Monday and my worry escalated, I began to tearfully plead with the Lord for a miracle. 

Today is p-day which means we were anticipating a video call from Nathan. Around lunchtime today, it suddenly occurred to me that I should get in touch with my cousin Shirlene. She and her orthopedic surgeon husband lived in Arlington for a number of years and are still good friends with the patriarch in the stake where Nathan is currently serving. I thought that perhaps Greg, her husband, might have some ideas of doctors to see. She responded quickly with the info that he mostly knows other orthopedists, but said she’d ask him. About fifteen minutes later, she sent me another message. She had reached out to her friend in Texas. The friend had reached out to a friend of hers who has chronic migraines, and the friend of a friend was more than happy to share info about the doctor she sees and the clinic she goes to as she has gotten fantastic care there. The downside was the fact that the clinic is in Dallas, which is outside Nathan’s mission boundaries, and the mission president preferred for him to get care within boundaries if possible. I checked in with my good friend Google though and discovered that although the headache clinic is in Dallas, they have an associated clinic in Fort Worth with several neurologists that have experience in treating headaches. 

All that info came in as I was actually chatting with Nathan. I shared the info with him, along with a barrage of other names and phone numbers, and he started making calls. Several calls resulted in only voice mail boxes and messages left, but the clinic that I found through Shirlene’s friend of a friend had different results. They had just had a cancellation and there was one appointment available for tomorrow morning. The next available appointments aren’t until November. Nathan took the appointment, smart kid that he is, and then came the need to work out the details. His companion has a dentist appointment tomorrow morning for some pretty unpleasant tooth pain, so Nathan wasn’t sure he’d be able to make the appointment. I immediately reached out to the mission nurse who emphatically exclaimed that he needed to get to that appointment. She in turn, immediately reached out to the mission president and his response was, “Let’s get this done and not waste a little miracle!”

That’s exactly what this is, of course. The much prayed for miracle that we need. I have no illusions and know that one appointment is not going to fix everything, but I also know that getting in to see a specialist can take months. If Nathan had called that office yesterday or tomorrow or even four hours earlier than he did, that single appointment would not have been available. The thought I had to ask Shirlene was a tiny bit of revelation that sparked a miracle for Nathan.

As Moroni so eloquently teaches, “Have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.” (Moroni 7:29) And often the miracles come as whisperings of the still small voice and with the help of the many mortal angels that cross our paths. This missionary mom owes a debt of gratitude to a couple of ladies living thousands of miles away in Texas. And to the Lord, because “all things which are good cometh of God.” (Moroni 7:12)

The final details are that the mission president has authorized splits with another companionship so that both Nathan and his companion can get to their medical appointments. Nathan has permission to send Kevin and I health information so he will let us know how it goes tomorrow. And I will water my pillow with tears later this evening as I thank my Heavenly Father for this miracle. The mission president may call it a little miracle, but to us, it’s huge.

“The Hearts of the Children”

One of the many things that makes our church different from the many other Christian religions is the fact that we perform ordinances for the dead. We know that the ties that bind us in life can continue into the eternities, and we want to allow everyone, including those who have already died, the opportunity to claim these blessings. As a result, there is a great focus on family history work in conjunction with temple work. I have been blessed to have children that have a deep-seated desire to serve in the temple, and since technology has made family history work simpler and more accessible than ever before, more often than not they are taking family names when they go. That is where this particular story begins.

During the summer of 2019, Nathan had a goal to go to the temple as often as possible. He used the Family Tree app and located many family names, including the names of seven siblings who needed all their work done. They just happened to share our last name, which was extra cool. My parents had scheduled a family sealing session at the end of August to do some sealings for family names which they had been working to complete ordinances for, so we made a goal to have all the siblings ready to be sealed to their parents at the end of the summer. My boys and their friends did the baptisms and confirmations for those seven siblings. Daniel and I spent the summer doing the initiatory and endowment work for them all. And by August, we were ready for them to be sealed to their parents.

