Recognize and Rejoice with Lori Schiewe

Lori is an example of simple, yet profound faith. Starting at a young age when faced with the terrible challenge of losing a father, she has always turned to the Lord.  Through her stories she shows how to utilize the power of God in our lives to help others: our family, friends, ministering sisters, and total strangers.  I hope you enjoy her journey as much as I did. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. Welcome to Recognize and Rejoice, where it is my honor to rejoice with you as we recognize the hand of the Lord in each of our lives. I'm Megan Jorgensen, and I'm excited to be with you again to rejoice in the Lord through the stories of our lives. I would like to recognize and thank our sponsor, Coach Kate Swift School, which helps keep our episodes available indefinitely. Welcome to Recognize and Rejoice with Megan. Today we have a very special guest. Okay, they're all very special, but this one is a childhood friend of my sister's. So I knew her, but she was still more my sister's friend than my friend. Would you agree? Uh yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

But we did share the same person.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That's true. But you did have a little sister who was more my age. She was my age. Like we went to school together. Yeah, she still is. Yeah.

unknown 0:58

Very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

But anyway, we have Lori TV. Lori was suggested to me by Katie, and you may remember Katie from a previous episode, but they are still really good friends. And I am so excited for this opportunity to share her light and testimony with you guys. She's going to start by sharing her stage in life and what her interests are. And then she's going to share when she chose to follow Jesus Christ and then go on with her stories. But before she starts that, I do want to share a conversation that we had yesterday. So we are recording this the day after general conference, and we were having a conversation. So it was Easter Sunday, and my mom was there, and Lori was there, and I was there, and we were talking. And my mom said, it's so interesting. With President Nelson, she felt like the emphasis was on come unto Christ, let God prevail in your life, think celestial. Like all of this is come to Christ. But the feeling that she gets with President Oak is more of a be like Christ. Let us be new creatures in Christ. Let his power influence us to become as he is and to become his hands. I thought that was so powerful. And then Lori piped in and talked about the youth focus this year, the youth theme. And I thought it was so powerful. So I'm going to let her share that and then she can go on with her stage of life.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Okay. So we were having a delicious dinner. And as Megan and her mom were talking about being like Christ, um, I have three children that are in the youth program. And I'm like, that reminds me of the youth program this year, where they are saying to come walk with me. Well, all of my life I've sung the song Come Follow Me at church. And it says, Come follow me, the savior said. And now they're putting a little twist on it, which is lovely. And I think it's great for the youth that it's singing, Come Walk With Me. So it's no longer, well, we still have the song, but we've gone to Come Follow Me, to Come Walk With Me. And I think that that's great for the youth to know that the Savior will always be right next to them. And in all of their endeavors in life, through their struggles and through the good times, that the savior will be next to them, and that he'll just be helping these youth through this crazy thing called life.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

So true. And I loved how in conference, when Sister Porter said, I get to speak to the younger children. And if the older children want to listen, and then I think it was Neil L. Anderson who spoke afterward and said, I'm going to speak to the older children of God. And I just think as you were talking, I was like, yeah, it's not just for the youth, though, to walk with God. It is for the older children too, right? But it is so cool that the youth are getting it right now when they're starting to make all of these really life-defining choices. And they can walk with Jesus through those choices. I love it. Conference was just phenomenal, as it always is. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

