NO COINCIDENCES and CONFERENCE

Last Saturday the youth from our ward here in Chorley came to the temple to perform baptisms at 6 a.m.  One of the counselors in the bishopric was ten minutes later arriving at the temple than he should have been.  As he hurried from the parking lot toward the temple he noticed a man who had parked his car close to the front doors (in the drop off area), standing by his car, admiring the temple.  He paused and asked the man how he was and if he could help him.  The man said he was visiting the area and  wanted to know about this beautiful building which he had seen while driving by.  He indicated he was Russian and was from a small city in Siberia.  The counselor and our wonderful friend, (about whom we wrote last week) Brother Galbraith, had both served in this small city while on their missions a few years ago! They started conversing in Russian (since the visitor's English was very limited) and the counselor asked the man if he was interested in religion and would he like to know more about the Church.  When the man indicated that he had been looking for a religion for some time, the counselor bore his testimony to the man about how the Lord had placed him in his path that day to help him find Christ's restored Church and Gospel.  He was given a Book of Mormon, and the counselor got his information for the missionaries in Russia.  The man was amazed at the events that had occurred and said he was excited to know more about this Church and the temple. We don't need to list all the timing and other details that had to be in place for this interaction to happen.  There are NO coincidences in the Lord's work.  We are so blessed to be able to spend our days in His service.

On Saturday morning I walked past the two men mentioned above having their conversation.  If I had realized what was happening I could have sneaked  a picture of them.  Instead, this is us on Conference Sunday.  I love the timer on my iPad! 

This is the view we have coming out the front doors of the temple.  Again, it's hard to capture the full beauty, but we are surrounded by little green hills with sweet little villages.

Wasn't Conference wonderful?  It was interesting watching it live until 11 p.m.  We didn't watch Priesthood live, but were so grateful to be able to watch the talks first thing Sunday morning.  I remember back in the day having to wait until the end of November for the Ensign to FINALLY arrive with the Conference messages in them, so we had more than our scribbled notes to review.  I couldn't believe that part way through this week the full sessions were available to watch/read/listen to on Gospel Library.  Craig says I always say, "THAT was my favorite talk," about several talks, so I won't mention any, but we love listening to one each morning, and letting it ruminate in our heads throughout the day.