More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

His Hands with Sinda

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Sinda has seen the hand of God in her life since before she was born. From hearing stories of her miraculous adoption as a baby and being sealed to her family in the temple Sinda knew Christ was there, but she became even more certain as ministering angles came into her aid later when she was pregnant with twins and really struggling to care for her other children. Sinda testifies that we truly are "His Hands" here on the earth and stresses the importance of not just acting on promptings we may receive to serve others, but also being ok with allowing those around us to help us in times of need! 

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Lily:

Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, Remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and His presence in our lives. I'm your host, Lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. So tonight on the podcast we have Cynda. How are you doing, Cynda Good? Will you introduce yourself a little bit?

Sinda:

I'm Cynda, I'm a mother of five. They got little twins in there and I'm a baker. And yeah, I don't really know that's. All I really ever say about myself is that I have five kids and I bake hey you know what, your cinnamon rolls are renowned throughout the neighborhood, so I think that that's good.

Lily:

It's great, it's the prejudices.

Sinda:

Yeah, I like to read. It's all there really is about me. You're like friends.

Lily:

Hey, me too Awesome. So then, cynda, what memories do you have that you reflect on, that prick your heart and remembrance of our Savior Jesus Christ?

Sinda:

So I've been pondering it a lot, because I kept postponing on you. I just couldn't think of where to start and so I decided to start at the beginning.

Lily:

It's a great place to start.

Sinda:

So these aren't things that I remember per se, but have been told many times to me. So I was adopted and parts of the story that go in to me being adopted. There is a lot of spiritual events surrounding it and I know that I have a pretty close relationship with the Savior and Heavenly Father, except that I take it for granted a lot and they have to constantly remind me that they're there to help me, yep, because I want to do everything myself.

Lily:

I can relate to that.

Sinda:

So the first story I was told was that my mom had a hysterectomy after having five children and it was just like it had to be done. It wasn't a choice, it was something that she had to go through, and afterward she kept having a dream of me, of a little blonde girl you can't see me, but I'm blonde and a little blonde girl that kept coming to her and saying that you're supposed to have another child and you need to get going on that, and she's like well, but I can't.

Lily:

Like physically.

Sinda:

no, I physically can't have another child. Yeah, I'm supposed to do. And so they decided my parents, ok, well, we're obviously supposed to adopt because I can't have a child, and it took them about five years to get me. Wow, because I am six years younger than my closest sibling, and so they told me it was about five years, no-transcript other.

Sinda:

The other side of that story is that my birth mother and her family that were trying to decide what to do because she was very young and already had two children.

Sinda:

So I think I think she was still only 18 when she got pregnant with me and already had two kids. So yeah, that's a lot for an 18 year old. And that they this was back when the church had LDS adoptive services, right, and they just had such a strong confirmation that they were supposed to give me up for adoption that it just it was very it was just like, well, there's, there's no other choice, like, yeah, this is what we're supposed to do, just to give her up for adoption. And so then they got me. And there's lots of like little fun stories around that. But trying to stay on track, the the next story that goes into that is that I had the chance to be sealed to my parents and my siblings because I'm adopted and so in the temple which it's like, I wish I could remember that and like or I don't know when I die, like that's what I want to go see, yeah.

Sinda:

I want to see that moment because my older five siblings got to go and got to be in the room in the temple and to be sealed together, and my mom told me that when they were sealing us together, when they said your mother and your father, I looked at each of them. So I looked at my mother and then I looked at my father and then we were just. I'm sure it was a very special moment. And then, along with that story, is that one of my sisters has had a very hard time with life in the church and back and forth all the time.

Sinda:

Yeah, and she said that the only reason that she has any good feelings towards the temple is because she remembers how she felt on that day, that we were still together. Wow, that's really special and so it's. I know that's. That's something that she gets to hold on to and it makes me happy because she's had some not good experiences right throughout her life. And so she gets to think about our family being together there and how she felt then and that she knows that it's a good place and that we were supposed to be there and I'm supposed to be their sister and yeah that it all worked out.

Sinda:

Um. So that's the first part of my story and I just looking back on all my childhood. I just it's amazing to go back and look through all of that my childhood and see the presence of God and Jesus Christ, of how they put so many people in my life. Yeah of, I have a best friend that we grew up together. We've been friends since we were five holy and how we still are friends.

Sinda:

She lives in Lehi and everything we are still best friends and when I think back on our relationship of and I I do believe it goes both ways of that her and I needed each other. Yeah, and I needed her good influence in my life because I constantly was trying to veer away from the straight and narrow just all the time. And I needed her good influence in my life of being my best friend that I was like. I was always like, oh no, what is she gonna think of me? But it was like, but I needed that yeah.

