It was a Corolla, not a Ram

October 7, 2007

I've been wanting to write this for a while, but it's been a bit crazy.

As a member of the High Council, I speak in wards and branches throughout our stake. We've adopted a new procedure that results in our giving two talks on one Sunday, but then getting the next month off. (In the long run, we give the same amount of talks, but prepare only 6 instead of 12, and have only 6 Sunday tied up with speaking assignments instead of 12).

For some time this summer, I had worried about my August speaking assignments, down in a building in our stake that isn't overly accessible by public transportation. We only have one car, and we need that to get my family to our home ward. With all the other buildings and units, I could find a way to make it work, but I knew the August assignment would be a challenge. I could easily handle the morning assignment, then drive home and get my family to church, but getting back to that building for the afternoon assignment wouldn't be easy.

I looked at car rentals, Zip Cars, taxis, buses, etc. The best we could think was that my family would sit in our home ward building for an extra 1 hour 15 minutes after church waiting for me to come fetch them.

But I had prayed off and on for a solution, knowing that "when you're on the Lord's errand, you're entitled to the Lord's help" (a paraphrased Monson quote).

The speaking assignment was on the Sunday after our annual family trek out west. We arrived home late on Saturday evening and had basically figured we'd go with "Plan B" (kids waiting at the chapel). But as we pulled into our driveway, there was a Corolla parked there. Kathryn said "Oh, I forgot. I told one of our friends in the ward that they could park their extra car in our driveway while they were out of town as they couldn't keep it in front of their house due to street cleaning rules".

Though it was a Corolla, it was my "Ram" that the Lord provided at the 11th hour.

When we got inside, we found the car keys (the Corolla had been dropped off when a neighbor was picking up the mail, so they left the keys), and a VM saying "feel free to use the car if you need it."

The perfect solution. Now I could get to my assignment without a problem.

Perhaps this all sounds a bit silly, but it was a major deal to me. Yes, it was nice to have a solution. But more importantly, it made me realize -- again -- that the Lord knows me personally and really will help pull solutions out of a hat, if I will put the problem in his hands. I never would have imagined that solution, so it shows that sometimes we just have to put it in his hands.

To end on a bit of a humorous note, I was thinking about the calling of a new apostle this weekend. The real bugaboo about being called as an apostle is that you know you'll either become the prophet someday.....or die trying!

I'm still pushing for "Popcorn Popping" to be sung as an intermediate hymn at Conference....but I'm not holding out hope.

Mark