we thank thee o god for a prophet

at midnight last night, we were blessed to be able to watch a love broadcast in which the new first presidency of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints was announced. our seventeenth president of the church will be russell m. nelson, with dallin h. oaks and henry b. eyring as his counselors.

having grown up in the church, i have listened to these men speak all my life and i know they will serve the lord with all their hearts. what really got me though, was the final words of newly called president nelsons testimony. "i declare my devotion to god our eternal father, and to his son, jesus christ. i know them, love them, and pledge to serve them - and you - with every remaining breath of my life." what a truly inspired man who i know will lead our church to do amazing things in these latter days.

this morning i awoke to see a post from a very close friend on a facebook group we are both in. tears sprung to my eyes, as i read something truly beautiful:

"sisters my heart is so full and i thought that i would share

i knew that president nelson was an accomplished cardiac surgeon. perhaps i've been living under a rock but i've only just discovered that he pioneered the technology and procedures that more recently saved my daughter's life. even though we live literally on the complete opposite side of the globe from him his influence has already made such a profound impact on our family.

but it's not just our family who has been blessed by his talent in his field. his accomplishments have a direct impact on every child with congenital heart disease or person who has an open heart surgery procedure. perhaps some might think this sounds a bit silly but i don't think that it's a coincidence that right now, at a time when mens hearts are failing them that the lord has prepared a man to lead his church who literally repairs hearts. i can not wait to learn more from this great man."

in april 2003 president nelson spoke about how the lord helped him do the first tricuspid valve repairs (this is one of the repairs my dear friends daughter needed during her surgery. when i shared my appreciation for her comments, she then forwarded a portion of the above linked talk to me)

Many of us have had experiences with the sweet power of prayer. One of mine was shared with a stake patriarch from southern Utah. I first met him in my medical office more than 40 years ago, during the early pioneering days of surgery of the heart. This saintly soul suffered much because of a failing heart. He pleaded for help, thinking that his condition resulted from a damaged but repairable valve in his heart.

Extensive evaluation revealed that he had two faulty valves. While one could be helped surgically, the other could not. Thus, an operation was not advised. He received this news with deep disappointment.

Subsequent visits ended with the same advice. Finally, in desperation, he spoke to me with considerable emotion: “Dr. Nelson, I have prayed for help and have been directed to you. The Lord will not reveal to me how to repair that second valve, but He can reveal it to you. Your mind is so prepared. If you will operate upon me, the Lord will make it known to you what to do. Please perform the operation that I need, and pray for the help that you need.”

His great faith had a profound effect upon me. How could I turn him away again? Following a fervent prayer together, I agreed to try. In preparing for that fateful day, I prayed over and over again, but still did not know what to do for his leaking tricuspid valve. Even as the operation commenced, my assistant asked, “What are you going to do for that?”

I said, “I do not know.”

We began the operation. After relieving the obstruction of the first valve,we exposed the second valve. We found it to be intact but so badly dilated that it could no longer function as it should. While examining this valve, a message was distinctly impressed upon my mind: Reduce the circumference of the ring. I announced that message to my assistant. “The valve tissue will be sufficient if we can effectively reduce the ring toward its normal size.”

But how? We could not apply a belt as one would use to tighten the waist of oversized trousers. We could not squeeze with a strap as one would cinch a saddle on a horse. Then a picture came vividly to my mind, showing how stitches could be placed—to make a pleat here and a tuck there—to accomplish the desired objective. I still remember that mental image—complete with dotted lines where sutures should be placed. The repair was completed as diagrammed in my mind. We tested the valve and found the leak to be reduced remarkably. My assistant said, “It’s a miracle.”

I responded, “It’s an answer to prayer.”