That's a little bit different each time. But it's different each time because we need something different each time. Yeah. As we as we go through this thing called life. Because love saviors next to us.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yes, yes, Lori, I love it. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and let you start with your stage of life and what you like to do.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Well, I just was speaking with Megan about we were just talking about how we felt when we turned 30. And I told her that I cried, and she said she was really happy to turn 30. Um, but I am 49. That is so old. But um this phase of my life, I have a lovely husband named Sean, and I have six wonderful children. We live in Pensacola, Florida. Sean and I both have dads that retired from the military, and the military brought both of our families to Pensacola to work civil service, and that's where we met. And I'm gonna talk a little bit more about how we met in a few minutes. So I'm not gonna dive too much into that. My oldest is 23. No, he is 22, but he's almost 23 next month, and my youngest is 12. It makes me so happy to watch him pass a sacrament. That's a side note, but he's so little, and all the other deacons like just tower over him, so it's kind of cute. Anyway, okay, that was my side note. So I was always a stay-at-home mom. My husband is a mortgage banker, I guess is maybe what I would call him. And he always provided for our family. Um, I still stay at home, but when my youngest started school, I'm like, I need something to do with my time. And so I substitute teach now. And so that's kind of fun. I can teach at my children's schools and be a part of their education a little bit more than I used to be. So that's fun. So that's just a little bit about me. I do have a grandbaby, he calls me Lolly, and so I am Lolly, and my husband is Paw Paul, because in the South we're Paw Paws, not papas. So yeah, so we're Lolly and Paw Paul, and we love it. It is the highlight of my life, actually, right now. And I might talk about him later too. So, as I was thinking about the first time, if there was a first time to follow Christ, I'm not one of those people that had that aha moment. And I think that there's a lot of us that might be on that same page as me. But the first time, a very hard time in my life, is when I was seven. I was almost eight, and my dad passed away. And it was on a Saturday night, and my mom, it was late, so she wasn't gonna wake us up, but my mom decided that she was going to let the bishop talk to us the next day at church in his office because she needed help. So I remember sitting in the bishop's office, and there was a little bench there. And so I was sitting next to my mom, and my brother, who was turning 12 that week, was sitting on the other side of my mom. And I remember when the bishop told us that our dad had passed away in a horrible trucking accident. My brother jumped up and started screaming and ran, just ran out of the bishop's office. It was very, very hard for him. It took a lot of men to contain him and help um calm him back down. But I remember my little self just crawled up into my mom and I just cried. I knew though, I was worried about my brother. I think at that moment, more than I was worried about what was absolutely going on. But I just curled up next to my mom and I cried. And I remember knowing and remembering right then that my dad might have passed away, but in my mind I knew he was with Jesus, and I knew that at the young age of seven that families are eternal, and that I would be able to see my daddy again, and I would be able to hug him again because I knew, like yesterday it was Easter, that we all would be resurrected one day. Anyway, so it was through that devastating experience that my little testimony really shot up at that moment, and I was able to look towards my savior and know that it was because of him that I could get through this hard time and be able to understand a little bit about just life. And I don't know everything that went through my mind at that time, but I do remember feeling the love of my savior, and that's what got me through that small time. And so I guess that just kind of kick-started off my testimony, and I know that it's grown immensely since then. Uh, one time where I recognized and definitely rejoiced is when I was 14, I received my patriarchal blessing. And I feel as though I've always thought about my patriarchal blessing before I turned 14. And there's never really like they never tell you the age to get your patriarchal blessing. And it's like, you know, whenever you feel it's the right time. And so I remember going into the home of our patriarch, and I didn't really know him. And I think that that was part of what built my testimony. I sat down and he talked to me just for a few minutes, which is funny because our patriarch, Prince Cola, he will give you a two-hour lesson on the house of Israel before you get your lesson. And so, um, as my children have gotten it, I have received this two-hour lesson multiple times. But anyway, so my patriarch, though, he just talked a little bit about himself and he asked me some questions, and then he went straight into the blessing. And my blessing spoke of a mission that I would serve, be called to serve in the mission field. And it spoke of my family that I would have one day, and that I would be that I would have children, not just a child, but children. And I probably could hardly even handle myself during the blessing because all I wanted to be up until that moment was a mom. And I never thought about being a missionary because that's what my brothers were supposed to do, right? The boys were supposed to serve missions, and I was gonna be a mom. But in my blessing, I instantly started thinking about being a missionary because I had the faith that this patriarch was speaking to me through Heavenly Father. So my mind switched ears, and ever since then, I just thought, I've got to be a missionary, and I didn't know how I was gonna be a missionary, but at that moment, I started preparing to be a missionary because I knew that's what my heavenly father wanted me to be. So, guess what? I went on a mission. I served in Santa Rosa, California, and I got to be a missionary for a year and a half, and it was amazing. I learned so much, my testimony grew, and I was able to, with the help of the Lord, of course, help change my brothers and sisters' lives there in California.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

You are doing wonderful, Lori. I was like bawling during your story of your father dying. It was so tender and so beautiful. And then to go right into your patriarchal blessing and just how all you ever wanted to be was a mom. That's so beautiful and tender. And then you're like, but then I'm gonna be a missionary. I'm gonna be a missionary first. Yes. But I just love it. All these stories are just so, they are just touching my heart in such beautiful ways. I just can't wait to hear your next story.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

