More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

Priesthood Power and Obedience with Jason

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 35

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What if you faced a life where your faith was constantly tested through severe family health crises, but became a powerful witness to miracles received from prayer and priesthood blessings? Join us as we sit down with Jason from Iowa, who shares his profound journey through his father's battle with liver disease and multiple organ transplants. Hear about Jason's experiences of divine intervention, from his mother being a perfect kidney donor match to the timely availability of donor organs, and the incredible impact of priesthood blessings and prayer.

Jason also opens up about how faith and obedience have shaped his life. From his experiences during his mission in El Salvador, Jason recounts how following the Lord's commandments brought blessings and protection. He speaks about life-changing decisions, like becoming a temple worker and meeting his wife, Ashlee, highlighting the significance of trusting in the Lord's timing. In his heartfelt testimony, Jason affirms his unwavering belief in Jesus Christ.

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!

Speaker 1:

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. Tonight we have Jason with us.

Speaker 2:

Hi, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for coming. Do you mind introducing yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my name again is Jason. I'm from West Des Moines, iowa, born and raised, so definitely a much different childhood than what my kids here have in Utah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But I work at BYU, work in IT and just love the stage of life we're in right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. Did you go to BYU and graduate from BYU and all that too?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I graduated from BYU and I actually just finished my master's degree at BYU. Oh, congratulations yeah in public administration, so looking for a way to utilize those skills I've learned.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, congratulations.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. It's kind of a big deal graduating with your master's. My wife is thrilled that I am done.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, my husband, we were in school for forever too and I was like this sucks, can I just have you back now? I'm done with the homework at night. Homework at night is the worst. Like you're gone all day and then you still have class at night up in Salt Lake from like 515 to 945 for three years. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's awful. I'm so glad I'm done with that I hope you guys celebrated and had like a big party.

Speaker 2:

Oh, we did.

Speaker 1:

Okay, good, Good, good, good. That's awesome. Well, yeah, I'm really, I'm really grateful that you came tonight. This is going to be so much fun, and so I'll just ask you the question what memories do you have that you reflect on, that perk your heart and remembrance of our savior Jesus Christ and anchor you to him?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like I said, I grew up in Iowa. I had pretty much an uneventful childhood until I was about eight. My dad was very active. We would wrestle and fight and have fun. I had an older brother and a younger brother, but my dad got ill and it started a path in our family that we knew the power of the priesthood and prayer and how important it is. My dad was diagnosed with a liver disease and they found some precancerous cells so they put them on a liver transplant list. And again, I was only eight, in second grade, when my dad got ill and had a liver transplant. And he was only on the list for 49 days, which was a blessing, because he was very ill, very jaundiced, yellow, very weak.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And so that was definitely an answer to our prayers, because sometimes people wait years for a transplant, and just that experience was very eye-opening in the power of prayer and priesthood. Before he had the transplant, the stake president gave him a priesthood blessing that said that he would see all of his sons raised and married in the temple.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

And after that it gave us that hope that we needed and we totally felt the spirit. I remember just seeing how much better his life was after that, but that didn't last very long. When you have transplanted organs, a lot of times especially liver it sets off a chain reaction and his kidneys failed when I was in fifth grade and that was a really scary time because even kidneys you have to wait even longer and he did dialysis where you're hooked up to a machine for several hours, like three days a week.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it's not fun. So I would go with him and just watch movies. We'd watch james bond movies.

Speaker 1:

Make it as fun as you could, exactly, and the extreme diet that you're on and finding a match.

Speaker 2:

Uh, again, like I said, it's so hard, that's the hardest, that's where we're praying and just hoping that something happened and my mom got tested and she was a perfect match. My gosh, so everything got.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's insane.

Speaker 2:

Exactly yeah, like you don't often see something like that happen Right, right right. And so total answer to our prayers.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I I was very lucky it was we're doing standardized tests that that week in school, and so my parents let me go with them to the hospital. Cool, my grandparents were there and I just remember um realizing that both my parents are under the knife and like something could go wrong and it's a six hour ordeal and we were in the waiting room that whole time and I remember praying and just hoping that everything was going to go okay, right and it did.

Speaker 2:

Um, I remember going in in seeing my dad right after the operation.

Speaker 1:

He was happy and chipper and my mom it's a lot rougher on the uh donor um, but again, oh yeah I'm sure, from going to note, from like dysfunctional kidneys to like one functioning kidney, he's like I feel so much better and she's like I'm missing a kidney he was.