The patient’s recovery was rapid and his relief gratifying. Not only was he helped in a marvelous way, but surgical help for other people with similar problems had become a possibility. I take no credit. Praise goes to this faithful patriarch and to God, who answered our prayers.

i feel as though she has made the most perfect statement as to why president nelson has been called to lead the lords church. i truly hope that men (and women) all over the world allow their hearts to be mended by this wonderful man.

president nelson, i sustain you with all of my heart. ♥

_________________________________________

later today, i also stumbled across an article from gregtimble.com which included the following:

Speaking of hearts… it’s interesting that you’ve been called to serve as the prophet of the church at this time. Your entire life has revolved around fixing other people’s hearts. Literally. You performed the first successful cardiac operation in Utah and are known around the world as being one of the most important pioneers in the field of cardiology. You repaired a bad heart valve and saved the life of previous prophet and president of the church, Spencer W. Kimball. You know hearts… maybe better than anyone on this earth. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I don’t think so for a minute. Consider the symbolism and imagery involved as we live in a day in which the Lord states that “the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them.” You just happen to find yourself positioned in these last days to help repair those spiritually broken hearts through your teachings, testimony, and love of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

looks like someone else feels exactly the same way. i can't wait to hear more from president nelson, april conference can't come quickly enough!

madeline memories ♥

 

what a blessing it is to raise children in the gospel and to be able to capture memories to look back on on the hard days that will surely come.

when doug and i were in nz for the unveiling of his grandparents headstone in 2012 i insisted we drive to hamilton so i could see the temple my parents had been sealed in, back in 1977. we took madeline into the visitors centre, where she sat and stared... and stared, completely mesmerised by the christus statue they have there. it was so wonderful for us to see her as a baby, being able to recognise the savior.

fast forward 5 years and i had the wonderful opportunity to take her to salt lake city utah, where another, larger, christus stands in the north visitors centre. i asked her to sit down so i could recreate the picture and felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to know that doug and i are on the right path, which is allowing them to be also. i can't even imagine what it would be like to grow up and not know of the gospel... not to have the light that it has brought to my life... i am so happy that my children have that in their lives!

*******************

"he lives, my kind wise heavenly friend, 

he lives and loves me 'til the end. 

oh sweet the joy this sentence gives... 

i know that my redeemer lives!" 

♥ 

salt lake city temple

today was a dream come true! after years of wanting to go to the salt lake city temple, i got to not only visit last week, but to be blessed enough to actually do a session there this morning with one of my dearest friends and her mother. it was amazing, everything i had ever dreamed it would be. just being there and seeing the inside of the temple, the attention to detail, the perfection, the utter sacrifice that had gone into each room and the building as a whole, had me completely in awe.

indeed it was something i will never forget as long as i live. i was just so happy to be there, i don't think i stopped smiling the whole day. i have always felt such a pull to the building, to just want to be there, which as i explained a few months back, it all of a sudden made sense when i knew more than just that my grandfather was born in salt lake city and it just deepened my desire to go. so to be here, was just everything! i can barely believe it, yet here i am on temple square, never wanting to leave.

as we stood in front of the east doors and i got to snap away to my hearts content taking in every little detail my heart was full to bursting. i mean seriously! look at these shots i was able to get. best of all, we managed to exit at a time when there was no weddings out the front and i was able to get some awesome shots without having to dodge people.

so. fun fact. i always wondered if this gold piece was on both ends of the temple. i can now report that it is not. but it is stunning.

and i have always always always wanted to see these doorknobs up close. to actually look at them. i did. i held onto them. i turned them. they were locked of course, but i did it anyway. because i could. they are also just as cool as i imagined.

salt lake has been a dream. so amazing and everything i wanted it to be. we have to go home tomorrow and i don't want to go. there are so many people here that i love, so much here to love. but it's time to go back to the real world. :( i just can't wait to come back again.

salt lake city!

there are not enough words to describe everything i felt today while finally being able to be in salt lake city and getting a chance to look at the temple and everything around it. after surprising tara at lunch with her daughters, what else could there possibly be to do, than head off into temple square together, as we always dreamed of doing, to have a look. we started in the joseph smith memorial building (formerly the hotel utah) and headed into the lobby.



what a beautiful building! even the edging in the foyer, all done in gold with beehives, blew me away!

not to mention this gorgeous chandelier! 

and the joseph smith statue. madeline instantly recognised who he was and wanted to have her picture taken with him. what a sweet girl i have!

up to the top floor we went, where the restaurants are... and huge windows, perfect for my first proper view of the temple. from wayyy up high, allowing me to get a good look at the whole thing at once. nothing, not any of the thousands of pictures i have seen of it over the years, could have possibly prepared me for the sheer size of it. it is just absolutely incredible! i feel so lucky to be here and to be able to have this experience. someone pinch me please!

from there we went out into the square, to have a look around. it is so perfectly done, so beautifully finished... and i just wanted to spend the entire day walking around and looking at it. i could have spent hours and hours in temple square quite happily.

another joseph smith statue, this one within temple square.

view from the south visitors centre

the assembly hall

inside the tabernacle. think that looks familiar? yep. it's the organ on the front of our hymn books!

