Simeon, Kendall and Shenequah

Kendall and Shenequah on their wedding day

So this week began as a tough one with me finding out some not so good news about a few good friends of mine and a little family news as well. It sometimes feels as though the adversary was having a grand old time pushing me around and for a second, I was a little taken aback.  I am not surprised though, as this is always the adversary's game. To fight back I decided to work even harder.

The story I will share actually happened in June and continued on July 11 … and so we begin.  It all stared with us running into a part member family with a lot of health problems and when I say, a lot, I mean it.  The husband suffers with congestive heart failure and so the wife has to take care of him and their two young children.  The first time I met them was in the hospital. They were not married as yet and as we would go to see Kendall and his wife Shenequah, we were able to give him a blessing. I watched these two and thought, alright, these two need to be married.  But it’s kinda tough to put that out there when they were in that situation but I followed the Holy Spirit's prompting.  In the process I used these words to help them to think about the proposal of marriage and my brother will know them better than anyone else because he wrote, " Love is a four letter word, it will make you do things you would never think you would do.”  They took those words to heart and we were blessed to see them get married. 

Kendall's baptism by Bishop Carroway

Then came the time to set up the baptism for Kendall but he suffers with his heart problem so he has to carry around a little bag which provides him with medicine always.  We went to great lengths thinking of ways he could be baptized and I asked my companions, “well, how does he take a shower?” And so we found out how and went to work teaching him and his family.  Then came the day of the baptism.  They were late but we gave them some slack.  The Bishop, who had known this couple for a long time, was able to baptize Kendall after we duct taped a plastic bag to his hand so he could still be able to receive his medicine and also go down into the water.  He went down and up again, and on the 12th (which was actually his birthday) Kendall received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It took me back to the blessing I had given him in the Hospital and the promise the Lord had made to him in that blessing.  It brought a smile of joy to my face. Truly this Gospel is true, for nothing else could have taken this family from where they were to where they are now. I humbly testify this is indeed the Lord's church and does contain all the ordinances and blessings and fullness of the Lord's gospel necessary for us to return to live with God again.  Indeed, if we lose ourselves in the service of others we are putting the gospel in action, not only for others, but for us as well.