Welcome to Closer to Christ through General Conference,
where two friends who love Jesus share our own
approach to studying the most recent General
Conference talks. This is Abby and Amy. Let's
jump into it. Today we're discussing compensating
blessings. This is by Bishop Gerald Gosset. He's
the presiding bishop right now. I loved this
talk, Abby. I listened to it again and was just
like, man, this is just, again, a timely message.
Elder Gosset has a unique opportunity to see
people around the world as he serves in the presiding
bishopric. Despite varying life circumstances,
he's been inspired by the abiding faith and devotion
to the Lord Jesus Christ that he has witnessed
in God's children throughout the globe. He has
also been moved by the diverse and often difficult
circumstances many face from challenges. like
illness disability limited resources fewer opportunities
for marriage or education abuse by others and
other limitations or constraints at times he
says these trials may seem to hinder your progress
and challenge your genuine efforts to live the
gospel fully making it more difficult to serve
worship and fulfill sacred duties Isn't his testimony
just pure and simple? Yes. He says, if you ever
feel limited or disadvantaged by the circumstances
of your life, I want you to know this. The Lord
loves you personally. He knows your circumstances.
And the door to his blessings remain wide open
to you, no matter the challenges you face. Yes.
It's interesting because as I'm listening to
this, you know, as we're listening to this talk,
you can feel, like you said, his testimony was
sweet and pure. And it feels like... You just
feel his heart going out to every person that
he's come across in all of these different circumstances
that he's talked about. And actually, the next
talk that we'll be talking about next week is
Elder Gong's. And I feel like there was, again,
an echo there. He talked about the different
things that are going on with people in the world.
I think he talked about someone in some part
of the world. I think it was Brazil. And he talked
about their... the challenge that they're going
through right now and how one of them cried for
his son and he said and i cried too like as he
told him about it so i just love hearing this
especially as you pair that with how christ was
when he listened to um you know the mourning
over lazarus you could say he knew that lazarus
was going to be Raised. Raised in a matter of
minutes. Doesn't prevent him from. But he still
mourned with those who mourn. And I think that
it's just a beautiful thing to see that those
who are following in the footsteps of Christ.
Representing Jesus Christ on the earth right
now. They do the same thing. They have a heart.
And it's a great, great example to me. While
many circumstances in my life may be beyond.
Oh, sorry. While many circumstances in life may
be beyond our control, none of us is beyond the
reach of the Lord's infinite blessings. It is
precisely the plan of God that we will experience
challenges, but he never said that we have to
face these challenges alone. This talk gives
us very good direction on how to recognize the
hand of God in our lives despite the challenges
that we face. And we all face them, right? Absolutely.
The way that this talk is written made me think
back to Elder Dushku's talk on Pillars and Rays
of Developing Testimony. Seemingly minor unrelated
events, you know, when looked back on, combined
to make an unmistakable, unshakable testimony
of the things we've learned for ourselves with
experience. That's so great. What I mean is like
looking back on periods of time when we perceive
them as trials, you know, hardships. challenging
times of life. On the other side of it, we can
choose to pick out the blessings that came during
those dark times. And then we get a blessing
of how, yes, the things were hard, but he absolutely
sent calm. compensatory or compensating blessings.
For sure. I think that's interesting too, that
you say that because it's almost like, you know,
while you're in it, there's almost no effort
or energy that you have that can look to all
the good things. Plus you don't have the perspective
yet, right? When you're on the other side, it's
almost like there's an accounting to the Lord.
I feel like I do where I look back and I'm like,
yeah, that was a crap time. Everything about
it was awful. However, I learned this, this,
this, and this. And then it's almost like I put
it on a scale and I'm like, oh, wow, it far outweighs
how horrible and terrible that was. Because right
now it's in the past. All those things are now
part of me. You can't take them away. But I have
all these lessons that I've learned. And I guess
that really did make it worth it. Not that I
want to go through it again, but it really does.
It's a compensatory blessing. I've learned this
truth through a personal experience. This is
what he says, that those seemingly insignificant
left a lasting impression on me. Elder Cossé
says, at the age of 22, while serving in the
French Air Force in Paris, he was eager to hear
Elder Neal A. Maxwell speak at a conference at
the Champs -Élysées, something like that. He
might have said it a little better because he's
French. He totally did. At least I didn't say
Champs -Élysées, okay? Can I go to the Eiffel
Tower? The Louvre? I don't know, whatever. So
he was assigned to drive a senior officer to
the airport at the exact same time that Elder
Neal A. Maxwell was speaking. And he was so disappointed,
but he still rushed to the meeting afterwards.
