BROTHER ANDERSON AND THE RING
A few months before going on the mission I had mission prep class with brother Anderson. He had to teach us in the chapel because nearly 250 of us would show up every Wed night to hear his class. One particular night he shared a story about a ring. Since that time I have tried to find him to write down a full detailed version of the story... but I have no idea where he is now. I even sent the Orem institute letters asking them to find him for me. So please if anyone know who this Brother Anderson is-- He is the uncle of Jessie Clark Funk (the LDS amazing singer) please let me know!!! I have been trying to thank him for this story he shared nearly 6 years ago!
Here is what I remember from this amazing story. Again, I hope someday to swap out this blog with his own words...
Brother Anderson in his younger years went on a vacation with some friends to CA I believe. Towards the end of their trip they went one day and played all day on the beach. At the end of the day they went up and boarded the busses. There was a cry from the back of the bus. One of the girls had lost (I think it was a ruby ring) that had been a family heirloom handed down from generation to generation. I don’t know long it had been handed down, but it was a very special position. Everyone jumped off the bus to see if they could find it on the beach. Brother Anderson said there were miles and miles of beach and they had been playing there for hours.
He and his buddy went searching together. Brother Anderson wondered how in the world they could find a ring in miles of beach. His buddy walked over to where the trees were and knelt down. Brother Anderson followed his lead and went over and knelt down too. His friend offered a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the day they had had. He then said something to the effect of, “Heavenly Father, so and so has lost her ring. We know that this ring is just a piece of metal... no heavenly value, but we know that this daughter so and so is thy daughter. And we know thou loves her. And she is important to thee. And this ring is important to her. Please help us find the ring. He ended the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. As soon as he said amen, Brother Anderson’s friend was on his feet walking over to the sand. His friend bent down and picked something up and yelled, “We have the ring! Let’s go!” His friend then headed up to the Bus. Brother anderson went on the bus and sat by his friend. He said the conversation went something like this..
Bro A: What just happened back there?
Friend: What do you mean?
Bro A: You just found a ring in the sand!
Friend: It’s no big deal, that happens all the time.
By the end of the story Brother anderson emphasized the power of prayer and faith. His friend had faith enough to ask, and then acted on what he was given.
This story moved me and six years later it has been a huge principle builder/reminder for me.
CTR RING IN THE MTC
Several months later I found myself in the MTC. We all had our districts and had elders over all of us. The girls had what was called a “coordinating sister”. This was a sister in the district who was to over see all the sisters in her district. The day our branch president pulled me aside and asked me to be this sister, I had to go to the bathroom and cry. Why would the Lord ask me to do that? (I look back and think how silly I was to cry over such a small simple calling, but thank goodness the Lord did not treat my very real inadequate feelings as something silly.)
One day one of my girls came frantically into our room. She was opening drawers and shaking out blankets. I asked her, what was up? She told me she had lost her CTR ring. It was the type that had the little middle spiny piece. I asked her if it was really special or if someone she loved gave it to her. She said that she had purchased it for herself not long ago or now, come to think of it, she might have said she had found it somewhere... I can’t remember.
All of us sisters got up and started searching the bathrooms/dorm rooms for this missing CTR ring. The spirit quickly, but gently reminded me of the story brother Anderson had shared with with the Mission prep class. I pondered over whether I could give such a prayer. After all the ring was not significant... There was not sentimental value that I could see. Would the Lord really listen and answer a prayer over a piece of metal? I felt the words, “Why not?”!!
I found a janitor’s closet and snuck inside. I knelt down and tried to offer up the prayer told to me by Brother Anderson. I thanked Heavenly Father for letting me be in the MTC and having the amazing experiences I was having. I commented to the Lord that I knew that this Sister Wiggington was his daughter and I knew he loved her. I prayed about how the ring was important to her, and because it was important to her, it would be important to him. I asked for help in finding the ring. I ended my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
When I said Amen, to my mind came the thought that her ring was in her closet on the floor. I got up from my knees and cautiously made my way to her closet. The other Sisters were still combing the bathrooms. I paused outside of her closet door. (The MTC closets are just a small cabinet that could hold a handful of hangers. I would say 3 feet wide by 3 -3 1/2 deep and maybe 6 - 6 1/2 feet tall.) I paused before opening the door. My heart was racing. So much stemmed on what I would find. If I didn’t find the ring, I was making up promptings in my head and I didn’t know how to receive answers to my prayers. If I did find it, I knew that my level of faith and testimony would be bumped up a huge notch because I had received revelation, and would have the confirmation to my heart and mind that it was in fact revelation, not just my thoughts! I finally opened up the door. Her clothes were neatly lined in a row. I looked at the floor of her closet. She had her dirty clothes bag laying there. I moved the clothes bag, only to reveal an empty closet floor.
