Happy Fourth of July!

I’ll probably never have another Independence Day quite like this one. So we were mooching off of a barbecue Friday night that Brother Price from the Chapel Hill First Ward was nice enough to invite us to. We had also had breakfast with the Chapel Hill Second Ward, so at least we were mooching in a balanced effort.

From the Institute building we walked over to Kenan Stadium, UNC’s football stadium. We started contacting people who had gathered there to see a fireworks show in the stadium. We were talking to some of the firefighters when their radios said it was starting to sprinkle on the other side of the stadium. We went to the entrance of the stadium to find a place to stay dry and huddled under a small balcony as the rains and winds picked up.

Pretty soon we realized we were in a huge storm! The shape of the stadium made the winds focus on us under our little balcony and within a minute or two we were as wet as if we’d gone swimming. This big 65 gallon trash bin next to us got thrown up in the air and hit a car and then I started to go with it. The Elders grabbed me and we were laughing so hard!

Then this door under the balcony opened and this athletic trainer guy let us into the lacrosse team’s locker room where we spent the next two hours waiting out the storm, talking with the firefighters and security people huddled in there. Elder Regnier and Elder Gillins ran back and got the van at the institute building and the firefighters let him drive the van into the stadium right next to the field to pick us up!

On Thursday we got a call from the mission office and learned that someone had called and asked if the Elders could stop by the hospital and give his family member a blessing. We showed up at the hospital and learned that he had cancer. He was in a lot of pain and was taking a heavy pain killer and was just about to go have surgery when we showed up.

He said he was really glad when he saw it was the Elders and not the surgery guys. He hadn’t eaten for a long time and was being feed through his veins. He said it was like torture seeing the newspaper advertise steaks and burgers and watermelon for the Fourth. He even started describing his perfect meal to us.

He was a very funny guy! He kept making jokes even though we knew he was in pain. He described a certain scripture and asked if we knew where it was. I think he was talking about Proverbs 3:5 so I shared it-

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We gave him a blessing and he was crying. He said, “ I guess this is how the Spirit works.” It was a very spiritual experience for me, and a reminder to always be worthy to exercise the priesthood.

Thank you all for your prayers and love!

Elder Walters