Arriving breathless with only five minutes left,
he entered. just as Elder Maxwell pronounced
an apostolic blessing. In that moment, he had
a powerful spiritual experience, feeling as though
the blessing was directed personally to him.
He says this, What I experienced that day was
a small yet powerful manifestation of a comforting
aspect of God's plan for His children. When circumstances
beyond our control prevent us from fulfilling
the righteous desires of our hearts, the Lord
will compensate in ways that allow us to receive
His promised blessings. Abby, as I listened to
this, the thing that came to my mind and pricked
my heart was that he didn't just say, they're
at the exact same time. There's no way I'm going
to make it. He left that five minutes. So he
put forth the effort. He arrived breathlessly.
Like he put forth effort, right? He ran there
and there was only five minutes. And someone
could be like, what can the Lord do with five
minutes? guess what he can do? An apostolic blessing.
Make it exactly the reason why you raced there
in time. Then that apostolic blessing would have
been for him. Maybe he would have seen it. They
probably didn't record and type it. The fact
that he was there to enjoy it for himself. I
loved it. Yeah. Made it all worth. Yes. And then
I was thinking too, I was like, but what if he,
what if there was a traffic light or whatever,
a road construction, an accident, and he didn't
even make it to the last five minutes. His effort
was still to get there. That's what I was thinking.
And I was like, you know what? Even if he missed
the entire talk, because I was like, well, then
probably he would like come at the very end.
He would meet Elder Neal A. Maxwell, whatever.
And I was like, but what if that didn't happen?
Well, for sure, that night in his scriptures
or someone would come to his door or his grandma
would call him. But there would be a message
for the Lord because of his efforts. I know that
the Lord is not bound by. time or any other constraints
that men have, he will always find you when you
put forth effort. He will always give a compensatory
blessing. It's our responsibility to look back
and see what those are. Totally. It's truth and
is grounded in principles. And he totally moves
into the talk in that way. This is grounded in
three principles founded in the restored gospel
of Jesus Christ. One, God loves each of us perfectly.
Two, because God is both just and merciful, his
plan is perfect. He's not going to hold us accountable
for things that are way beyond our control. Like
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, God takes into merciful
account not only our desires and our performance,
but also the degree of difficulty which our varied
circumstances impose on us. Meaning, it was totally
out of control to be at the rest of the meeting,
but with what he was able to provide in this.
instance five minutes he was his cup was overflowing
with you know the blessings he felt from it third
principle through jesus christ and his atonement
we can find the strength to endure and ultimately
overcome all of life's challenges as alma taught
the savior took upon himself not only the sins
of the repentant but also the pains and sickness
of his people and their infirmities thus beyond
redeeming us from our mistakes the lord's mercy
and grace has stained us through injustices deficiencies
limitations imposed by moral experience. They're
all around us. Basically, as a repercussion of
the fall, we know that we're going to be hit
with a million things in this life experience
that would challenge and test us, but we were
never asked to do these things on our own. Each
of us has the opportunity to have access to compensating
blessings for the hard things that we're asked
to face, but they do come with the condition
that we do all that we can and to offer our whole
souls as an offering unto Him. That passage teaches
us that what matters most to the Lord is sincere,
faithful hearts that give diligent efforts to
keep his commandments. And when we align our
will with his. that means everything to him even
when circumstances prevent us from fulfilling
our righteous desires god's going to accept those
desires as meaningful offerings president oaks
emphasized that we will be blessed for our righteous
intentions and the revelation to joseph smith
reassured that god judges us not only by our
actions but also by the true desires of our hearts
100 i think we all have the tendency to worry
about outside eyes and how they're going to perceive
the things that we're doing or not doing And
I think it's a beautiful truth to recognize that
God looks on the heart. He knows exactly what
our intentions were and considers the limitations
that we faced. Again, just the last podcast that
we aired on Sister Runia's, the eyes that are
meant to be our judge are not looking at exterior
circumstances and assuming things. He knows the
very intent, the very core of the people that
we are. Perfectly. You know, this sums it up
perfectly. What matters to the Lord is not merely
whether we are able. but whether we are willing
to do all we can to follow him as our savior.