So, as a missionary, my testimony grew. I got to wear the savior's name on my chest every single day. I got to represent him. I learned of him every day. I studied wearing that tag on my chest every day. It was a constant reminder that I was set apart to be a missionary. And that was the only thing that I had to worry about. Because of that, I was able to help change lives. And little did I know that on Cobb Mountain, I served on a little mountain called Cobb. There were people that had never even heard of Jesus Christ, and that was mind-blowing to me. I'm like, we live in the United States of America, we don't know who Jesus is, but the this particular community kind of just was born up in the mountains and they just kind of stayed in the mountains and they just lived off of the land, and it was it was such a neat experience to share such a simple um testimony of my savior with some of these people that had absolutely no clue. That really meant a lot to me. It made me rejoice within myself that I was so blessed to have the gospel in my life from the day I was born. And I just didn't understand, even as a missionary, how somebody could not know who Jesus was. It just was mind-boggling to me. But I'm sure there are many other people in California that are still in that point of their life, and so let's just pray that the missionaries find them. So even though my testimony of the savior was small to them, I know that I carried our savior's spirit with me. And I know even though I went from one house to another and people turned us away one right after the other, which is how missionary work is. Not everybody's ready for the gospel. But I know that his spirit was with me, and I know they felt that. And I know all missionaries, we just plant seeds, and what a blessing that was. And I don't know where these people are in their lives, but as I was able to share and plant my small seeds with each of them, it helps strengthen my testimony and helped me rejoice that I was able to share just a small part of me and the love that I have for my savior for them.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I love the simplicity of that testimony and of that experience. You got to share the Lord's spirit with them in that small way. And I love how you mentioned missionaries are just planting seeds. There are plenty of missionaries and wonderful missionaries helping people come unto Christ through baptisms. But the majority of missionary time is just planting seeds that the Lord can then sprout in their lives and that the Lord can then point them back to remember that time when you met with this person or you saw this person and you felt something different? The Lord is going to use every little loafer fish that we bring. You know, bring your two loves and your five fishes, then the Lord is going to feed thousands, you know, and that's what we as full-time missionaries, but also as member missionaries, we just have to follow the prophet and show love and kindness and the savior's joy in our lives to other people. And the Lord is gonna take that and he's gonna magnify it because we are not here to save people. The Lord saves people. And if we can just be the light of the Lord to other people in those small ways, share whatever testimonies we have, and the Lord will make it abundant. I love that story. Thank you for sharing it.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Oh, thank you. All right, so I wanted to share this story. I was planning on sharing this story later, but I think I'm gonna just share it right now. And it kind of goes along with using the spirit to help others to come into Christ. There's a lady that through the ministering program, I was able to really get to know. And the ministering program is amazing. I've actually become super close with many women in our board or in my board that otherwise I probably would not have become close with because they're in different stages of their life than I am. And I think naturally we just tend to navigate to the those that are that are in the same same stage of life. About six months ago, I was I don't even know what I was doing, but the name of the sister popped into my head that I used to minister to. And I hadn't seen her outside of ministering and not seeing her at church in several years. She lives down the road from me, which is very normal here in Utah, but in Pensacola, it is not that normal of a thing. But her name popped into my head, and right then I'm a big believer if you think of somebody, you text or call them. I'm a very big believer of that. I think that the Heavenly Father uses us. Well, I know that he uses us to answer other people's prayers. And you might not be answered a prayer, but a lot of times I think you do answer prayers, and I don't think we know when we answer everybody's prayers. But I know that when we act upon those small promptings, Heavenly Father trusts us with more opportunities to serve and to help him bring others back to him. And so I texted, I texted my friend, and I told her I was thinking about her and her family, and I asked her how she was doing. And so her husband works out of town a lot, and she has one um young adult son, early 20s, and um she had told me that she was having a really hard time. I said, I want to come over. Sometimes the spirit, and I learned this on my mission, like sometimes you just talk, and it is the spirit talking, and you are just the mouthpiece. And I don't know what I said, I just knew that um the next day I was going to her house. And so I made some chicken salad, and I ran up to the grocery store and I bought some croissants because I can make chicken salad, but don't be asking me to make anything fancy like croissants. Luckily, we have a wonderful bakery that their croissants are amazing. I bought some fruit and I called my friend and I said, please come and have lunch with me because we know that the savior tells us in the scriptures where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I will be in the midst of them. And so I knew that I needed somebody else to go with me so that we can follow the savior's counsel. And we went and we had lunch with her, and she was so happy. Her account just changed, and we just listened to her, and I feel that the more we listened, the more she just poured out, and she paused at one moment and she said, I normally don't do this, Lori. I normally don't share these type of problems with other people. She said, But I can feel you and Dana love me. And that is why I'm sharing this with you, because I feel the love that you have for me. And I didn't really know what to say at that moment because it was all the savior. He was just using me. And I just told her that we loved her and that we were here for her. Her husband was out of town, and she had just the last few years, she had gotten into some habits that are hard to have and continue to have the spirit with you. And she was so grateful that we didn't judge her and that we wanted to be there with her. And fast forward till today, she was at church the next Sunday, and she has been at church ever since. And I give her a hug every Sunday, and she sits with me and relieve society and We don't talk much about that day. We we know what we felt that day, and we know what was said, and she knows that she's loved, and she's been to activities, and I just feel that because of the savior trusting me with that prompting to text her and check in with her, she was ready. She was ready to come back to the gospel, and I was the lucky one that got to reach out to her and show her that she is loved and that no matter what she has done, the savior will forgive her and she can come back to the fold and be a part of us. And she has. I talk to her on a regular basis, and she's just a wonderful sister to add to our relute society. It just makes me rejoice. I love that word. It does make me rejoice that I can see how much and she tells me frequently, Lori, I've been doing really good. Or Lori, I had a hard week this week. And I said, You don't have to tell me those things. You talk to Heavenly Father about that, and I know he is so proud of you. And but I'm so grateful that she feels so comfortable to have somebody to talk to. That is something that makes me rejoice seeing her sweet spirit and her and her son. Oh, I forgot about this. Her son now goes to she can't he came for about two months, and then he started going to the young adult ranch. So he is going on his own to the young adult ranch with all the boys and girls his age. And so that's an amazing thing, too.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

