President Young was coming down for a Zone Conference and he called and invited us to attend so that we could meet and get a little orientation. And since we are not going to the Missionary Training Center, we need all the help we can get!!!! Little did we know that we were about to see the gospel in action when that Zone Conference took a scarey turn just before they were going to break for dinner.
The theme of the conference was Prayer, specifically the effectiveness of a missionary's personal prayers and helping investigators learn how to pray. It is hard for me to imagine that there are people out there who have never ever prayed before. But that is a fact.
During the conference we enjoyed beautiful talks by the Mission President, his wife, a visiting area seventy, and his wife, and also our very own Stake President, who called us to serve our mission. Near the end of the talks, the Area Seventy asked the missionaries to choose one missionary from each companionship to come forward and bear a one minute testimony. After about six Elders had shared their testimonies, a Sister of an Elderly Senior couple, who was sitting on the front row, suddenly gasped for air and fell over! Oh my goodness it was a frightful moment.
All of us were immediately asked to leave the chapel and gather in the cultural hall while a few stayed behind to help and call for medical attention. As the rest of us were entering the cultural hall one of the Elders spontaneously began to sing "Nearer my God to Thee". Thoughts of the Titantic immediately came to my mind and the tears began to flow! As the missionaries came out of the chapel, they all joined in the song. There had to be at least 60 of us. When the song was over the entire group spontaneously fell to their knees and one of the Elders gave the most glorious heart-felt prayer asking for assistance for this sweet senior sister missionary. It was so amazing. It was a prayer you could feel... you could almost touch. It was so tangible!
After the sister was rushed by ambulance to the hospital, one of the Assistants to the President had us all gather into the Relief Society Room. Once in there one of the Elders took it upon himself to play beautifully spiritual hymns on the piano while the rest of us quietly sent up our own personal prayers on her behalf. The Mission President soon came and got Grampa Bear and I and asked us to go to the hospital with Elder Cox (the husband, as the ambulance had taken Sister Cox away already).
We stayed at the hospital with Elder Cox until late in the evening (he is 81 years young and just so sweet and adorable and was so worried about his wife). Elder Cox visited with his wife, and then came to report to us that she did not recognize who he was and was having trouble understanding where she was. He then went back to stay with his wife at her bedside. After about 2 hrs Elder Cox came and got us and had us go with him to his wife's room. And she was perfectly fine!!!!! As if nothing had ever happened. And so cute! They kept her overnight and ran tests on her and was given a clean bill of health.
She was so apologetic for causing such a comotion and for interupting Zone Conference. Know what I told her? I told her that after a marvelous lesson on prayer, she blessed all of us missionaires to know first hand what a heartfelt prayer can do! It was the prayers of all those beautiful young Elders and Sisters that Heavenly Father just had to answer. Sister Cox went home from the hospital doing just fine yesterday. It was sure a testimony builder for me!
But if that is what Zone Conference is going to be like..... I may skip them! Just kidding! I gotta say that it was very emotional yet very amazing!
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