I love that. In preparing for this talk, after
reading some of the examples shown by Elder Cossé,
just a few peoples, you know, a few people popped
into my head, a few friends, a few associates
of ours. And I was blessed. I consider it an
impression to reach out to these friends and
ask a question. This is the question I pose.
During difficult times in your life, where have
you seen compensating blessings from God? So
imagining this as a very powerful Relief Society
lesson, Elder's Quorum lesson, literally, I would
ask that question. I would say, listen or read
to the talk. Consider this question. Find those
moments. Where did you see compensatory blessings
in your own life? And I think you'd come back.
um to relieve society or elders quorum and just
one person after like everybody has a story to
tell and a testimony strengthening experience
from seeing those things from the challenges
that they faced in their lives and um they'll
vary they might be little moments what i would
call array or big events a pillar like that's
why it really made me think of elder douche who's
talk yeah and those little things you know accumulate
together that build our testimonies of the truthfulness
that God does provide compensatory blessing if
we have the eyes to see those blessings. So I
love that you did this, Abby. As I was, like
you said, you listened to the talk and he has
a lot of different examples. And each one of
us in the circle that we are in, we know people
who have. wonderful stories. This first example
is of a missionary who had a strong desire to
serve, but the situation prevented him from serving
the mission. He thought he was meant to serve.
We have a friend. Oh, that was in the actual
talk that we talked about. So we have a friend
in the ward that came home to take care of an
injury and asked for his testimony to be shared
with everyone. So he just went back out. And
that's a very exciting thing for us. He says,
I have learned that there are two parts of the
miraculous atonement of Jesus Christ. The first
is the power of forgiveness. The second is the
enabling power that the atonement offers. I've
truly come to know this enabling power that is
found in Jesus Christ. Being home was one of
the hardest things I've ever done. There was
nothing I could do for my situation other than
put my life into Christ's hands. I know I grew
a relationship with my Savior. I learned that
it was necessary for me to go through this trial.
It was necessary for me to feel alone. It was
necessary for me to struggle. Why? Because it
was never easy for Jesus Christ. when jesus christ
bore the things of this world and died for us
it was not easy I came to know my Savior in the
most challenging time in my life because it was
always a challenge for Him. I couldn't have come
to know my Savior by not having any challenges.
The scripture Alma 1711 sums up my missionary
experience. And the Lord said unto them also,
Go forth among the Lamanites thy brethren, and
establish my word. Yet ye shall be patient in
longsuffering and afflictions, that ye may show
forth good examples unto them and me, and I will
make an instrument of thee in my hands, unto
the salvation of many souls. I can now say that
I I am more humble and more patient than I was
before I went home. And I know this because of
the change I felt in my heart. I know the Lord
needed me to be an instrument in his hands and
he had a necessary way of teaching me this. I
wouldn't trade my time home for anything. I love
the people I met and the person I became because
he was a service missionary while here. I can
truly say I'm a product of the atonement. I love
my savior with all my being in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen. Isn't that great? It's so good.
Made me think of another missionary. I don't
know this one as closely, but Adam got to teach
him in seminary. He was posting on Facebook,
you know, just expressing his testimony and it
kind of came to know him through that. And I
could see his heart just wide open, you know,
in that social media world. But I asked him if
he would feel comfortable sharing his own testimony
of atonement and missionary work and reconciling
our desires to the actual circumstance of life.
Because the post that he had made, something
to the effect of when he said goodbye to his
mom, he said, you will not see me before two
years up. He's like, even if it's killing me,
he's like, I won't be coming home because he
had this really strong desire. served. And then
some circumstances happened and he came home
and he's actually going back out Thursday. Oh,
that's awesome. Yeah. And this was the testimony
he shared with me. I've gained a testimony of
the call to the work and not the call to a location.
I was so heartbroken to leave England and was
devastated that I could get reassigned somewhere
else. I've grown in the appreciation for the
opportunity to serve as a service missionary
until I get cleared by the missionary department.