Speaker 2:

He was on the phone with work like 30 minutes after, yeah, calling his buddies and my mom. Yeah, it was definitely a kind of a recovery process that took a little while, but again it's just that priesthood blessing. It just continually came up that everything was going to be okay, right, because he was in a pretty dire, dire situation there. You would think that that's all that somebody would go through in the trials that they would get, but when I was a freshman in or sophomore at BYU, that liver that he received failed. So again he was in the hospital for months waiting for a liver and again his health had deteriorated and it was a really scary situation, right. And again a donor was found and he had a liver transplant, again a third organ transplant. And again that blessing came up again and we had a bishop who was not there during that time of the first blessing, give a separate blessing, and said the same thing.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 2:

So I just know that the Lord was watching out for us and guiding us in our lives, and he knew that all was going to be okay no-transcript Right and so we just had to have faith. And then my mom's kidney after that liver failed as well.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

So he had oh yeah, he had another kidney transplant, so he's had four organ transplants over my life and just I've seen so many miracles with priesthood blessings and my dad shouldn't be alive right um, but he is, and I know that there's a purpose for our lives and the lord um had a purpose for him. Um, and I just remember leaving on my mission, I was scared like could this be the last time I see my dad, because we never knew right, right, right a year into my mission I get an email from my dad and he's like I just want to let you know I'm cancer free and I'm like what?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so soon after I got into the MTC he got diagnosed with bladder cancer and they didn't want to tell me which. At first I was kind of upset they didn't tell me, but I definitely suffer from anxiety and for them not to tell me and wait until he was okay was probably a blessing for me, because I would have just been worrying my entire time on my mission because I've seen him on the brink of death so many times.

Speaker 2:

And I just remember looking back at these moments and just seeing the lord's hand in our lives. Uh, I know that, again, my dad wouldn't be here if it wasn't for um, the power of the priesthood and the prayers that he received yeah um, and it's just amazing to to uh that we have these powers to utilize in our lives to to help others.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly.

Speaker 2:

And even during the pandemic, uh, we were very scared with him having COVID because of his immune system. He's on immune suppressants, he's, he's very right. Very weak Right and he ended up getting COVID after about a year and a half of during the pandemic and uh, it got so bad. He was actually in a two week coma and during in the pandemic and, uh, it got so bad. He was actually in a two-week coma and was in the icu and they didn't think there was a chance he wasn't going to make it right um, but he made it um and he saw, I, like I said, I I've got an older brother and a younger brother.

Speaker 2:

um, we're all older now and my uh little brother actually got married married last year in the temple, oh, that's awesome, so the blessing was fulfilled.

Speaker 2:

We teased my brother that he couldn't get married until a lot longer down the road. Yeah, but yeah, so I just have always turned to the Lord and I know that he has the power to do miracles. Yeah, and it's shaped my life and I love it when my daughters or my wife asks for power to do miracles. Yeah, and it's shaped my life and I love it when my daughters or my wife asks for a priesthood blessing. Yeah, and just how I'm able to share a little of that blessings and priesthood power into my children's lives.

Speaker 1:

Right, that's really special.

Speaker 2:

So growing up, like I said, I know that the Lord's there to protect us. I put in my mission papers when I was 19. That was before the age change and I remember hoping I was going to go to Europe. My dad served in England, my older brother served in Poland and I had been to Europe before and so I was like super stoked.

Speaker 1:

I'd really love to go to Europe.

Speaker 2:

And I opened my call and I was going to Europe before, and so I was like super stoked.

Speaker 1:

I'd really love to go to Europe and I opened my call and I was going to El Salvador, san Salvador, which is in Central America.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, spanish speaking very different, very, very, very different. I just remember googling it that night and yeah it. At the time it was the most dangerous country in the world. World it had the highest murder rate what yeah, uh. So I was very, very scared to go because like I'm from iowa like pretty safe and chill place right uh, and so again, like I said, I suffer from anxiety.

Speaker 2:

My biggest fear was like getting hurt or getting robbed. Yeah, and I just remember making a promise with the lord, like if I followed the rules and did what I'm supposed to do, please keep me safe and like elders were getting robbed like left and right, yeah, on on in el salvador, like our, our, uh, our ward boundaries were gang boundaries.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because they don't want members going into the other neighborhoods and causing issues. Yep, uh, and I just I stuck to it and I never got robbed. I never had any moment of conflict with anybody.

Speaker 2:

But I would see elders that would be breaking rules and they would get robbed or something would happen, and so I just knew that the Lord watches out for us and knows what we can handle and that was definitely a humbling experience for me to serve in El Salvador, but I just I love the people there and the ability to serve those that just would give you anything even though they don't have anything.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly, obedience brings blessings, and you literally found that out, right.

Speaker 2:

Oh, exactly, and I see that in my life now, like the commandments and like like paying tithing stuff, like that I it's an added protection and going to the temple right, um, I see my life um like a bubble around me and right and I. That's something that I want to instill into my, my children. Like the lord's there to bless us, these rules aren't there to impede us or to to not allow us to have fun, but it's a protection.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, it was just. It was a fun experiencing fun childhood, growing up and like seeing all these all these things um, but more recently, um, uh, in my life, um, obviously I didn't in my introduction introduce that uh, my wife, ashley, um, and then my my daughters, um, live here in Lehigh Um, but uh, in in college um, I, before I met Ashley, uh I was just enjoying college but uh kind of was done with dating and just kind of fed up with it and just knew like okay, lord, like I'll go to your timetable.

