More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

A Wink from Heaven with Deeanna

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Have you ever considered how the tender mercies of the Lord manifest in your life story? Join us as Deanna, a childhood friend and a woman of profound faith, shares her remarkable journey. From the quaint corners of rural Utah to the bustling streets of Cairo, Deanna's experiences illuminate the influence of Jesus Christ in shaping our personal narratives. Together we explore Elder David A. Bednar's interpretation of these divine interventions, echoing through Deanna's memories and her ability to recognize the Lord's hand in every chapter of her life.

A message, a gesture, a coincidence—could these be subtle communications from beyond the veil? In heartfelt stories, we unveil the significance of family, legacy, and love interwoven with faith. The episode is enriched by Deeanna’s personal reflections on her Uncle Lee's compassion in times of need and how a simple text message became a beacon of hope for her aunt. These stories are our testimonies to the 'winks from heaven' that strengthen our belief in the afterlife and the omnipresent support of our cherished ones.

Closing on a note of inspiration, we recount the tale of a new mother whose trial turned into a triumph through the unexpected embrace of her church community. This episode isn't just about recognizing the Lord's tender mercies; it's also about the triumphs of faith, hope, and the power of community in adversity. Discover how the Atonement guides our spiritual journey, how scriptures provide solace, and how every day is an opportunity to witness the Savior's enduring love. Come, be part of 'team Jesus' and find strength in the unity of our shared faith.

Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)

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**Transcripts available on website!

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. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the podcast tonight. Tonight we have Deanna how are you Hi good?

Lily :

Would you mind introducing yourself a little bit for everybody.

Deeanna:

Sure, so I'm going to tell you who I am in connection with Lily. I'll start with your side. So Lily was my babysitter. Yeah, Many years ago, when we lived in California, I had my four little kids and twin babies, and Lily was a hero. Came and helped us out a lot. So anyway, that's my connection with Lily.

Lily :

Your kids were cute. I love them. I still love them.

Deeanna:

I know, aren't they great? So a little bit about me. I grew up in rural Utah, southern Utah. Manta Temple was our temple district and served a mission in Moscow, russia, and became a wife and mom and my husband was in the military so we moved around a bit. So I've been able to experience wards and branches and really cool Latter-day Saints from all over the world. Honestly, it's been kind of a fun journey.

Lily :

Yeah, I have seen everywhere you've been it's quite extensive. Your passport would be pretty impressive to look at.

Deeanna:

Yes, I won't lie, I've been very blessed.

Lily :

What's the coolest place you've been?

Deeanna:

Oh, that is a good question, but I have to go with Egypt, egypt. There's just no way.

Lily :

Yeah, you guys were there for a while.

Deeanna:

We lived there for four years and there are just some incredible phenomenal places in Egypt. I sometimes had a tenuous relationship with my home country of Egypt. Right, it wasn't the easiest life, but very rewarding let's put it that way Very cool, that's so awesome.

Lily :

Well, I really appreciate you being here tonight. And what memories do you have that you reflect on, that prick your heart and remembrance of our Savior Jesus Christ?

Deeanna:

Oh, I love it so much. Lily and I have so many memories and before you even invited me to come onto the podcast, probably about a month ago or even further back, I thought to myself I really ought to write down my miracles so that I can share that with my kids. And it's different to convey things in writing. It has its own flavor, I guess to the best of my own descriptions, right. But I've had some really very special memories and special moments where I felt the spirit just really sustained me through ups and downs, the highs and lows of life. I did want to make a comment that part of the reason why I just was so inspired to come onto your podcast is because I love the title. I love it, so I'm going to just rehearse the title. It's more than coincidence remembering Jesus Christ in your story. I love that. It's more than just remembering Jesus as our Savior, kind of lofty and distant from us. It's remembering Him in our own story.

Deeanna:

I just you just got that so perfectly.

Lily :

It was literally, inspired it came to me at night it was. It was really cool.