Although I want more than anything to proselyte,
I'm grateful for the opportunity that I've had
to serve in this capacity. I've been blessed
to learn from service missionaries. They are
some of the most humble, pure, meek, true disciples
of Christ that I have ever met. Many of those
missionaries either aren't able to proselyte
or needed to return home for From proselyting
for a variety of health reasons, their example
of their love for the Savior is inspiring. I
don't know the full reason why I needed to return,
but I believe that it was a divine reason that
may one day be made known or not. But I do know
that having this opportunity to be with the service
missionaries has blessed my life in ways that
could not have been possible if I hadn't been
here. From the talk to the missionary that was
struggling with his own feelings of shortcomings
because of the mission he imagined wasn't the
mission he served. was this counsel god knew
he had given his very best in answering the call
to serve he answered him in that the lord had
accepted his offering and that the blessings
promised to all faithful missionaries would not
be withheld i love that The Lord's compensating
blessings often come through the kindness and
service of others who help us accomplish what
we cannot do on our own. I remember a time when
living, he shares this story, when living far
from one of our daughters in France, we felt
helpless to assist her after a difficult delivery.
That same week, our ward in Utah sought help
for a mother who had just given birth to twins.
So he says his wife, Valerie, volunteered to
bring a meal for her with a prayer in her heart
for both this new mother and also her daughter
who is in need. Soon after, we learned that the
sisters in our daughter's ward in France had
organized to provide meals for her family. To
us, God had answered our prayers, sending his
angels to bring comfort when we could not. Our
good friend, Stephanie, bore her. OK, this is
from our ward. She's her name, Stephanie, and
she bore her testimony. about something very
similar. Her firsthand experience comes from
the time that she spent helping her daughter
Taylor recover from a gas explosion in a food
truck a few years ago. These are her words. The
Lord's compensating blessings often come Oh,
this is a quote from the talk. The Lord's compensating
blessings often come through the kindness and
service of others who help us accomplish what
we cannot do on our own. She says, as I pondered
on your question, so many things have gone through
my mind. It is truly humbling to reflect. Probably
the most profound thing I witnessed and consequently
learned is how the Lord uses others to help us
accomplish what we can't do on our own. Our family
was the recipient of so many blessings by the
hands of those around us. It's so tricky to read
this because I love this person and I love her
family and all the people that are helping. It
just feels like she was surrounded by a bit of
heaven. when we love when we left suddenly for
the burn center in salt lake i left my three
younger boys for two months at the time we didn't
know how long we were going to be gone so many
in our town our ward our community filled in
while i wasn't at home everything from bringing
them food cleaning our house keeping them busy
so their minds weren't focused on what was happening
one day my sister came out of our front door
to find two backpacks full of school supplies
for my two youngest another day amazon delivered
a pair of football cleats for one of my boys
This one gets my heart. Someone took first day
of school pictures for my boys. These are all
things that were important, but not something
that I could do at the time. I received messages
from multiple church groups from multiple denominations
that were praying for our dear Taylor. Our community
was united in those, in one purpose. Regardless
of faith, there is so much strength in that unity.
I learned that when I have a thought to call
or reach out to someone that is not coming from
me, that is my opportunity to be his hands. I
can't count every little act that was done on
our behalf. Even something as simple as a container
of magnesium powder to help our sheep or Mel
Luca lavender lotion for her skin. So many people
listened to the promptings that they were given
and we were the beneficiaries of that. I pray
daily that I can be that for someone else. I've
gotten so much better at acting immediately and
not questioning. I know that my father in heaven
is aware of me and that each one of us, and he
knows where we're at. He cares about the tiny
things in our lives as much as the huge ones.
He cared that Taylor was able to have that nurse
that took time to sit and listen to her and talk
to her about her fears as much as he cared about
that my son had football cleats for practice.
And because of those things, And those people
that were willing to listen and act, we were
all blessed. I do not believe that everything
happens for a reason. There was no reason for
this thing to happen to Taylor. But when something
like this happens, we can always find something
positive that can come from it. Those are great
words. If we look for those compensating blessings,
we will always find them. I have seen in Taylor's
life as she has touched others through her own
perspective. She absolutely has. She's a light.
And I grabbed Taylor's testimony of the same
period of time. She says, when I think back on
my life, the experiences that have gone through,
I see the different ways in which my life has
been directed so that I could receive the Lord's
blessings and be where he needed me. One such
example is when I graduated high school. I started
doing my mission papers because I felt like it's
what I needed and wanted to do. Middle of the
papers. is when my accident happened landing
me in the burn ICU for two months all of my plans
which were good plans had been halted looking
back I'm able to see how my path was directed
and away from a mission but still towards good
God's plan I see his hands and blessing me following
me along my new path and I know that there are
so many blessings that I have received because
of the way my life has gone that otherwise I
would never have had the opportunity to receive
I'm grateful for the blessings that come through
trials and the reassurance that we can get through
with Christ despite terrible experiences that
we go through. Stephanie's thoughts as the mother
on the side of getting a child through this process
and this healing process had me reflecting back.