Speaker 1:

Jesus, take the wheel.

Speaker 2:

Exactly and just allow the Lord to do his work. And I remember I was sitting in my dorm room and I got a call and it was from the city center temple, and this was before it was dedicated and it was still before the open house, right. But I was told that my bishop had recommended me to be a temple worker.

Speaker 1:

Oh, awesome.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, and of course I said yes, but like I never had even imagined like doing that, yeah, and it just I felt honored that I was recommended. But I now looking back, I know that the Lord had his hand in that. Yeah, because it changed my life. I remember going to a seminary building in Provo where they were trying to get everyone interviewed and to set up assignments. And when you're going, and I remember meeting with them, agreeing to the calling, and they set me apart.

Speaker 2:

And then they take you to this large room and it had signups for the different days and the times and I was like, oh, wow, like that's a lot. So many options, so many options, so many options and I remember writing down a day and last minute I was like no, that's not going to work, I'll do Thursdays at night.

Speaker 2:

And best decision of my life for listening to that prompting Because I happen to be signing up for Thursday night and that's the night that my wife Ashley was working at the temple. Yeah, and it was definitely a wonderful experience to learn and work at the temple, but one Thursday night and I was working the veil assisting patrons at the temple and I was working the veil assisting patrons at the temple.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And I remember working with that one at that time. I still remember it vividly. Seeing Ashley for the first time, I was like she's cute and just her smile and her eyes just lit up and I remembered her.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I would look for her when we would have meetings, meetings and such. Didn't see her for several weeks but one night um I was working in the chapel and at the temple and I saw her and another sister um sitting in the back. So I went and sat by them and this sister earlier I had been talking to uh that I was like fed up with dating and like yeah, I just.

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna focus on school and if the right girl comes, right girl comes, uh-huh, um, and so it was that same sister, yeah, and I talked to Ashley and the sister for a bit and then I left and Ashley just happened to mention to this sister like oh, he's cute yeah and, like this, sister immediately said oh, he's single, give me, give me your number. And so that night, leaving the temple, I hear jason, jason and in the parking garage like late at night, like this was like 10 30 at night yeah and it's the sister running after me and she's the wing woman ever exactly, and she hands me her number or hands me the paper and it had.

Speaker 1:

Ashley's number on it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so I called Ashley, I think, the next night, and she seemed a little awkward on the phone, and later I found out she was actually on a date when she answered the phone.

Speaker 1:

You have perfect timing, my dude. Oh, exactly.

Speaker 2:

And and, just like I said, it changed my life. We went on dates, met our family and six, seven months later we were married and it's just a huge blessing that, like the Lord, guided me to my wife Right, and I have two wonderful daughters and a son on the way. Congratulations, thank you. And I just know that the Lord has had his hand in my life and I know I wouldn't be where I would without him.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And just going back like power of the priesthood, prayer, safety, following the rules, going to the temple, uh, has allowed me to have the life that I have and just feeling the spirit, um in these moments and looking back at them, knowing, uh, that I was blessed and so grateful for my savior, and knowing that without him I wouldn't be who I am, and so grateful for for the blessings that the Lord has in store for me.

Speaker 1:

Right, so it gives you hope for your future.

Speaker 2:

Oh, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Because you've just seen him carry you through all these kind of crazy circumstances.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I just graduated with my master's. I'm looking for my next chapter and what to do, and so, ashley and I, we've been praying a ton, don't know what we're going to do. But, all we know is that if we have faith, we'll be where we're supposed to be.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. That's so cool. I love that talk that was given in this past conference about. I think it's like the rays and the pillars, right, and sometimes we have these big pillar experiences, but other times we really don't. It really is like looking back on your life and you're like, oh my gosh, Thursday nights that's a small little ray. If that had to happen, this wouldn't have happened. Oh my gosh, you know all these little things on your missions that who would have thought that just keeping this one simple rule would keep you so safe? Right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so it is so amazing to hear stories like yours, where you look back and it's yeah, you're like if these things hadn't have happened, I literally wouldn't be where I am today oh, exactly and it's to me, it's mind-blowing and it's incredible for sure and just, I just want to always be a guiding light for my children and to know that the Lord cares about them and that if you listen to the spirit like, you won't ever have to question anything, that the Lord loves you and cares for you and he always wants what's best for you. And I've just, I've seen that firsthand and um know that, uh, my children will be forever blessed if they follow that.

Speaker 1:

Right? Well, I don't have any other questions. So if you don't have any other final thoughts, would you like to leave us with a testimony?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure. I know my Savior lives. I know that he cares for us and he has given us all of the tools necessary to return to him and to get help when we need help. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is that guiding light that we need in our lives, and I am so grateful for eternal marriage and to know that Ashley and I will be together forever, and our children, and just so grateful for all the blessings I've received in my life.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Well, thank you, Jason, for giving us your time tonight.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

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