Setting Apart

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 (by Michelle)

Five days before we had to report at the MTC, we had our carpets cleaned. We wanted the carpets cleaned before the Chalks moved in on Monday. The carpet cleaners came at 10:30 am and did a beautiful job of cleaning our carpets, rugs and furniture. I had a skype tutoring Spanish session with Whitney at 4pm and when I came upstairs at 5pm, Scott said, “Look at the carpet!”  He had a sick look on his face.  I looked at the carpet and at first could not see anything.  Then I realized that large sections of the carpet had separated from the pad and it looked like the wavy ocean.  I then understood the look on Scott’s face.  This had happened once before after shampooing the carpets when we lived in Spring Creek, Nevada.  We had to restretch the entire carpet and it never did look completely flat.  We were heading to Idaho Falls to help with Dad after the passing our sister-in-law’s mother and would not return until Thursday evening.  That left Friday and Saturday to deal with this potential catastrophe.  Scott called the man who cleaned the carpets and he said not to worry, that this sometimes happens and that the carpet would be fine after it had dried.  This information did not reassure us as our previous experience had taught us otherwise.  We knelt down and asked our Heavenly Father to bless our carpets.  This may sound like a silly thing to do, but with our given situation, we needed a carpet blessing in order to be ready to go to the MTC as planned.  We then got in the car and headed to Idaho.  Upon our return we approached the back door with apprehension.  Upon opening the door, we peeked in and beheld the miracle of the carpet.  It was lying perfectly flat and looked beautiful.  We immediately knelt and thanked our Heavenly Father for his blessing.  He hears our every prayer even when to some, the matter might seem less important.  Because it was a weight upon us, it was a priority for Him.  We are thankful for His blessings.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

This afternoon Michelle and I were set apart as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by our Stake President, Jason Langeveld. Those who were there included Brad and Cheryl Allen, Kevin Jensen, the men with whom I served in the Stake Presidency. Bishop Mangum, and John Ottesen, the first counselor in the Bishopric were also there along with our home teacher, Patrick Munson.  President Jason Brown, the second counselor in the Stake Presidency was also there. President Langeveld reviewed with us D&C 4, stressing that we are called to gather Israel and that we need to do our best in order to stand blameless before the Lord.

Then he gave Michelle a wonderful blessing; his words were powerful and straightforward. It was as Heavenly Father or the Savior were giving the blessing directly. This is how Michelle described it, “Immediately following the opening words of being set apart as a missionary, I felt a surge of power through my whole body almost like a bolt of electricity.  This has happened one other time when I touched your dad for the first time after he came home from his mission.” President Langeveld blessed Michelle to be able to understand the needs of the missionaries and to help them “perfectly”. That she will have total and immediate recall of the medical knowledge that she has gleaned throughout her life and beable to “heal” the missionaries by using this knowledge so that they could continue to teach. She was blessed to be able to speak in both English and Spanish with other medical professionals so that they would understand “perfectly” what she was trying to convey and that she would understand “perfectly” what they were saying. She was also blessed that she would be able to teach and preach the gospel in both English and Spanish and be able to be understood and share the gospel with members and non-members. He blessed her with health and strength in order to accomplish the Lord’s work. This is how Michelle described the last two blessings, “A most precious blessing - that miracles would happen within our immediate family with both our children and grandchildren as a direct blessing of our missionary service. That my love for Scott and our closeness would greatly increase even beyond the magnificence that already exists between us.”

It was truly a powerful blessing with the spirit present in abundance. Michelle was greatly uplifted by the blessing and all her concerns with what we are leaving behind vanished from her heart and mind. It truly was an inspired blessing.

Afterward, he gave me a wonderful blessing. He blessed me that I would see the Lord’s hand in our service and encouraged me to document and share those experiences. He told me that I would be directed in ways to keep us safe but that we would need to follow the promptings of the spirit with exactness. He blessed me with the ability to teach, lead, and love members and non-members alike. He also blessed me that I would develop a closeness with the Mission President and that I would be able to support him and his counselors as they exercise Priesthood keys and recognize his strengths and that my strengths would complement his. He blessed me that I would learn from these experiences that would benefit us during this mission and other future assignments. He also blessed me with health at least to the level that I have now, that would be sufficient to fulfill our assignment. He blessed me that I would be able to find the reason I was called to this particular mission and those particular people that I will touch and have influence with. The one thing he did not bless me with, for which I was waiting for and wanting, was the gift of tongues. I asked him about it after and he assured me I would do just fine with the language.