Deeanna:

I believe it. I'm sure that story sometime. You guys do on your podcast, though other people can hear it too. So it's kind of hard to choose and select just one or two special things to share and what I wanted to do to prepare to come onto the podcast. I decided to listen to David A Bednar's talk that he gave. He gave this talk in April of 2005 and it became kind of a hallmark general conference talk called the tender mercies of the Lord. So in 2005, lily, how old would you have been?

Lily :

You know what Now I have to mental math and that.

Deeanna:

I know.

Lily :

You can do this.

Deeanna:

My little twins. These were born in 2003. Yeah, okay so you probably would have been close to 10. 10, I think so.

Lily :

Yeah, I think you were 10. I think I was 10.

Deeanna:

And that was about the time that you were babysitting, by the way. So just I know, so weird. So you were 10 years old, Lily, but I remember this talk and I remember being excited about Elder David A Bednar becoming an apostle. He was. He looked really young. I don't know if you know.

Lily :

I remember that. I remember looking at him, my mom being like whoa, he's young.

Deeanna:

Yeah, yeah, it was kind of a sensational thing, but yeah. So this talk. He shares some really special things his own experience and what, how this particular phrase in the Book of Mormon was highlighted in his own life. I'm not going to rehearse the whole talk, but I really do recommend to your listeners to go back in and listen to his talk. It's really phenomenal.

Deeanna:

But I'll share the verse that he he refers to and it's found in Nephi, the very first chapter of Nephi and the very last verse within that first chapter. So it's first Nephi, chapter 20. And it says but behold, I, nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he has chosen because of their faith to make them mighty, even unto the power of deliverance. I love that. And Elder Bednar went on to say I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Even the Lord's timing of his tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them.

Deeanna:

And I love that quote because I just thought oh, my goodness, that's going to bring into this story that I want to tell. And it's a true story for me. I've had a lot of miracles that in in many ways, were sort of pivot, like pivot points where a miracle happened and things changed and things became dramatically different. The miracle that I'm going to relate to you isn't really that it literally is just such a soft and tender mercy. It's just a miracle of comfort and it was a miracle that was so beautiful, and so it follows this quote and I'm going to read it again, if that's okay.

Lily :

Yeah, go ahead, yep.

Deeanna:

It says that these tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often the Lord's timing of his tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them. So I want you to keep in mind the timing, because it's so special in this story. Okay, ready. So my, my uncle, sweet, sweet uncle Lee, was with me at my sister's wedding and I need to back up a little bit, but just to let you know.

Deeanna:

So my uncle Lee lives up here in Logan, or lived up here for many, many years. He was an institute teacher. His wife, my aunt Delilah, had a home up here, no-transcript. They knew that I was in the process of getting divorced. Yeah, and it was a long process. I wanted and needed to get divorced. Not that I wanted to, but I was in a place where I needed to get through a difficult marriage and get divorced, and so my aunt and uncle knew that. So we happened to be out of family wedding and my uncle gently took me aside and he just said Deanna, if it's money that you need, if you need to come and live with us, we can let you borrow our car. We have means to help you If that's what you're worried about, please don't worry about finances, because we will help you.

Lily :

Right.

Deeanna:

And I just thought that was so sweet and gentle of him to let me know that he was offering to take care of me in the interim of time if I needed that help. And it was sweet and it was special. I didn't know it at the time but that was going to be my very last conversation with my sweet uncle Lee. So about six months later he passed away and we love and missed him.

Lily :

Yeah.

Deeanna:

But that stayed with me and I was very grateful for his willingness to offer that kind of support. And at the time I felt like no, no, no, uncle Lee, like I don't need your help, like thank you, that's so kind. Right, I can get through this, we have money, we'll make this work somehow. Well, ok, so it ended up that three years later, after he passed away, my aunt called me and just said Deanna, I just left the Logan Temple and I had such a strong impression to reach out to you and call you and just give you the inspiration or the idea to come and look up up here for a job and for housing up here in Cache Valley, and I thought that was so sweet of her to think of me.