One of my sisters, I asked her to put her thoughts
together. Her first child was... diagnosed with
hypoplastic left heart syndrome it's a very serious
heart condition that causes basically you have
to reroute things and create half of a heart
or like you don't make it past birth basically
and so they knew when he came that if if all
things were to go well that he'd have a series
of heart surgeries and they were in utah at a
time and her husband he's a doctor so he was
in medical school in california when it came
time for this other surgery it's too far to like
do the things for them that they need to need
to keep them healthy so she can't like leave
the house pre -surgery and you know there were
just a few things and and they're they're not
by any family they're at medical school and so
um from her words she says the things that stand
out most are just how many people stopped by
or reached out over the phone or email remember
um the ward member that stopped by the morning
go his way to work He had a million things he
could do, but he wanted to offer his love and
support for the day. I felt like the whole ward
was waiting on the edge of their seats to hear
how everything went and make sure he came through
okay. Sunday after being released from the hospital
after that heart surgery, we weren't going to
go to state conference. But a friend of ours
heard that the prophet would be there and texted
us, so we decided to go. President Nelson left
an apostolic blessing over the Congregation of
Healing. I put out a Facebook post about how
special it was to be part of that. The Facebook
post said, All right, I can't hold it in any
longer. We had the coolest opportunity. Yesterday,
we weren't planning on going to church because
it was state conference, and Ollie had just gotten
out of the hospital the day before, but our bishop
sent out a last -minute email about the prophet
attending. We talked Ollie into going. When I
told him the prophet was a heart surgeon, he
got a sad look on his face. He didn't really
want to go, kind of scared of doctors. I reassured
him, he won't operate on your heart, and so he
agreed to go. We got ready, really fast, raced
to the steak meeting house. I wanted so badly
for Ollie to get to shake his hand for a reason,
but being that he's the prophet, the other...
because of his surgery background, but also mostly
because he's the prophet. And the prophet is
part of the team that created the bypass machine
that Ollie had been on twice before. Ollie didn't
get to shake his hand, but at the end of President
Nelson's talk, he put a few special blessings
on all in attendance, and one of them was a blessing
of healing on all who were sick. That alone to
me was worth a drive and just as good or better
than a handshake. It was a special day. And one
I will never forget. One of my ward members told
President Nelson about Ollie and possibly shared
the Facebook post that I had put out. And because
of that, we received a letter from the Secretary
of the Prophet. The letter saying, Dear Sister
Lish, i have been asked to acknowledge a recent
email to which you forwarded by your state president
and president russell m nelson thank you for
taking the time to share your kind thoughts and
feelings president nelson appreciated the account
that you shared and was touched by your fervent
testimony it is his hope and prayer that your
boy will continue to be blessed with improved
health although At times, it may be difficult
to understand why we face certain challenges.
We do know that if we bear our burdens well,
we will be eternally blessed. Please know the
Lord is aware of you and your sweet family and
loves you very much. How delighted President
Nelson was to recently visit the stake and be
able to feel the sustaining influence of the
members there. Please know his appreciation for
your kind expression of love and support. He
wishes you love. To you and your family, may
the Lord continue to pour out His richest blessings
upon you. And we're a few years past that time.
And our little man, he's growing, he's thriving.
And I would say that... Those experiences have
made this sister very aware of others when they
go through their hard times. One of the compensating
blessings is that he's created a great servant
out of Sadie. She does see people and their needs
and steps in and helps wherever they can. And
I've talked about Ollie in previous podcasts,
but we went to be part of that day of the surgery.
