We went to church up here in Idaho....to the Dingle ward. We've been going to this ward every summer since I was Charlie's age. It feels like home. I love the people there.
Since it was the first Sunday of the month it was what we call "Testimony Meeting." Anyone who wants to can go up to the pulpit and say what has touched them over the month, what they believe to be true, talk about the ways that they have witnessed God in their lives. We were sitting there, enjoying other's testimonies. Quite a few kids were going up there and saying kind of memorized things, copying what they've heard adults say. I was sitting there thinking about how I don't really like it when kids do this, it feels a bit insincere, when Hazel leaned over to me and said that she wanted to go up. I asked her what she was going to say and she told me that I'd have to wait and see. I tried to dissuade her, but she was pretty adamant about it (even though she's never talked in front of people before). I decided that it couldn't be that bad and I should give her a chance. She marched up there and stood at the pulpit. I was super nervous and was turning redder and reader as she just sat there with her finger at her lip (her thinking stance). After a few seconds (they felt like long minutes) she said pretty boldly:
"When Jesus lived on the earth they didn't have any swimming suits, so they went in the water with their clothes on. I love my savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
I was laughing so hard tears where coming down my cheeks. I had only a few seconds as she walked back to our seat to pull myself together so that I could let her know how proud of her I was.
I asked her later how she knew that, and why she said it and she said it was something that she figured out all by herself and that it was something that adults don't know, so she wanted to tell them.
We've got some instructing to do about what a testimony is.....but at least hers came from her very own brain and her very own heart.
I love that girl. I'm so excited to see who she's going to be as she grows up.
That was a pee-in-your-pants-laughing story. Awesome. Who couldn't love Hazel?
ReplyDeleteThat was the best story I've heard all day!! I love that Hazel. I wish she would've figured that out here so I could have heard her.
ReplyDeleteHazel is awesome.
ReplyDeleteSaydi, I want to hear what you are up to in Bear Lake...please post. Thanks. We were out at a Halverson Family reunion when you called. I don't have the recipe for Thai curry anymore...bummer.
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