So I'm pretty happy about that. That is an amazing story. And I have to tell you, as you were telling this story, I was thinking about another interview I had. I can't remember who it was with, but they were going through a hard time and then somebody brought them something. And I was like, man, I just wish that I could be that person who brings something. I'm I'm never that person. Like it would be so awesome if I could be. And as you were telling that story, I just got the impression this is how you be that person, Megan. You listened to the spirit, you don't have to do it. I will tell you. That's what I felt. Yeah, that's that's what I felt as you told your story.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

And I didn't know it was gonna turn into something like this, but it did, and that's what needed to happen. That's what she needed, is to feel loved and not judged. And all I did was I thought of her and I'm like, and then I text her and see how she's doing. Because I haven't seen or, you know, I text her on her birthday, and I text her, you know, every once. Well, I've texted her multiple times when I've thought about her, but this particular time, it just was a little bit different. It's like teaching the gospel, not everybody's ready. Most people aren't ready as missionaries, and you knock on the door. But every once in a while, there's someone that's ready. And that was her. She was ready to come back. She just needed somebody to show her that we love you. We're not gonna judge you. The savior is there to love you and forgive you, and that's what he will do. So wow, it was it's still kind of a situation in the making. It's happening right now. But every time I see her in church, it just makes me happy and makes me rejoice for sure.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

And that rejoicing comes because you were the hands of the Lord. President Freeman said that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not about a set of standards to live, it's about power in being in Jesus Christ. Joy is not the absence of hard things. Joy is Christ in your life. And I can't remember who said that. You know, I'm saying these things that people said, but this is what I heard them say. I don't know exactly what they said, but I this is what I wrote down. You know, like this is they said something, and this is what I felt. So I felt this person saying joy is not the absence of hard things, it is Christ being in your life. And as you were saying, you are rejoicing in this experience, and you rejoiced as a missionary, it's because Christ was in your life. It's because you were the light of Christ to other people, and that is what brings joy into our lives. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