Deeanna:

But at the time I really felt like I needed to be living in Utah County. I was so used to our life there. We lived out in Eagle Mountain and I was tied to everything Surroundingly high Saratoga Springs, eagle Mountain, that's just where my life was. And so, anyway, her comment definitely got me thinking and I started applying for jobs and kind of exploring the idea of coming up here and through a series of other many, many cool miracles, I did come up here.

Deeanna:

So I bought a home and got in the process of refurbishing the house. I wanted to have it repainted and get new carpet put in, and so during the time when I was working on my house, I was living at my aunt's home. And I loved living at her home because, I mean, I had known my aunt and uncle for so many years but it was sweet to see the legacy of their marriage. Right, my aunt and if she hears this someday she'll know how I feel about it, but she is so cute she probably has 50 pictures of her and her husband together. Like all these so itty bitty pictures and frames and thread all throughout the house, like it is the cutest thing.

Lily :

I just I've always loved their marriage oh yeah, those two were.

Deeanna:

They were so bonded together. They met and fell in love when they were 15 years old.

Lily :

I was literally about to say that sounds like a high school sweetheart kind of thing.

Deeanna:

Oh they were so cute together. They were so cute, yeah. Anyway, I was living in her home and I moved up here and I was busy with my new job. I had my home that I was trying to work on, and so quite often after work I would come straight to my empty house and I would clean and try and get it ready for the painters and anyway, I just felt like I was spending a lot of time at Home Depot and Lowe's and I was doing all this physical stuff to help improve my home and I was wanting to go to the Logan Temple and I kept trying to coordinate a time when I could go with my aunt.

Deeanna:

I was excited about being up here. I'd only been to the Logan Temple twice, once for a wedding and maybe once for an endowment session years and years and years ago. So I thought, ok, really want to make that happen, yes, but I couldn't coordinate a time. I just had a lot going on.

Deeanna:

So, finally one weekend I told my aunt hey, I really can go on Saturday, like I can make that happen, can you go with me this coming Saturday? And she said oh, I'm really sorry, I'm actually going to go see my daughter down in Lehigh. So we were going to be separated and I thought, well, that's fine, I'll just go on my own, that's not a problem. But I kind of wanted to have that special experience with her, my sweet uncle Lee.

Deeanna:

The day that he died he and my aunt had been down in Lehigh at their daughter's home and they had slept over Friday night and woke up super early and drove to the Logan Temple to fulfill their temple shift. They were temple workers and so I think they had to be there at like 5 o'clock in the morning, maybe even earlier than that, but they made the trek up, were serving in the temple that day and quite often my aunt would get called to the Vale to go back and do a little bit more, like 30 minutes more for an extra session, and whenever that happened my uncle would just wait out in the lobby for her to come. But that day, as they were getting done with their temple shift, he was able to be a patron and go on the last endowment session with her.

Lily :

Yeah.

Deeanna:

And so, anyway, he was there in that session with her and saw her come into the room, but she wasn't able to communicate or tell him that she was going to be delayed a little bit. So he was just out in the lobby waiting. But unfortunately, when she came out to the lobby to find him, he was slumped over in the chair and he had had a stroke, oh my gosh. And it just looked like he was asleep. He was just resting in the chair. So no one knew. No one knew and she could not get him to revive and they ended up getting the ambulance and rushing him off to the hospital and he died a few hours later, oh my gosh. So that temple day for them was their last moment together.

Lily :

Yeah.

Deeanna:

And so when I went into the Logan Temple I was thinking about my uncle Lee and how, how tender and special that was that his last day on earth he spent serving in the temple, and that's just.

Deeanna:

That's the epitome of who he was.