Sinda:

I needed that, like that constant reminder of what I should be doing and, like my, my husband, it just everything just fell into place where it should be, and the people that I met as a teenager and as a young adult, and meeting my husband and that would like. All of it was just so serendipitous and so easy and was just meant to be, yeah, um, and it just is like I don't. I don't know how we can't see the hand of God in all of our life, of especially putting people where they need to be right. Um, which brings me to my next experience.

Sinda:

I was pregnant with my twins and I was really struggling. It took a really heavy toll on my mental health and I I got to a point where I didn't want to go on anymore. Yeah, and it wasn't. Uh, I was gonna do anything about those feelings, but it was a if I don't wake up tomorrow, that's okay, yeah, and I just I could barely get around. I had no desire to feed myself or do anything for me. I was like I don't even want to eat.

Lily:

I don't care, yeah, and Well, and you had older kids too, and I had a bunch of other kids to take care of, and at this time my older daughter was three when, I was pregnant with them.

Sinda:

Actually, she wasn't even three yet, she was almost three and um, I just was like I can't even like take care of her, like I can, I barely am able to keep feeding her, but and then I feed her and I have nothing left for myself. And so, um, I was part of a face, or I still am part of a Facebook group called the ministering moms of multiples. Oh, that's awesome, or moms and um, and like other women in my ward, had told me about it.

Sinda:

I'm like, hey, I'm in this group of um women from the church of Jesus Christ, a lot of church saints, and we have a place where we can all chat about like minded things, but that we also have twins, yeah, or multiples, I guess could be more than twins, right, um? And so I was just part of this group and all I had in me was to just put out there to them because I knew that they would know how I was feeling, or at least at least some of them had to have gone through this also and so I put it out to them of guys, I need help. I don't know what to do for myself. I don't want to nourish myself. I have this three-year-old that is dying to play Yep, and I have nothing to give. And I was flooded with messages of encouragement and people dropped by and just dropped by treats like a, like a Jamba Juice, so like I didn't have to make anything, that's the best.

Sinda:

It just like someone came and brought me a Jamba Juice for me to drink and um, and then there was one certain woman that she came and said can I take your daughter to come play with mine, because she had multiple daughters. And she's like can I come and get your daughter? I live in Lehigh too, and they can play and you can rest. And I was like, yes, please. And the great part is that my husband gets home and is like where's Gwen? And I was like she's playing with some friends from a lady that I met on the internet.

Sinda:

He's like you let our daughter go off with some person you met on the internet. I was like uh-huh, yeah, because that's where I am right now, but my mental state is she offered? So, yes, I did. And I was like it's fine, we know each other from this group on Facebook, but I just like, but you know, in all realities like, but I did. I didn't know that it was okay. Right In my heart I knew that she was there to serve yes, Because we had just moved into this neighborhood and I didn't know anybody and so I didn't know who to reach out to.

Sinda:

And I didn't even reach out to my best friend. I read, because I just was like I need to talk to somebody that knows I had that, what I'm going through. And so this angel woman comes and takes my daughter which, by the way, she took her multiple times after that. Yeah, and when she brought her back, she brought us a tower of freezer meals so with her and like had like dinner for that night also, and it just was just astounding of, just like that was the direct work of our shavier, of talking to someone saying this woman needs you.

Lily:

Yeah.

Sinda:

And they were listening and answered the call. Yeah, it's a. I would like to think that I do that also, but I'm sure there are so many messages I'm like, no, I don't want to do that right now.

Lily:

We're all guilty of that a lot of the time.

Sinda:

And so, yes, angel Woman, and yet this group has just, it's been a constant blessing in my life of having these ministering moms that, yeah, I'll know what each other's going through and we can give advice, and it's kind of grown to be even people that are no longer active, are staying in it and or have different opinions, but are still, and it's just. It's been a great group and we all are very kind to each other.

Lily:

Um, Will you say the whole group's name one more time in case anybody listening?

Sinda:

Yes, in case anybody has twins or is pregnant and you need a place to go ministering moms of multiples, and it's M, m, o, m, s ministering moms of multiples and it is worldwide. It's not a oh sweet, it's not located just to people that live in Utah. Yeah, we have people from all over that comment and it's pretty great that we so, like I, can say that I'm part of a worldwide group besides being a member of the church.

Sinda:

Yeah, I am also a really cool club. Um, so yeah, that that one was one of my favorite.

Sinda:

Um, my next memory is that, um, again, like I said, I like to think I can do everything on my own and I don't want to ask for any help, and so Jesus has to remind me that I do need help and needs to put me in my place a little bit sometimes and say, hey, you got all of these people around you that will help you Right. And so we had, um, we had an activity for the release of society and the camp, and so we were up there camping for just one night and I was excited because I just I love the outdoors and I was, of course, on the food committee, so I was there and we, we all signed up for different classes and we they had to. What they said was a ropes course, which, by the way, is, is not what it is In my mind.

