Thank you for taking her for French Toast!

I can see that is has been a long time since my last entry and I do need to write about a few events that have touched my heart. This past summer I had the opportunity to help Leah Teters plan her wedding. She got engaged to Josh Young on her 20th birthday, which was August 13, 2012. She got married in the Salt Lake Temple on November 15, 2012. I had the opportunity of helping her with many things, decorations, cake, colors, deciding on a place to have the reception, how much ice cream, what toppings to go on the ice cream, what kind of flowers, etc. But the experiences that I have treasured in my heart was to be in the temple with her. She invited me to be her escort through the Draper Utah temple on November 1, 2012. I have never done that before and was not sure what to expect. I had a few minutes to myself as she was finishing up her own endowment before the session and I had a little voice that said to me, Thanks for taking her to get French Toast!!! I had kind of forgotten about that. About 4 years earlier I was the YW President in our ward and I was really worried about Leah and not sure what I could do to help her, the thoughts and impressions kept coming to go and get her and tell her that I was going to take her to breakfast. I kept fighting that feeling and was worried about what I would say and what her reaction would be. But I went through with the thought and we went to breakfast. Leah did not say much, but she did come with me and she loves the french toast sticks from Sonic. We talked and I just listened to what was going on in her life. A few years later she moved in with us for a few years and then she moved out. We had some hard times with her. She struggled with many different things. I picked her up one day after I found out she was drinking, she was cutting herself, we went to the emergency room one time because she was trying to take all her pills. There was a lot of scary hard things that we had to deal with. My hope for her was that someday she would be able to go to the temple, but I was not sure if that would happen.  I think I had put all those things far back in my mind. Then a few years pass, and she asks me to help her with her temple wedding. I have no idea if me going to get her for French Toast was a life changing event, but Heavenly Father wanted me to go and I did. I had a lot of tender experiences helping Leah. Another day I remember thinking that I needed to remember the hard things that we experienced with her and that I might experience some of those things with my own children and that I should never forget that she figured it out and that I never stopped loving her. It was a beautiful day to be in the temple with her. Leah is an amazing woman who has a lot of talents and who will be a great mother someday. I am grateful that she invited us into her life. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who guided me many times when I had questions about what to do in the many situations that we found ourselves in with Leah.