Deeanna:

Right, yeah, exactly, he's just always full of service. But so when I got into the temple and got my name card, I looked at the name and I was so surprised and really delighted at the name that I had on my card was Bonnie Lee, and so I felt so special that I was able to carry my uncle's name through the temple that day. Right, I had his name in my hand, in my pocket, in my mind, and it just was so special. It felt like he was there with me. So that was a tender mercy for me to go to the Logan temple and to fill his sweet spirit and have his name in my heart. So that night when I got home from the temple, I wanted to tell my aunt about the experience, but it was, it was late at night and I thought, well, I probably shouldn't call her I don't know what time she's going to bed so I decided to just send her a text and tell her, and in my text message I thought I would be a little bit cute and poetic in describing what happened.

Deeanna:

And I said and Delilah, I got a little wink from heaven, yeah, in the temple and her cute little husband, uncle Lee. He would always smile and wink Like his wink was part of his signature happiness that he shared with so many people. So it was kind of sweet a remembrance of him. So I said I received a little wink from heaven tonight and just wanted to let you know that I carried the name, name card, bonnie Lee, through the temple, through my endowment session, and that was really special to me. And so I sent the text message, didn't know if she had already gone to bed.

Deeanna:

After a few minutes she wrote me back and she said, diana, I am in tears, I am so touched by your message. She said I want you to know that tonight is the first time that I decided to sleep in the bed that uncle Lee and I slept in the last night that he was alive. She said I've put it off, I've I've not wanted to go and stay in that guest bedroom. And she said, decided that was the night. She was just going to get over her grief and her sorrow and go and lay down in that bed alone. And my text message came to her right before she went to bed. Oh my gosh. And she got a little wink from heaven.

Lily :

Yeah, you both got to share in that moment. Yes, wow.

Deeanna:

So my miracle became her miracle. Yes, yes, it was a tender mercy. Uncle Lee, my uncle, her sweet dear husband, isn't that the most beautiful little tender mercy.

Lily :

That's incredible it really is and that, I think, just proves that heaven is real. And that proves that there, that there's spirits, that people's spirits are, they're there and they're around us and they want to be with us, right? I don't think that that would have happened the way it did, you know had, had he not been on the other side of the veil, right, I think? I think that I do think that the way that he was living that.

Lily :

He was living that our ancestors and people that we love and care about. They are actively wanting to communicate to us, and sometimes that's all they can. Sometimes he's just like look, do you see the name? Do you see? I'm thinking of you, deanna. I'm thinking of you guys, you know and that, and that's where you guys can can feel that right.

Deeanna:

Right, yes, and I just loved in Elder Bednar's statement how the timing of these tender mercies help us acknowledge the hand of the Lord, that he's with us. I want to tell you one more special thing about this Amazingly there is still one more detail, uh-huh.

Deeanna:

So my aunt then texted me back again and said just so. You know, the last communication I had with Uncle Lee was in the veil room. I had come into the room and took my place at the at the veil and he caught my eye and winked at me from across the room and the next time she saw him was in the lobby of the temple. He was never conscious. Yeah, he was never responsive again, so that wink was her. His goodbye to her.

Lily :

Right. So, tender, that really. I just think like tender is the perfect word because that only has meaning for him and for her and for you, because that's who Lee was Exactly. I think tender is the perfect word for that. That's just wow.

Deeanna:

So I really do have a lot of miracles. I have been really very blessed with some pretty amazing acts of deliverance, acts of inspiration. But when you invited me to come on to the podcast, I thought you know what I'm gonna share? The sweetest one, yeah. That's just really tender for me. So thank you for giving me this opportunity. Before I go, I wanted to share passage of scriptures. I really love Psalms and sometimes I just open up into Psalms and just read what's there. And tonight I opened up and I thought, yep, some of it was marked in red from times past when I've been marking my scriptures. But I really love this. So I'm gonna read some verses and I'm gonna mix the order of them, sure, so I'm gonna read from Psalms 138 and 139, as well as 143. Okay, and I can give you Share these verses in the link so you can let your listeners, if they want, to, look them up. But I'll just read, but just know that they're not in order, okay.