At this point my heart sank. I felt foolish and I was secretly glad I had not told anyone of the prompting I had received. This meant that it was only me and the Lord who knew of what I thought to be, “my silliness”.
The next morning Sister Wiggington walked into the room and for whatever reason I noticed a ring on her hand. I asked her if she had gone and purchased another CTR ring. She just smiled and said, “Nope, I found mine!” I asked her where she had found it. She said that she had gone to do her laundry and when she had taken all of her clothes out of her bag, she found her ring at the bottom of her laundry bag. I asked if that was the same laundry bag that had been on her closet floor. She confirmed it was. With this I could not keep my smile from spilling onto my face! I had felt impressed that the ring was on the closet floor... and it was! There was just a piece of laundry bag fabric laying between the ring and the closet floor. I was so excited to tell my companion Sister Sulivan about the miracle. The Lord inspired her to be excited when I told her my experience because it was through her excitement I received yet another confirmation that this was in fact from the Lord and not something made up in my head!!!
These two stories inspired a lot of prayers on my mission and since that time! I can not count the many times I have prayed over what some people would think was something silly--but the faith was there, the question was asked, and the Lord provided! I love the topic prayer in the bible dictionary... “The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them.” Heavenly father had the blessing of telling me where to find that ring... and had I not asked, I would have never known! SO WHY NOT ASK!?!! It can’t hurt! And in the end we may find that the Lord already had a blessing for that asking, in store for us!
So why do I bring up any of this?! I need to write down the miracles of my last week! They all stem off the “principle of the ring” or in other words, “ASKING”.
CARDIGAN & JACKET
This past week in Philly was a little different. Patti had me speaking the 2nd day. So that meant I was presenting on Friday night and Sat. Well on a corporate side of things that means I have to be business attire/jacket. I HATE wearing business jackets! And the problem was the one I feel most comfortable in is a brown one with flowers on it. The same jacket I wore on my business tripe to Baltimore this time last year. Many of the same people would be coming to this PHilly meeting. This is my vain side coming out, but because my brown jacket is so unique I did not feel like I could be in pictures yet again, wearing the same thing from last year. If it was a black jacket, no big deal. People would never know, but I was worried about wearing the brown jacket.
So with my worry, I took it to the Lord. He knows how much I hate to shop! He knows I don’t have a lot of money to spend. And he knows It is just hard to find jackets in my size. For almost a month I fretted/prayed over my situation finding a jacket/what to wear to the Philly meeting.
I left on Friday, but on Wed morning I had the impression that I needed to run to Lane Bryant. (Again, I know better then to ignore an impression.) So I left work and ran to Lane Bryant. As I walked in I found a cardigan... picture below that i thought would work.
I wasn’t thrilled with the price but I was grateful the Lord had provided something new for me. As I walked to the back of the store I decided to look through the clearance racks. Anyone who knows Lane Bryant--knows that it is a hit and miss. And for the most of the year, I have had quite the “miss” in finding anything good there. But there it was. A black jacket, my size, the only one, and long enough. (I say long enough because the style has been to have short-only to the waist line jackets. And honestly, what girl with lots of curves wants to be wearing anything short! Or anything revealing!?!) But here was a jacket in my size. I almost started crying. The price was $80 but since it was in the clearance section I figured that I would maybe spend $25- $30 for it.
I walked up to cashier and she rang up the jacket and said, “$6.99”. YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT!! I looked at her.. yes my eyes were wet and said, “you need to know you just witnessed a miracle from God! He just answered my prayers!!” She looked at me like I was nuts, but I didn’t care!
I had a problem and took it to the Lord. Was the jacket part of my eternal salvation. No way! But I am important to the Lord and being comfortable while speaking was important to me... It was amazing! I am far from being a model but take a look at heavenly father’s answers to prayer!!! And I was completely comfortable while speaking. And because I was comfortable my confidence was high.
SWOLLEN KNEE
Two weeks ago I was in GA and for whatever reason on the plane, I really messed up my knee. My knee had pressure on it from the chair in front of me. When I got back, I felt that my knee was had a lot of liquid on it. Bending it in any shape or form was pretty unbearable.
So when I flew to Philly for the HM meetings I said a prayer and asked that if there were open seats on the plane I would love to have them around Patti and I, or even better that I could get in the emergency row so I could keep my knee/leg stretched out. The plane started to taxi the run way. All the seats on mine and Patti’s rows were filled.