And I got to witness the ward members stopping
with milkshakes. just to say hi and just to lift
up and support him. And it's touched my heart
because there's so many times that we couldn't
be there to do things for them because they were
so far from us from home. And, and I feel like
it's just the same, um, where like they served
a meal to a gal that had the twins in their ward
and they hope that people were reaching out to
their daughter cause they just weren't physically
there to do that for them. But, um, Anyway, I
guess I see that. I see that Sadie recognizes
how small and simple things go a long way to
letting people know that their savior is aware
of them. And it's made me definitely think it
doesn't take much, but just a thought here or
there, like anything that you can do, anything
you're impressed to do. Stephanie made the same
point. Totally. She gets those little impressions
and she's more immediately. prompted to do them
because she knows those little things added to
mean such a great thing to her yeah in their
own times and even just a couple months ago i
was beneficiary she heard that i wasn't doing
well and you know brought a dinner over that's
just very you know that she was so blessed in
her time totally that she recognizes now yeah
so it there is a blessing that comes even though
it's um heavy the cost of what you go through
is very heavy but you're able to lift other places
when facing limitations and challenges may we
recognize our own blessings our gifts resources
and time and use them to serve those in need
in doing so we will not only bless others but
invite healing and compensation into our own
lives that part of the talk made me think of
the experiences another one of my sisters had
as she battled um infertility and i asked her
are you in a place in your life where you understand
why the childbearing process worked out the way
that it did in your life good question uh -huh
and um like do you see where you've been compensated
for the things that you had to endure or do are
you waiting for that compensation like do you
think it's coming in the next life and um her
response was this she said that's a hard question
i see so many blessings i received over those
two years that's what that was her words and
i inserted she actually battled infertility for
like 11 years and then two years on fertility
treatment so she did this for 13 long years really
and she says i feel like the lord gave me the
answer to do go through this process, not necessarily
so that I could have more children on earth,
but so that I could see his hand in our lives.
My kids were firsthand witnesses to miracle after
miracle and real -time answered prayers. She
said I was called as young woman's president
right as I was starting, and I remember thinking,
how on earth will I do this? Those girls were
my saving grace. I was able to focus on them,
and it helped elevate some of my self -pitying.
So I do feel like I've been compensated. But
I do know I have six kids that I will have the
chance to raise if I live in accordance with
the gospel, and feel like I've been given more
opportunities to love even more kids. Maybe I
wouldn't have loved the missionaries that live
with us as much as I do, or maybe I wouldn't
love my primary calling as much as I do, not
after having gone through the trial that I did.
I feel like I have true empathy for people that
want and ache for children or more children because
I've lived it. So I think that there's more compensation
to come. And I also think I have been compensated.
That's a really good way to put it. This might
be one of my favorite pieces of this talk. We
can see and feel those compensatory blessings
now. We can also have faith in the plan in a
way that even if we don't see and understand
the whole picture on earth, we know this isn't
the end and we know some of the compensatory
blessings come from loved ones on the other side
of the veil. It's interesting to think about
how we are able to bless our ancestors from this
side of the veil. This is a quote. One of the
most powerful ways we may contribute to God's
compensating blessings is through the vicarious
work we do for our ancestors in the house of
the Lord. As we perform ordinances on their behalf,
we actively participate in the Lord's great work
of salvation, using our gifts and abilities to
provide blessings to those who did not have the
opportunity to receive them during their mortal
lives. The Savior's grace continues beyond this
life, offering hope that we couldn't achieve
immortality can still be fulfilled later. President
Lorenzo Snow reassures faithful saints that they
won't lose eternal blessings because of missed
opportunities beyond their control despite life's
challenges and our inability to save ourselves
through the savior's grace we can still receive
all promised blessings after doing all we can
um i love this too in the talk the reason we
have this um this gospel principle principle
yeah um is when joseph smith you know he had
just lost alvin or recently lost alvin his brother
and when he came apart came upon the part that
talked about um you know those who yeah salvation
and those who would you know have accepted the
gospel it just It's one more thing that tells
me that the Lord does put things in our lives
so that we're able to recognize the importance
of gospel principles. I know that Joseph's heart
must have been so happy, leaping for joy when
he realized this wasn't the end for Alvin. It
made the gospel come to life for him. And I feel
like as we've been talking about these things
with the compensatory blessings, that you could
really look back in your life. I mean, I look
at so many things in my life. And I can't even
choose just one of them because there are so
many of them. But I just know that, you know,
whether it was my husband having strokes, whether
it was him having an aneurysm, whether it was
him, all of his health issues, my cancer, my
past five months that I've gone through, everything
that we've gone through. Again, you got to look
back on it. But I see where the Lord has overcompensated.