Deeanna:

Go ahead, and this, supposedly, is going to be King David's Psalms. These are his lyrics to his poetry and music that he created. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness, in the morning or in thee do I trust? Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, where I lift up my soul unto thee. Search me, o God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, o Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands.

Deeanna:

O Lord, thou hast searched me and know me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my thought. Afar off, thou compassed my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, o Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me.

Deeanna:

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.

Deeanna:

I will praise thee with my whole heart before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word, above all thy name. In the day when I cried, thou answeredest me and strengthenedest me with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, o Lord, when they hear thy words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. And I just love these verses. It touched on so many themes about lying down and coming in the morning, and the Lord is with us, and even in the temple.

Lily :

Yeah, all of it. Well, and as you were reading it, the word that did keep coming back to me was tender and personal. Because I feel like what you have shared with Elder Bednar's talk and the verses in Nephi and then that and your story, it just really is testifying to me that the Lord is there personally and he's there in that in such an intimate way and he knows us and you and me so close that when something does happen it hits to our soul. Because when I think of tender, I don't think of like I don't know far away. I think of something really close and really soft and really squishy and just warm.

Lily :

Yeah, and just like right there, and so I don't know, like that's just kind of the thoughts that keep coming to my mind.

Deeanna:

Yeah, I love it. I'll read a little bit more from Elder Bednar's talk. Yeah, go ahead.

Deeanna:

I have come to better understand that the Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, drank, protection, assurances, guidance, lovingkindnesses, consolation, support and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, the Lord suits his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men. Recall how the Savior instructed his apostles that he would not leave them comfortless. Not only would he send another comforter, even the Holy Ghost, but the Savior said that he would come to them.

Deeanna:

Let me suggest that one of the ways whereby the Savior comes to each of us is through his abundant and tender mercies. For instance, as you and I face challenges and tests in our lives, the gift of faith and an appropriate sense of personal confidence that reaches beyond our own capacity are two examples of the tender mercies of the Lord. Repentance and forgiveness of sins and peace of conscience are examples of the tender mercies of the Lord, and the persistence and the fortitude that enable us to press forward with cheerfulness through physical limitations and spiritual difficulties are also examples of the tender mercies of the Lord. I thought that was so great, because he identifies different ways, totally different ways, that the Savior comes to us and helps us.

Deeanna:

So I just I am grateful for this little moment that you've given me to reflect and to think about. I mean, this story that I related is genuinely so special to me. I'll convey one more. I want to tell one more story yes, of course.

Deeanna:

I don't know that it would I've counted as a miracle in my life, but it was very personal and incredibly memorable and special for me. So I had my twins. They were delivered to Sarian. My husband was out on a military deployment so he wasn't able to be there at the hospital. Sunday morning was when I was ready to leave the hospital. The nurses had brought the babies in. They helped me get their little, teeny, teeny, tiny bodies buckled into their car seats and their car seats were sitting on my bed. And then the nurses left for a moment and I was just sitting there alone in my room and I had my two babies sitting on the bed and I was sitting off to the side on a chair and I just was looking at them and thinking how am I going to do this? Like, really and truly, how am I going to do this? Because I wasn't even able to lift up the babies while they were in their car seats.

Deeanna:

Yeah, once they were buckled in I couldn't lift them, and so I felt completely helpless. And I was going home. I had two toddlers that I was going home to Soon, as I was going to be home, they were going to want and need and deserve as much attention and love that I could give them, because I had been gone for four days with having these twins and I can't say that I was in despair. Certainly that's not the mood or attitude that I had, but I was definitely contemplating the gravity of the life that I was going home to.

Deeanna:

And a few minutes after and I was sitting there alone, my mother-in-law had left the room to go down and get the car and I was ready to leave the hospital room but a knock came at the door and somebody entered and they just said Deanna, we have a group out here in the hall and we would like to have the sacrament with you in your room if you would like to have us. And I said, oh, of course, yes, come in. And I actually was thinking like that morning, that Sunday morning, I thought I don't know when I'll be able to get back to church. I just, it will be a few weeks, and I was letting myself just be OK with the absence of time that it would take me to be able to really truly attend church and function again.