August 23, 2019 was the family sealing session. Nathan and Matthew did some more baptisms while those of us who were able gathered in the sealing room upstairs. Being together in the sealing room with my parents, my sisters and their spouses, Kevin and Daniel was an amazing experience. I love being in the temple at any time but being in the temple with my family is truly the best of the best. Being sealed as a family is the culminating ordinance that is performed in the temple, so being there with my kin is kind of like a glimpse into the promise of eternal family. The sealings of those siblings to their parents were done one after another and when the last one was completed, Kevin told us that they were present, and they were so excited about the work we had just done. However, that was not what I felt. I had an overwhelming feeling that we had forgotten someone. The feeling was so strong that it brought me to tears. Yes, I know that’s not hard to do, but it was an unmistakable impression, one that I could not ignore.

As soon as we got back to the car, I pulled out my phone and looked up the family in question in Family Tree. Sure enough, there were two siblings for whom we had not done work. One of them, a brother, had his name reserved by someone else. Another, the youngest sister, needed more time to elapse before we could do her work because her birthdate was too recent. We took note of how much longer we needed to wait (just a few months) and made a mental note to check back then. In the meantime, Daniel started working sideways and found Myrtle, the wife of one of the brothers. We got her baptism and confirmation done in the last few weeks before Daniel left on his mission. In October when it had been long enough that we could do her ordinances, we checked back in with Ida, the youngest sister for whom we still needed to do work. At that time, her name had been reserved by someone else. That was fine with us. We didn’t care who did the work as long as it got done.

A few months later, the world changed when COVID-19 became came crashing into our lives. Everything closed, including the temples, and as we grappled with a variety of troubles and anxieties, doing work for our ancestors took a back seat to more immediate concerns.

It was more than a year later when the temples began to reopen for proxy work. The baptistries opened first and appointments filled incredibly quickly. Like us, everyone was anxious to return to the temple. I felt very blessed to be able to snag an appointment for my boys to go do baptisms for the dead in mid-June of 2021. While they waited for that appointment, Nathan was preparing to go to the temple for his own endowment. It took a while for the necessary appointments to be made and the interviews to occur, but once all was in order, he scheduled his endowment for the beginning of July. All my menfolk attended the temple for our baptistry appointment on June 12. While they were there, one of the temple workers mentioned to Kevin that we should be sitting at our computer at noon on June 30. The kind temple lady was not able to tell him any more than that, but I tucked that bit of info into a corner of my mind and watched the calendar.

Near the end of June, the email announcing the opening of our temple for all proxy ordinances arrived. The date on which proxy work would resume was June 29, 2021, just three days before Nathan’s July 2 live endowment session. I immediately got online to try to schedule a visit. All the timeslots for endowment sessions were filled, but I was able to schedule a sealing session for August 6. I then turned to initiatory hoping I could snag a time to do the next step in Myrtle’s work. Unbelievably, there were still two appointments available on July 1 which meant I could complete Myrtle’s initiatory work and then do her endowment work the following day when Nathan did his live endowment. It felt like a huge blessing, which it was, and I was incredibly excited.

On Sunday, June 27, we were sharing with Daniel all the excitement about the reopening temples and our upcoming appointments. Talk of the temple brought to mind those last two siblings, Alonzo and Ida, and Daniel checked their status in Family Tree. We were all surprised to find that both names had been shared with the temple which meant he was able to reserve them so we could do the work. Alonzo had been baptized but not confirmed and Ida’s work had not been started yet. We bemoaned the fact that there were no available appointments in the baptistry because if things had lined up right, I could take Ida’s name to my initiatory appointment on Thursday and then to the endowment session on Friday. We had plenty of family members coming to be able to do all the endowments, but there was no time for baptisms. I only half-jokingly suggested that one of us could stand outside the baptistry on Tuesday morning and beg for someone to take those two names but thought that might not be well accepted by other temple patrons in the middle of a pandemic.  

