Some Thoughts and Experiences

A couple of things I was thinking about.
It was hard after falling on my face to go out into public. People either stared and looked away or they exclaimed, "What happened to you?" Or "Did Bob do that? Ha ha" "How are you today? You're are looking better."
I kept wondering what they were thinking and even though most people were very kind it got rather overwhelming to explain over and over again what had happened. Well, you get the idea.

Anyway..... A week ago Thursday our ward was having a special chapel session at the temple and then going on a session together. I wasn't sure I was up to it after explaining my face most of the day at work (9+ hours) and then having to do it all over again in the evening. Robert said that he understood if I didn't want to go. But I had this very strong impression that I should go. And looking back nothing happened or was felt in the whole evening that was different from other times at the temple. And it truly was hard to go and have people look at me and to catch that little knee jerk reaction in their eyes.

What DID happen which told me that Heavenly Father loved me and wanted me in the temple was what happened at the very beginning. I don't know that it was a miracle. Just a little gift from my Father to me.

It was when I went through to get the name of the person I would be proxy for. The sister there looked at me with a big bruise on her face. She said, "You look just like me." Then she said that she had fallen on her face, which I did also. So it was as if Heavenly Father sent the one person in the temple that night who I would identify with so he could say to me, "I know what you are going through and I love you. I am glad you are here tonight." Just a simple little gift but SO right.

Last night we went to the temple also. We almost didn't go. I have gotten used to my face and it is looking very much better. I still have a bruise on one cheek and a couple of cuts on the bridge of my nose which show up pretty bad. At least to me.

But while I was sitting there waiting I realized that going to the temple is like exercising. You know you should do it. You know it is good for you. You know you will not regret it afterwards and you will feel good about it. And if you do it you will not feel guilty because you didn't do it. It is the same for Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching. Interesting comparison.

Also, our Bishop challenged the ward to complete the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Robert put together a spread sheet to track how we are doing. It is pretty cool because after you put in your page number it will tell you how far you are behind or ahead.

I was reading in 1st Nephi and realized that Nephi and Joseph Smith are distant cousins, I guess you could say, because they are both descendants of Joseph. Now I know that most of us are descendants of Joseph, but I wondered if when Nephi learned this if he felt a bond with Joseph Smith? Because of his concern about his family if it felt special to him that a distant relative would be the one to restore the gospel and bring it to Nephi's family again? Just pondering that.

Okay, well, just a few experiences and thoughts. I didn't want to lose them.