Lily :

And really be able to life Like you're in survival mode right.

Deeanna:

Right, but it was my Sabbath morning and so I welcomed him in and I had about 12 people gather into my room and it was the first time that I've ever had sacrament meeting that wasn't inside a church building A sacrament meeting in my hospital room. And two men in scrubs came, they shifted me into the wheelchair and it was standing room only for the sacrament meeting and the men in scrubs took turns blessing the sacrament and passing it to all of us and in that moment it was really one of the first times when I well maybe not the first time, that's not fair to say A time when a savior came and met me right where I was at Physically and emotionally and spiritually. He was there. I'm really grateful.

Deeanna:

I'm sure everyone in the room could understand how special that was for me. They could have shared that moment with a number of patients in the hospital that day. I just was one of many, but I was so grateful that they knocked on my door and brought that spirit of fellowship and strength that they gave to me, those people that had been taking care of me, literally physically taking care of me, and I was so grateful for each of them and for their professionalism and for their capabilities and what they were able to do, and the send off was just magnificent, right and what, like a high, like you have, like it was like I can do this, you know, even if you're like I don't know how, but I'm just going to try.

Deeanna:

You were defying gravity, you were about to try and defy some gravity. That's exactly right. I wish I could quote the scripture that in Christ I can do all things. Yeah you know there was a, it was one of the youth themes, and now I'm embarrassed, I can't even quote that scripture.

Lily :

I can't either. I know exactly what you're talking about.

Deeanna:

I can do all things in Christ, who strengthened with me. Yeah, there you did it and that was, that was my, my send off. My savior did that for me on a Sabbath day and I just I loved him for that and that was an incredibly wonderful tender mercy and I'm grateful for the many ways that he helps me and let me know that he he loves me and honors me and sorry, I get emotional.

Lily :

It's okay.

Deeanna:

But I am, I'm grateful. Thank you, lily, for letting me share some of my stories and some of the sweet and special things that my savior has done for me. I love him and I want to honor him.

Lily :

Well, and thank you for sharing, because that's that's the whole point, right? Is it's these memories he gives, or the the things that he does, these tender mercies that he brings into our lives, that help us remember him, that help strengthen that relationship, and that that help us to remember not just what he is or who he is and what he's doing now, but who he is and what he did in our when we were in the pre-mortal existence. Right? It really kind of it was one of the first interviews that I did, where I think it was with Burgundy where she said you know, we had a relationship with Christ and this whole life is about remembering that relationship. And when he sends us these little tender mercies, I think that's part of it, it's part of the don't. Don't you worry, I got you like we're here, we're a team, we're going to do this together right and it yeah, and it just is that personal, that deep you can feel it.

Lily :

I don't know I can. In those moments it's so hard to explain because you just know, like you just know, that's what that is and you can't in my opinion, you can't deny it that, that, that that, regardless of whether or not you are Christian or believe in a God, I think everybody does have those feelings where they were like whoa, this is a special feeling right and we're very fortunate that we get to recognize that for what it is and we can share that and point others in the direction of.

Lily :

that was a tender mercy from him. This is how I've seen him in my life right, Absolutely.

Deeanna:

And we can share that together. And sometimes, when I do tell my miracles to people maybe that are not active in the church, right they still are like. That is so astounding. You know, that's incredible. How did that actually happen? Right?

Deeanna:

right, it's like you don't have to be you know, a church going in some way active Christian worshiper. God will be filled with his miracles in our lives, and he does that because he loves each and every one of us. Correct, it is kind of up to us to slow down and ponder and reflect and acknowledge his hand in our lives, and that requires faith in him and humility. There is one more quote that I want to share and then maybe we can sign off. I just this this whole talk by Elder Bedna.

