A Moment of Light

Today as I was sitting in church I had what I am going to call "A moment of light". It's where I very suddenly have a feeling that all is right in the world. Like I'm in the right place at the right time, and I feel completely content. I admit that moments like these do not happen often. Not to say I'm not happy and content, but from time to time I just have an overwhelming feeling of gratitude of where I am in my life right now and the experiences I'm having.

This moment happened today as I was listening to a woman in our ward who has a beautiful voice sing "Amazing Grace". I have honestly never heard more than just the first phrase of that song, and certainly never in a "Mormon church". Right before the song a woman spoke who is a recent convert to our church. She told of how she was raised a Roman Catholic and loved God and prayed for 9 years that she could be a nun. She would awaken early every single morning and go to church to take "the sacrament" all the while praying that she would be called to serve in God's church as a nun. Fast forward many years later and she is married and has a small son who is sick. A member of our church found her on her porch crying and gave her some words of comfort and a book of Mormon. This woman who's name is Linda began to read the Book of Mormon. When her husband found out he wasn't happy and so she stopped. Many years later her son is now older and begins to investigate our church. She said, "as any good mother would", she wanted to know what it was he was learning about. It was then that she also began taking the discussions. Linda was again given a Book of Mormon and after a short time asked to pray to see whether the book was true. She was still angry and upset with God that her prayer to become a nun had never come about even after many years of devoted prayer and worship. Because of this she was very hesitant to pray again for an answer when she had not received an answer she so desperately wanted years earlier. Linda finally did pray and felt an almost immediate and overwhelming response that The Book of Mormon was in fact true. She also very distinctly felt that all those years earlier she should have been asking what the Lord's will for her was, instead of telling him what she wanted to happen. Her son was first to be baptized, and then she also recently joined the church. This is one thing that I love about living here. I love hearing from people who are in the infancy of their church membership. I also love hearing people, rich and poor, bear strong testimonies of the gospel.

It was after hearing this woman bear her testimony and then hearing the beautiful musical number that I suddenly felt overwhelmingly grateful to be right where I was to experience two things that I never would have, had I not been sitting in church in New Jersey today.

Living here is a challenge, it's not convenient, people are not always "warm", everyone is always in a rush, there are too many people and it's difficult to navigate, it's very, very expensive, and everything is old. But for right now, I couldn't be happier or feel more right about where I am right now, today.