I felt the pressure in my knee starting to build from the seat in front of me touching my knee. A flight attendant came right over to me and said, “there are a few open rows. If you would like to take a seat in one of the rows, you will need to go right now.” (She spoke to me, no one else. I took 10 secs to think about it, when I decided to jump right up and go to the row. One man over hearing what she said to me, got up out of his seat too. As I walked down the row... wouldn’t you know it. There were two empty spots in the emergency exit row!! I was able to stretch out my knee the whole flight! Amazing! God is so good!
SPEAK FROM YOUR HEART
I was giving the opening talk “Key Note” for Saturday. This was something really different for me. This was a talk given by my Dad in Utah and in GA the CEO came to the meeting--and he gave this talk. Normally Patti always covers my Dad’s presentations... so when she asked me to speak, I was a little floored in her asking me.
I had wanted to prepare but lack of time, and really just no inspiration had come when I thought over the talk. Friday night I was determined to wake up an hour earlier the next day and that is when I would go over my talk. After some things that needed my attention I hit the pillow at nearly 2 AM. I figured I could pop out of bed at 4-4:30 and that would give me time to put my thoughts together. The next thing I know is that at 6:45 AM and Patti is waking me up! I didn’t hear my alarm and I had 45 mins to be downstairs in the hotel. (In humid conditions, and doing straight hair, the task of being ready is almost impossible to do in 45 mins!) As I frantically jumped in the shower and started getting ready, I pondered over the mess I was in. Here I had to give this opening presentation. A presentation that would set the mood for the whole day’s event. IF I bombed it, no more opportunities to speak at the start of something. What was I going to say?! I had nothing. As I started to panic, the quite impression came, “Speak from your heart.” I had a conversation with the spirit inside.
Me: Speaking from my heart is good, but this is an important moment for me. A lot hinges off of how I do.
Again--
impression: Speak from your heart
Me: Okay, but what is in my heart?! I don’t even know.
With that I stopped arguing and just did some seriously blind trusting. Through our rushed breakfast I tried to analyze what was inside my heart to get a clue over what I was going to say, BUT there was nothing. The impression to speak from my heart stayed with me.
Well I did just that. I got up to do this Key-note little talk and the Lord filled my mouth, for it surely didn’t come from me! And what came into my heart I spoke through my mouth. It was amazing!!! At the end of the meeting as Patti and I were driving to Baltimore to meet Laynie and Annie... I confessed to Patti that I had no clue what I was going to say, but that I was told to just speak from my heart. Patti gave a little chuckle while a huge grin came across her face. She said as she was typing up the agenda she went to type her name in the spot for the talk because she always covered my dad’s material. But she felt impressed, “Bryndi should give this talk because she can speak from her heart.” !!!! To anyone reading this, no big deal, but I will tell you what, to ME--THIS IS A HUGE BIG DEAL!! The Lord used the same words in both of our promptings only confirming to me even more his matchless wisdom and endless kindness. Patti and I both spent some time rejoicing in the car! I think I smiled for a sold 5 mins!!
BIG KNEE
As the meeting in Philly ended I noticed that my knee not only was quite swollen but any bending movement made me want to cry. My knee has never been so bad. As we cleaned up I saw some poles on the floor. The thought of having to bend my knee to pick them up was almost more then I could bare. I called sweet justin over to help pick up the pulls. He didn’t say anything but I am sure he thought, “Oh Bryn, you old woman!”
When I went to get in the rental car, I found that I could sit just fine, but I did not have the power to pull my leg into the car. My knee was too swollen and it would not do anything I commanded it to do with my brain. I had to actually pick up my leg with my two hands and place it in the car. So EMBARRASSING!
Would you believe it, I woke up with almost no pain to my knee Sunday morning?! It was still swollen, but I could bend it must more freely then the previous week!?! The whole day was spent in flats and for the most part I was sitting. Normally on sundays, I am up and going by 10 am in high heals and I don’t get home until after 10 PM. This whole day was spent in flats, and no running around. TENDER MERCY indeed. Even thought I missed my girls and the ward--God had wisdom in letting me rest in MD!
BETTRIDGES
Laynie and Annie were worried about there being ice on the road since their church was 20 mins away. I ran to the bathroom and with some effort kneeled down. I was confident the Lord would give us a way to get to church so I could partake of the sacrament. And he did!
As I walked into the sacrament room, I saw a couple smiling up at me. Bishop and Sister Bettridge! A wonderful couple from my mission I had not seen them in almost 4 years! As we sat down I started to weep with the thoughts of how kind the Lord has been to me this whole trip! Jacket, cardigan, emergency exit row, talk from heart, fixed knee, getting to church, wonderful mission friends, and just being with Laynie and Annie!! Seriously! Had I had a spoiling or what!!!?!