Deeanna:

It's awesome I want you to say it was. I want to let people know it was kind of electrifying, at least spiritually it was. For me it was memorable. I remembered the title, I remembered it was him, I remembered it was early in his apostleship. Right Really resonated with the Latter-day Saints and it's because of how sincere his testimony was.

Deeanna:

But this is the final words that he shared in that talk. He said our desires, faithfulness and obedience invite and help us to discern his mercies in our lives. As one of his servants, I declare my witness that Jesus is the Christ, our Redeemer and our Savior. I know that he lives and that his tender mercies are available to all of us. Each of us can have eyes to see clearly and ears to hear distinctly the tender mercies of the Lord as they strengthen and assist us in these latter days. May our hearts always be filled with gratitude for his abundant and tender mercies, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ and Elder Bedna. I love it. Yep, I will always cherish this special talk. He was able to articulate it all so well.

Lily :

I agree it's. I'm going to have to go back and reread that talk too, because everything you're saying I'm just like feeling it, and I'm feeling it deep, like whoa. I think there's something there. I need to go back and take a look at that.

Deeanna:

And you were only 10 when he first gave it really good.

Lily :

I missed so much, I wasn't listening to conference.

Deeanna:

That's so funny, I really, I honestly was. I have distinct memories of that, probably with my kiddos. So thank you, hey, no worries, it was a great time.

Lily :

Well, thank you so much for the time that you've set aside to do this. It's honestly been such a pleasure catching up and just and talking about your tender mercies. Do you mind leaving us with a quick testimony?

Deeanna:

Oh, of course. Yes, I would love to. I have had a deep belief in Jesus, in deity, for all of my life. There are times when I've drawn closer to God. There are times when I do my actions and choices. I've. I've distanced myself because of my own proclivities towards being rebellious and I haven't, we all. And that's the beauty of being being true Latter-day Saints, because you have to be real with God, you have to acknowledge your imperfections, you have to have that humility to bring that and say I'm really sorry and I love that.

Deeanna:

In the Temple Endowment we learn that that's actually what Heavenly Father wants from us is our broken heart, like he literally says that's what I want. Bring me your broken heart, bring me all your brokenness, all your inadequacies. He wants us to acknowledge that we're not doing it right. That is the prick of conscience in us and we will always, always have that to steer us back towards God. If we will listen, of course, if we persist in rebellion, the spirit will diminish and we'll back off and let us have our way. But if we lean into that feeling of inadequacy before deity, we will be guided to lay our sins aside, acknowledge them and let the Lord work with us and fill us back up with hope and peace and love. He will recharge us and he will allow the Atonement and all that he has suffered for us, for our sakes. He will fill us back up, put us back on our feet, give us a hug, send us off with wings to fly and give us joy. And I love that our Savior can love us in our hardest and darkest moments and he can celebrate and honor us when we have it.

Deeanna:

Together. We are living so that we can have the spirit to guide us and to bless our lives, and I'm just so grateful for the scriptures, for the sacrifices of so many people to write down and care for the Word of God so that we can literally have it in our phones, in our scriptures, by our bedside, at our fingertips, to guide and bless us. And we don't do it enough. There's not enough hours in the day to soak up the Word of God, but as much as we possibly can, it will rejuvenate us and help us think celestial, like our sweet prophet has encouraged us to do so. Thank you, lily. I could go on and I won't. I'll let it in, but thank you, lily, for giving me the opportunity to share my testimony I love the Lord.

Lily :

I'm team Jesus too. We're all team.

Deeanna:

Jesus, it's true?

Lily :

Well, thank you, Deanna, for your time. I really appreciate it. It's been awesome.

Deeanna:

I'm proud of you.

Lily :

You're a good girl. Hey, I'm proud of you for what you're doing too.

Deeanna:

We're all doing it. That's right In it together.

Lily :

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 morethancoincidencerememberhimatgmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our Savior. See you next time.