Brother Dan Widdison
Elders Quorum President
It was just about 20 weeks ago when our lives started to change. We can all remember the warmth of meeting our neighbors at church, handshakes and talking to friends. The music, spirit, sacrament, talks and prayers now seem so special. Some of us are starting back to church now but under reduced schedules and restrictions. I do miss the spirit and brotherhood that church provided. Following is a short story told by Sister Marjorie Hinckley that we can now relate to:
One fall afternoon Brother Hinckley and I stepped off a plane in Athens, Greece. At the airport to meet us were a Latter-day Saint woman and her husband from Idaho who were on a two-year teaching assignment in Athens. (the Church was not officially recognized or organized in Greece at the time.) We explained to them that we would be there only about twenty hours and inquired if there was anything they needed or anything we could do for them.
The sister spoke up and said. "Couldn`t we just hold a Latter-day Saint meeting: have prayer, sing the songs of Zion, and have some talks?" So that night we met in their apartment. They invited three well-dressed Indian women and two young American men. We sat in a circle and began the meeting. We sang the opening song; an opening prayer was offered, and then we sang another hymn. It was then that I noticed the tears swelling up in my new friend`s eyes. She leaned over to me and said, "Oh, you`ll just have to pardon me. You don`t know how wonderful it is just to be sitting in a Latter-day Saint meeting. I miss it so much."
Since then, each time I sit in a Latter-day Saint meeting, whether it be a sacrament meeting, a Relief Society meeting, a leadership meeting, or a Sunday School class, I say a quiet prayer to my Heavenly Father, thanking Him for just being able to meet with my friends in the name of the Lord.
And the church did meet together oft to fast and to pray, and to
speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.
Moroni 6:5
Comments