Lily:

I'm thinking you're going to be like climbing up on stuff, scaling things. You're going to be like having a carabiner, the harnesses.

Sinda:

Yes, I was like I'm going to be in a harness and I'm going to be climbing across these ropes. It's going to be so fun, just like we did in young women's moments. Yeah.

Lily:

It's not that very misleading. It was very misleading.

Sinda:

But I probably wouldn't have had this great experience. So it was one of the stations with with a rope and I think they called it Shark Island.

Lily:

Oh, I know what you have to swing across the platforms.

Sinda:

Yeah, so there's a platform in the middle and there's a rope that hangs in the middle and you have to swing from one side to the other and you have to have, like, a team of like they're supposed to catch you, yeah, and keep you on that side and not fall into the shark infested waters. And I Um, like my personality is, I volunteered to be on the receiving side of.

Sinda:

I was gonna help catch everybody. Yep, I wanted to catch everybody and help everybody and I did a great job. I caught everyone and got them safely to the other side. And then they were like Cinda, you have to go, try, like it's your turn, we like, we want to catch you.

Sinda:

And I was like, ah fine, and so I went over and tried and I am so out of shape it's not even funny that I could not hold myself up on the rope and so I tried and swung and fell. And I tried again, swung and fell, and they were like hey, just try one more time. And like we're here, we're here, we're gonna catch you.

Sinda:

And I have all these other women from my ward and other women from the stake that have their arms reached out ready to catch me. But I couldn't make it to the other side and I fell and like fell hard on my butt and hit my head and like I didn't black out, but I mean my eyes were closed and I like, when I opened my eyes I had all these women standing over me ready to pick me up and ask me if I'm okay. And it was obviously. You can tell what all the metaphors are in that whole story.

Sinda:

I want to be there to help everybody, but I have the hardest time asking for anybody to help me and but they're ready and they're there and they want to. And we went my next class after that was to. I think he's a psychologist and he was there to help you through like working through anything like a pyramid scheme of something of how you can do these steps to help you work out any of your problems. But I like had this experience and it was like the spirit, like physically, was knocked into me, like I fell to the ground and it was like a force that was in me and I was so emotional and I was trying to hold back tears the whole time and when he was done, someone had the audacity to ask me if I was okay, and so then the waterworks just exploded and I was like I'm fine, I'm just like feeling like I got, I got triggered by something and it's just releasing all these emotions of that.

Sinda:

I. I need help and I need to not try to do this all on my own and whether that be from other people or just I just need to rely on Christ more and I need to know that he is there and I need to let him help and I don't, yeah, and I have a hard time ever convincing myself to even pray to ask for help. I go by, my gut feeling of this feels right and I don't need anybody else's help. But but I should. I should pause and pray and ask if it's like, if this is a good way for me to go, or just really anything I should. I should talk to them and I don't.

Sinda:

And it's because I'm convinced I can do it on my own. But that experience was a hey, you're not supposed to Right, you're not supposed to do any of this on your own Right. And so, yeah, that's one of my, my favorite stories now to share with people of very humbling moment of hey, you're not supposed to do this on your own.

Lily:

Yeah, I guess my question is, at least for me, I feel like it's both asking for help, no matter what. It's really difficult, Period, full stop. It's really hard. However, I feel like it's harder in my mind asking for help from Christ and from our Father in Heaven because they're not here, right? I feel like it's easier for me to come to you or to come to another friend and say, hey, can you watch my kids? Or hey, can you do whatever Because you're here. I can text you, I can call you, I know, right, yes, so how do you? I don't even know the right question, but when it comes to asking for help from God, how do you go about that? Or how do you know that he is giving you that help? Because I feel like sometimes I ask for it and then I just kind of sit here waiting and then either something I don't even know Like it's so hard sometimes to really know like is this help coming from God or is this just you know, whatever Does?

Sinda:

that make sense.

Lily:

Yeah, I don't believe in. I believe everything isn't a coincidence. You know I don't believe in coincidences, but I don't know. I just it's so hard sometimes just to feel like you ask for help from God and you feel it being answered. I don't know.

Sinda:

Yeah, and I would say, like, like I was never someone that like I prayed about if I should marry my husband, like that wasn't something I was gonna do, it was a hope you like this guy, god, cause he's coming with me.

Lily:

It was a.

Sinda:

I decided on him and he's mine. And that's what's gonna happen and it just and I don't know, and I mean that could just be also like I just felt really good about it the whole time. I had zero doubts, yeah, and so it was a well, why should I pray? I'm I feel good, I feel good about it, yeah and so, or like just another example of like people pray about like what college to go to, and college just like wasn't on my radar.

