Elder Jeffery R. Holland

On my last post I wrote about Ammon's desire to meet a General Authority, in particular, he wanted to meet Elder Holland or Elder Uchdorf. About three weeks ago, we had our ward conference and the Stake President, Jan Newman, attended a joint YM/YW class and talked to the youth. Ammon rose his hand during the class and told Pres. Newman that his desire was to meet one of these General Authorities and wanted to know how that might be possible. Pres. Newman took Ammon's question seriously. At the end of the meeting, Pres. Newman offered the prayer and in the prayer, he asked the Lord to bless Ammon that he would be able to meet a General Authority. My visiting teacher came last night and she was in that meeting.





Yesterday morning at work, I received a phone call from Steve Linford, our old neighbor who is now the second counselor in the Stake Presidency. He is also the Institute Director at UVU. He wanted to know if we would be able to get Ammon to UVU to meet Pres. Holland on Friday morning. He was scheduled to speak at a devotional on campus. We decided to keep it quiet and a surprise for Ammon. Pres. Newman had been driving to work this week and was thinking about Ammon. He was inspired to call Steve because he knew Elder Holland was coming down to speak at the devotional. He asked Steve if he thought it could be arranged for Ammon to meet Elder Holland and Steve was delighted to put it into action.

It was the end of the term so Ammon didn't have to go to school and I took the day off with everybody's blessing in my office. Bro. Linford arranged for us to go to the reception before the devotional. We told Ammon that we wanted him to see what Institute would be like at UVU in case he wanted to attend after he graduated from high school and that Bro. Linford wanted to show him around. So we dressed in Sunday best and went to UVU. Ammon was delighted to see Bro. Linford because they are best buddies. We secured a reserved place to sit and then left with Bro.Linford to go to the reception. As we went into the chapel area someone gave Ammon a program and he instantly saw that Elder Holland would be speaking and he was ecstatic. He still didn't know he was going to meet him personally.

We had to wait outside the library (where the reception would be held) for a few minutes. Ammon kept hearing people talking about "When the Hollands come...." and he began to realize something special was about to happen. I asked him if he knew why we were there and he began to smile and said, "I think so." But it still didn't dawn fully on him until Bro. Linford took us inside the library. Only one other man was inside the room (not Elder Holland yet) and then it hit Ammon. He put his hands over his mouth and then clapped his hands and then began to cry. He can't breathe well when he cries. I was reminded of another Ammon who was so overcome with joy when he met his brethren again that he passed out. He was crying tears of joy. He kept wiping the tears away and the smile was huge. He couldn't believe it. He calmed down by the time Elder Holland came. As soon as Ammon saw him walk in the door, he clapped his hands and threw them up in the air. Bro. Linford brought Elder Holland over to meet Ammon and said, "Elder Holland, this young man has been praying for months that he would get the opportunity to meet you." Elder Holland laughed and said, "Well, he could do a lot better than me! We ought to get Pres. Monson down here." And then it was over as he moved on to meet other people. But Ammon got to meet a General Authority. It was a direct answer to his nightly prayers and he was beyond joy.

We got to hear his marvelous talk and bask in the great Spirit he brings every time he speaks.

I find it so interesting how God uses people like chess players - He places people in just the right places and at the right time to accomplish His purposes.