On Wednesday, June 30, I was sitting at my computer at noon just as the kindly temple worker had advised. I was hoping that new baptistry appointments would be posted so that I could schedule another time for Matthew to go to the temple. I watched and refreshed my browser continually for several hours and nothing new appeared. At that point I assumed something must have changed since we had been given the tip, stopped watching and got on with my day.

After dinner that evening, it occurred to me that I should check one more time, just in case. I did so, and to my great astonishment, one appointment for baptisms was available for that very evening. It was the last appointment of the day and we had just over an hour until participants needed to be at the temple. I immediately reserved the appointment, crying all the time, because I knew that it was a miracle for my family. The only reason I had even checked for appointments that day was the tip the temple worker had given Kevin several weeks previous, and I felt a great amount of gratitude for her comment. It helped us be in the right place at the right time. Having that one appointment pop up meant someone else had cancelled, so whoever they were, they had my gratitude as well for the miracle they helped create. My appointment to do initiatories was the next day and we had been blessed with a way to get Ida’s baptism and confirmation done in preparation for the next ordinance. The first roadblock cleared, we drove into the next one. Both Nathan and Matthew were going to the temple, but neither of them could stand as proxy for Ida. Kevin and I were in the process of refinancing our mortgage and the closing was scheduled for 7:00 that evening so I could not go. We needed a sister.

Nathan and Matthew got on their phones and started texting everyone they could think of to try to find a friend to attend with them. I pulled up the ward list and started calling everyone who had a daughter who might be able to go. As it was the very last minute, everyone we contacted was unavailable. I was starting to get discouraged but had a thought to try Samantha, a young sister in our ward who is Nathan’s age and had just graduated from high school. I called her mom, but she did not answer and her mailbox was full so I couldn’t leave a message. I figured that was a dead end and went back to my list to see if I had missed someone that I thought might want to go. A minute later, Nathan said that he should just call Samantha directly, which he did. She answered and told him that they were out to dinner as a family which is why her mom had not answered. But her mom is the relief society compassionate service leader and when a member of the relief society presidency called followed immediately by her son calling, Samantha figured they had better answer just in case someone had died. In short order, she told Nathan she would be going to the temple. I’m not ashamed to say that I actually cheered and did a little happy dance. A bit later, Samantha told Nathan that she had been praying for an opportunity to go to the temple. While she was an answer to our prayers, it seems we were an answer to hers. That’s the Lord’s hand in our lives. Nathan performed Ida’s baptism and Samantha acted as proxy. Nathan told me that as he said the words of the ordinance, he felt a little gush of excitement that was not his own and in his mind, he felt someone urging him to say the words faster. It would seem that the veil was thin, and Ida was sharing her joy. Alonzo’s confirmation was also completed that evening.

The next day we faced our next hurdle. I was ready to do the initiatory work for Ida and her sister-in-law Myrtle, but we had no way to get Alonzo’s initiatory done. Both Daniel and Kevin had to work and there were no appointments available when they were not working. I arrived at the temple with Alonzo’s name card in my hand, prepared to ask questions about the possibility of having someone else do the next step in his work. I asked the temple worker who was checking reservations whether or not it was possible to get his ordinance done. She didn’t know and suggested we ask her shift supervisor. Before she even completed the sentence, her shift supervisor walked through the door. I repeated my question and when she didn’t know either, she suggested we ask the temple recorder.

We made our way to the temple offices, and I explained the situation to the temple recorder. My son was going to the temple for his own endowment the next day and we had been unable to get an appointment for my own menfolk to do the initiatory. Was there any way to get that ordinance done so we could do his endowment the following day? If the temple were open as it normally would be, there would be ample opportunity to get the ordinance done, but the need to schedule everything had left us with few options if we were to get the work done in time. The temple recorder asked who would be doing the endowment for Alonzo and I told him it would be either my husband or my already endowed oldest son. After a moment of thought, the recorder responded, “We’re living in uncommon times. I’m willing to make an exception to policy because I have a feeling this will be a very special experience for your family.” And then I cried. Of course. Bawl baby gene, remember? And I thanked him profusely. He took my phone number and told me he would call when the work was done.