Like he has blessed us in. spades as far as what
we've been through. And I know I have that in
some of the blessed, the priesthood blessings
I've received, but it's always funny because
when I, when I hear those words, while I'm in
the middle of something, I kind of roll my eyes
and I'm like, ah, that's not what I want to hear
right now. You know, one of them, I remember
I was in the middle of cancer still, and it was
very, very painful month for me in October and
like physically painful and in all other ways
too. But, um, like my foot was actually dead.
And, um, I remember, having a blessing saying
that this soon will be over and i'll be able
to look back on it and see all the great things
and i'm thinking how is that even possible it
felt physically impossible for me at that time
and now that i'm six years out i can look back
and be like wow heavenly father you were right
on like i i'm 100 i'm with you i see that that's
totally in the past now my foot is fully healed
i have all my toes i can walk balance do all
the things and It just is a difference in perspective.
It's so hard to see it when you're in the middle
of things. And when you see very physically,
for me, that my foot was dead. Like it really,
really was. The tissue was dead, like it was
gone, right? It was funny. At one point, I only
had pictures for those in my closest circle,
but my nephew had just gotten home from his mission
and my sister showed him the picture and he...
um recoiled when he saw it and he said oh why
doesn't she just cut that thing off and be done
that's what they wanted to do right uh i i think
my emotions are too high to really like zero
in on compensatory blessings i've felt in my
life but they're they're not few and far between
they're a majority of my life i felt his compensating
hand and he's blessed me time and time again
and he's given me eyes to see um he's given me
opportunities to see where you know, when people
in my circle have experienced hard times, hard
challenges, like from their perspective, I've
been able to see all these beautiful gifts that
he's given on the backside of it. I can see them
in the midst of and in the front end of the trial.
And when they recognize him and they testify
on the back end of the trial, it's special and
beautiful. I love it when those things come together.
So again, the challenge would be Taking a snapshot
of your life right here and looking back at what
you recognize were definitely challenges in your
life and what blessings came out of those. It's
a neat opportunity. You know, it's interesting
as I'm thinking on compensatory blessings, the
way that I was brought up and the way that we
looked at things, I didn't grow up in a family
that asked why. And it was more like, what are
we learning? What have we done? You know, all
these types of things. The past few months, I've
been sharing some things that I've been going
through with my husband. And he actually, to
the Lord, he was telling me, he's like, you know,
last night, just last night I was praying and
I was asking, Heavenly Father, why did you ask
Amy to go through XYZ? And as he was telling
me that, I was just kind of struck. I was like,
oh my gosh, I've never really asked the Lord
why. I think part of it is in my mind, when you
ask the Lord why, it almost is like, why me?
Kind of a thing. So I asked that. And I was prayer
journaling, actually. I said, Heavenly Father,
had I done something differently, would I have
learned the same lessons? And he said, these
are the words I felt from him. Think about it.
Of course you wouldn't. If you had stopped six
years ago in this process that we're in. You
wouldn't have learned all the things. He's like,
how about you take some time right now and write
down all of the things you know and have learned
because of this one situation. I sat there and
wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. And the
spirit was with me and quickly helped me to connect
the dots. And helped me to see, wow, I can never
unsee any of these things or unlearn them. They
are now a part of me. And I also saw where my
daughter learned from this situation too. And
she has never been the same. There were very
specific things that she changed in her life
and the way that she deals with relationships.
That has, I couldn't have paid, I mean, I would
have paid millions for that. And it all came
because of this very challenging thing that I
had gone through. And some of my mind was like,
well, I kind of brought it on myself because
I didn't stop at myself all this, you know, all
these years ago. But really, I learned so much
from it. So I loved that when I shared this with
my husband that he did say, I asked the Lord
why. And I was like, yeah, why not? So I just
love that, you know, sharing it with someone
who's in your question why in a non like. i'm
not saying you can't have some pity for yourself
sometimes but we're always encouraged to ask
the what what can i learn from this yeah but
And it came in a different way, right? I think
you can ask the question in the Y form. It's
totally appropriate. It worked for me in that.
So I love that. I was very grateful that there
was a different perspective. That's awesome.
Let me end with his testimony. I testify that
while many circumstances in life may be beyond
our control, none of us is beyond the reach of
the Lord's infinite blessings. Through his atoning
sacrifice, the Savior will compensate for every
inability and injustice we offer our whole souls
to him. these things he says in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen. Amen.