NO D.C.
When I had originally planned with Laynie and Annie to come out, we had talked about going and touring DC a little. Sunday night came and the snow started. By Monday morning there were a good 3 to 4 inches out and still falling. Schools were canceled. Laynie and Annie were pretty fixed to not go to D.C.. I pondered over this. I thought, no way were we not going to go. After all I hadn’t even toured D.C. and they had taken work/school off and I had extended my trip to Philly for this. Of course we were going to go. But as the morning moved on it was evident that we were not going to go. (The Lord is full of wonderful surprises. And if we will allow him, he will show us parts and pieces of his amazing workings in our lives!)
I went again to the bathroom to pray. I prayed that there would be a way for us to see some things in D.C.. But as I prayed (and I was not pleading, merely just talking) I had the thought, “Bryndi, you are praying to go, but you don’t understand, others may be praying to not go and for the snow to come.” This thought was crazy to my mind. Why would Annie and Laynie pray to not go to D.C.?! Again, after all, I had kind of built my trip around that idea.
But with this new found thought, I let my mind set on the fact we would not be going to D.C..
God’s wisdom IS wisdom!
Instead of going to D.C. I was able to hear Laynie play the piano, and witness the first duet of “I feel my Savior’s Love” and “Chop sticks” by Laynie and Annie. We then went and picked up Katie, Annie’s sister. We did a little shopping at the mall, then a little guitar hero (which I had never really fully seen/understood before) and then it was off to the melting pot, which I also had never done before. The day was full with the four of us. And Katie made it all the more fun and exciting!!! I loved getting to know her. I felt right way like God wanted me to see her the way he does. It seemed the whole night I was given an inside scoop to how incredible this girl was. By the end of the night I felt like the four of us had been hanging out together, for years!
Again the thought of D.C. scrapped my brain and I thought maybe I could pray to at least see the temple and do a session with Laynie and Annie the next morning but that was not the plan. We went and sat in one of Laynie’s classes. She is such an amazing teacher!
On the drive to the airport Annie then revealed a missing puzzle piece! She said that she and Laynie were so happy to not go to D.C. I was shocked at this and asked “why”? For her words matched the impression I was given but I couldn’t understand why they would not want to go. Annie said that while Laynie’s parents had been out (just two weeks prior) and they went walking all over D.C. with them. It had been very tiring and stressful. BINGO- the puzzle no longer seemed like a puzzle. They had just been there and did not want to do it again--therefore had been praying in a sense to get out of going again. It all made sense!! And my eyes were opened up to God’s wisdom. And not just for Laynie and Annie’s sanity, but also for the blessing of getting to be with Katie. Had we gone to D.C I would have probably never really gotten to really know Katie... and her friendship is way greater then some museum in D.C! Plus the ride to the airport opened up Annie’s soul to me even more-- and what I found there was even deeper then I realized. I thought she was pretty deep before. Annie has an ever burning desire to be good. She has an innate ability to serve and give of her self.
This whole trip was amazing!!!!!!!!!! And I saw the hand of the Lord it seemed like every hour.
THE ICING ON THE CAKE!
As I boarded the plane and waited to get started, I looked through the movie guide. There were only 2 PG movies listed and the rest for a lot of PG 13’s. I offered a little prayer. Normally I always pray for missionary opportunities for the person sitting next to me on the plane, but I asked, not because I didn’t want the opportunity, but that I was just exhausted from a month of lots of weekend meetings... I asked that no one would sit in the seat next to me, so I could be more comfortable on the flight home. I also asked if there was a way, I would love to have a PG movie come on so that I could watch it.
The plane stayed at the gate an extra 35 mins of just sitting, waiting for the doors to close. I think there were only 2 open seats on the whole plane... and one was next to me!! Then the movie came on, “The Express” - one of the only 2 PG movies listed. I could not help but smile and praise heavenly father for his kindness! Great movie, I was grateful to have something clean to entertain me and I cried at this true story based on this great guy who ended up having leukemia. He died really young. Thoughts of my Dad and his cancer filled my mind as I wiped the tears away...grateful to still have him on the earth.
God really hears our prayers! We can always pray! And why not?! There may be a blessing waiting but is conditional to be receive because it needs to be asked for!!! God is good! And I learned that there are reasons for everything! Even if I don’t feel like I understand God’s will, the fact is, he has a will/plan/way and I need to follow it!
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