Sinda:

And so so it's just like. It's just something like I don't get it. I don't know Like I'm not one of those people that do that, but when it comes to I need help, and I mean, oftentimes mine isn't necessarily a formal prayer, it's more of a I am drowning, because I let it go too long without asking for help.

Lily:

Yeah.

Sinda:

Please help me. Just in my heart, and that's where I would say that's when people magically appear in my life, and or if they've already been there, they they pop up again, yeah, pop up again, are. Or suddenly someone texts me and hey, I've been thinking of you. Yeah, How's it going? I'm like I know why you're thinking of me, Because I've been dying and drowning and I needed someone to help. And so the Holy Ghost has decided that he should you know whether it be a few people or one person that he reaches out to them and says hey, you should contact sender, yeah, and. Or someone you know just dropping by to say hi or drop off a treat, like those types of things, and those are things that I hope that I can be more receptive to of.

Sinda:

I want to be that for people too. Yeah, and I would say, like I know that a lot of times we heard in lessons like that a challenge to pray to help someone, or pray to have an opportunity pop up in your day to help someone, and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's so scary, I don't want to. Yeah, I'm like I don't want to just help some random person. That's scary, but I would. I would hope that that would happen, though.

Sinda:

I mean, I was at, I was out shopping at like a big Christmas convention thing, and I was just eyeing some of the desserts and I just hadn't made up my mind yet and was asking how much something was, and I said okay, and went on thinking. But this man next to me said I would like to buy that for her. And he was a complete stranger and bought me a cheesecake and no way, and just was a. He was there feeling the Christ Christmas spirit. Yeah, I'm just I would like to buy that for you, and I just was, you know like, oh, thank you so much, you didn't have to do that. And he, I know Merry Christmas and I, oh, thank you. Wow, just little things like that and just it can be so simple, of like, even just smiling at somebody can change their whole day.

Lily:

Yeah, so you feel like God. We don't realize it Right? So do you feel like God then answers, when you, when you pray for the help God typically sends a person?

Sinda:

Yes, I would say that that's how I I get my. My answers is usually through somebody else, and whether that be just discussing something with my husband, and he knows just the right thing to say yeah, cause he always does. Or yeah, or the that somebody texts me or I run into somebody. It's always um. He knows that I need people. I need people in my life, I need friends, I need. I need all these people to influence me and we're good and not for evil, that's right.

Lily:

Even if the dark side has cookies in them, our cookies on the light side are better, that's right, because they're not my cookies, so I'm not, I don't want to eat them.

Sinda:

So, yeah, and and there was one time I remember I was in a lesson and they were asking how the Holy Ghost speaks to you and I just was like I don't know, I've never heard it. And um, they were, people were giving all the examples and someone said I hear it as my own voice, in my head, and I was like that's how I hear it. I was like it's ideas that pop into my head. Yeah, that. I'm like hey, this sounds like a good idea. It's a. It probably wasn't my idea, yeah, I was like oh my gosh.

Sinda:

They know that if someone else tries to tell me to do something, I'm going to know, right, but if it's my idea, then I'll. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. So he's like well, I have to talk to her in her own voice or she's not going to listen.

Lily:

Yeah, that's so cool to think, though, because I feel like all the time, people are like I don't know if I'm feeling the Holy Ghost. I don't know if the Holy Ghost is talking to me, but if he's just being sneaky because he knows that we're just stubborn and dumb sometimes.

Sinda:

Maybe we feel the spirit, yeah.

Lily:

Maybe we feel the spirit more than we think, or like we really are being inspired more than we think. Exactly, I never thought of that.

Sinda:

I'm so glad I could help you. Yeah, it was a big epiphany moment of like oh my gosh, that's how.

Lily:

Yeah.

Sinda:

It's like I've never like. I mean I felt it of like, I can feel the spirit and like. It's like it that you can't describe that. I just I feel it, but hearing it it was like I've never heard it, right? I have never heard this whispery voice that you all talk about. I was like that's because it's my own little voice in my head and that's why that's so funny.

Lily:

That's really cool, though. Thanks for sharing those. You're welcome.

Sinda:

And yeah, I'm I'm pretty sure those were all the stories I wanted to share.

Lily:

No, that's awesome. So then do you mind just sharing a brief testimony? Yes, I mean no.

Sinda:

I mean, I don't mind, I will. Um, yes, I, I know that this church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is true. Um, I know that we all have our own struggles and ups and downs and that what I know for certain is that everything will work out in the end, even if we don't understand it now it will work out, and that they love us and they want us to succeed. And I say those things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Lily:

Well, thank you, send it for a spending time with us tonight. I appreciate it, of course. Thanks again for tuning into more than coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to more than coincidencerememberhimatgmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our savior. See you next time.