♥

the north visitors centre was a wonderful experience for me. for years i have seen pictures of the christus in the temple square visitors centre, but obviously had no idea just how big it was... or where it is. to reach it, you walk up a walkway that spirals around until you reach the top and walk into where he stands. it is so so beautiful, the entire room had a huge domed ceiling with the entire thing painted with the sky, stars and universe all around. it was breathtaking. with beautiful music playing and such an inspiring backdrop, it's somewhere you could spend time and find peace with yourself and your father in heaven.

across the road to the conference centre. wow again. seeing general conference via a broadcast truly can't prepare you for the size of that building either. it was incredible!

with all the artwork in the entire place being originals, it's easy to see that the church has so much pride in this building. it's truly worthy of being used for the lords prophets to speak to us.

here we have it. the stand used for the choir during conference

and the view from the front to one side showing just how big the building is! it is the largest theatre auditorium in the world!

on one of the floors there is an area where all of the paintings that are used to illustrate the book of mormon hang. this was especially cool for me to see. paintings that i am so familiar with, originals! right in front of my very eyes!

my favourite one, the stripling warriors.

near the end of the tour, our guide stopped in front of this statue and started to tell the story of joseph smiths version to us. my little madeline jumped in "joseph smith went to the woods to pray, to ask heavenly father what to do. then heavenly father and jesus appeared to him and he said, this is my beloved son, hear him!" oh my goodness, my mother heart was so full hearing her know the story and being able to tell it to someone without missing a beat. i am so grateful to be able to raise her in the gospel!

on the top floor facing the temple is a sculpture of the savior. facing toward him are busts of all the presidents of the church. what a beautiful sight!

what a day, with so much emotion to finally be here and experience the sights that show a physical representation of the faith of the members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i felt full of the spirit and right at home. it was a wonderful feeling and a perfect day! ♥

pindred spirits

today i met one of my good friends for the very first time. sounds like an odd thing to say doesn't it?! but as random as it is, it's true. there's an awesome story behind it though, so please bear with me.

a few years ago, i was pinning away on pinterest and noticed over a few weeks, then months that someone called tara was constantly pinning my pins, but not only that, but i seemed to be pinning all of hers as well. this went on for a while, until one day i received a friend request from this tara on facebook, along with a message that read something along the lines of "i don't usually do this and i know this is weird, but i have noticed that we have pinned a lot of each others pins on pinterest, it seems we have a lot in common and i think we could be friends." she also said that she knew it was safe as we are both (obviously from what we had been pinning) members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i accepted... we started messaging and emailing and became "penpals" of the technology age.

a few years passed and we became very good friends... messaging often and often joked about meeting, while wishing it would one day happen. sooooo when i booked my trip to texas and decided to add on a trip to utah, i started messaging with taras daughters and arranged to meet up with them and surprise her! today was the day and her sneaky daughters had made sure there was no way of her finding out (even to the point of blocking me on facebook so she couldn't see i was in america, even though i had been completely silent on there so that i could surprise lisa yesterday and her today) so it was a complete surprise.

claiborne picked me up from lisa's this morning, and drove us to city creek mall (collecting aspen on the way) where we wasted some time in the disney store while we waited for tara to arrive. then we went to the restaurant where we had arranged to meet her and waited. after a few minutes we saw her walking up, where she looked right at me as she walked up, that was the funniest bit, because she knew it couldn't possibly be me... only when she walked in the door, it was! 

it was such a wonderful moment. seeing her face as she saw me waiting there with her girls (oh how i wish i could upload the video on here... the first words out of her mouth were shut up! haha) and just finally getting to see each other and spend some time together. we always said we wanted to go to temple square together and just hang out... so we did. and it was amazing. i feel like we have known each other for so long and can't wait to spend some more time together this week. what a blessing the gospel is, i know this is no coincidence, we were meant to meet. we are kindred pindred spirits.

so... pinterest, i believe i owe you a big, fat, thank you! ♥