The cool thing about doing proxy work for Ida was the fact that my last name is the same as hers and as such, whenever they said my name (which is also her name), I felt a little bubble of excitement. She was there with me and thrilled at the progress. I was able to complete Myrtle’s initiatory as well. As for me, it was wonderful to be back in the temple. The world had been extra chaotic and stressful over the previous year and a half and walking in the temple door and feeling the weight of the world lift off my shoulders was a true blessing.

Later that afternoon, at 4:23 p.m., to be precise, the phone rang. It was the temple recorder letting me know that Alonzo’s initiatory work had been done. That was another little miracle. I didn’t even note this dear brother’s name, but he helped facilitate another of our temple miracles and I am enormously grateful for him.

The following day was Nathan’s live endowment. I took Ida’s name and Kev’s sister-in-law took Myrtle’s. Daniel took Alonzo’s. Once again Ida shared her rush of enthusiasm with me, that little bubble of excitement when our name was said. Because of the COVID restrictions, our family members were the only ones in the session with us. It was small and intimate, such an amazing experience to look around the ordinance room and know that my covenants bind me to every single one of them. As I’ve said before, being in the temple with my family is the most amazing thing. And being able to do more work for Ida, Alonzo and Myrtle was another blessing.

A month has passed since then and this afternoon was our scheduled sealing session. Kevin, Daniel, Nathan, Kev’s mom and I attended and were finally able to seal Alonzo and Ida to their parents and Myrtle to her husband. As I knelt as Ida’s proxy one more time, I didn’t feel excitement. What I felt was peace and a sense of completion. In my mind were the words, “It’s finished.” Ida was finally sealed to her family. And she was at peace. After more than two years of waiting, which included a pause in temple work and many miracles for our family, one more family who is finally all bound together. Someday I’m going to meet Ida and I’m going to be able to thank her for letting us be a part of her story. Her great desire to be sealed to her family provided my family the opportunity to serve her and her family, the chance to see the Lord at work in our lives, and the blessing of increased faith and testimony of temple and family history work.

I have gained several important things over the course of this adventure. First, I have learned to love and appreciate the temple even more than I used to. I hope I never again take it for granted. I think that’s another blessing that has come in the wake of COVID. We usually have such easy access to so many temples that it can be easy to make going an ordinary occurrence. But it really shouldn’t become ordinary to us. It should always be viewed as a blessing, an opportunity to learn, to draw nearer to the Lord and to leave the world behind for a bit. I know that doing an endowment session is what most people do most of the time, but I have loved participating in the other ordinances as well. There are such amazing blessings associated with the other covenants we make and being reminded of them has helped strengthen and guide me.

Second, I have experienced firsthand the power of family history work and the love and blessings that doing temple work on behalf of our own family can bring to our lives. They are more than just names on paper. They are people, real men and real women and even more than that, they are kin. Ultimately, that’s what the temple is all about. It’s about sealing us to those we love the most so that we may be with them forever. D&C 2:2 says “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.” I have seen that happen in my family. As we have all worked together to complete the temple work for another family, we have learned to love our ancestors a bit more.

Third, I have gained a greater testimony of the fact that our spirits are eternal and that all we are taught about what comes after this life is real. Ida and her family have touched me and my family. We all believe that Ida was anxious and ready to get her work done. She had waited long enough to be sealed to her parents and as soon as possible, she was pulling strings on her side of the veil so that we would have the miracles we needed on our side. During the first week that the temple was reopened for proxy work, my family was able to go into the temple three days in a row. You can’t tell us that’s not a miracle. We know it is. I’m not sure why Ida chose me to inspire, but I’m so grateful for her. She has been in my mind and in my heart and as I’ve told my family, Ida was driving the bus. I was just along for the ride. And what an amazing ride it has been.