All right, Megan. Another story that I have, um, it just happened yesterday. I wanted to share it because it's just so fresh and it made my heart so happy. I came out here to Utah with my husband Sean and my son Jackson, who was 18 years old. And we one of the things that we wanted to do was to go to conference. Well, we jumped on the traps so we didn't have to fight traffic in Salt Lake, and it started taking us up to Temple Square. Well, one of the stops, this little tiny sweet as can be lady, I'm pretty sure she was like 80 at least, hopped on the plane, like she was just gonna own the plane. The train. I that yeah, the yeah, oh yeah. Flew a plane out here, took the train to the conference center. But I want to be like her when I grow up. I hope I can just hop onto a train as quickly as she did. But the train was completely full. Um, Sean and um Jason hopped up out of their seats to let her sit down. Well, she sat down next to the window, and then Sean went ahead and sat next to her. We can tell that she was somewhere from South America, and Sean served his mission in Guatemala, so he always looks for opportunities to use his Spanish. And so very quickly he started speaking to her, and she told him that she had prayed that she would be able to get on this train and find a ticket to conference because she wanted to go and she was not able to get a ticket. And Sean just looked her right in the eyes and instantly said, I have an extra ticket for you. And she just got tears in her eyes. Obviously, Spanish was her first language, she was pretty good speaking English, so she turned to me and she said, Thank you so much. And she said that we were the angels that she had prayed for. What a sweet little blessing that one 10-minute little ride was for her and for us. We for Katie. Katie did Katie was sick, so it was her ticket that we gave. But this little lady could not thank us enough. And we all got off the tracks at the same time, obviously at Temple Square. She gave us all hugs, she gave us a piece of chocolate, and all of a sudden she turned and she ran across the street. And I'm like, Sean, she just like totally ran across the street. This 80-year-old woman, and she wasn't on a crosswalk. So we walked to the crosswalk and walked across the street. I do not know the lady's name because Sean talked to her more. But she beelined it to the conference center. She was so happy to have that ticket. I'm so glad she didn't get hit by a car, but I'm so grateful to be a blessing in her life and that she was able to go to conference. She had the faith that she was going to sit next to somebody that had an extra ticket, and that's all we had was one extra ticket. That's all we needed. That's all we needed for her. And it was like the best, she acted like it was the best day of her life. And we never saw her again. I'm so glad she didn't get hit by a car, but I did laugh out loud as she started, like she was just so happy. She was so excited. So, situations like that, when you're the Lord's hand, in such a small situation, it was a 10-minute conversation. She ran across the street. She couldn't get there fast enough. And that was, she's just the perfect example of the excitement that everybody should have for the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

That is such a fun story. It's so cute. And it's fun. So fun, so fun to be a part of. And just 10 minutes, you know, like it's such a small part of your day, but yet the Lord created a miracle.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

The Lord put her there because He had one ticket. She was from Peru, by the way. And I think she might have been like four and a half feet. Sweetest, cutest little Peru lady I've ever seen. She needs to not jaywalk, though. I'm gonna switch gears and talk a little bit about how my grandbaby makes me rejoice. I tried to put him in here. You have to talk about him. Absolutely. He makes my heart so happy. I think it's because all my kids are grown. And that's why I have so many kids, because they started talking back and telling me no. So I'm like, okay, it's time to have another sweet baby that doesn't um tell me no. Anyway, so now I'm living through my grandbaby, but he is 19 months old. Let me tell you a small story about him. He is a huge part of our family's life. His mama worked nights, which is my daughter, and so he sleeps at my home four to five nights a week. Because of that, I'm the one that puts him to bed for the most part. There's been times other people put him to bed, but I typically put him to bed and we have our nighttime routine, and he loves it. So I take him in to the bedroom after I tell him it's time to go not night, and on the way to the bedroom, he folds his arms because he knows the first thing that we do is we say our prayers. And that little baby, I'd put him down in his crib, and he just sits little crisscross applesauce, and he folds his arms and he just looks at me. And so I'd say our prayer with him along his level of knowledge and learning. And as soon as I'm done, he yells, Amen! And then he stands up and he wants to get out of his crib. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Every single night this happens. He's not far, he is not far from that veil. He knows that we're talking to Heavenly Father, and I know that he knows. He is so excited every night to say his prayers. He loves we sing songs, we read stories, I rub his back, I play with his hair, I tuck him in. The thing that he is most excited about is saying his little prayer. And he will be quiet and he sits still and he listens. At 19 months, he knows that we're speaking to Heavenly Father, and that builds my testimony. Everybody should be excited to say their prayers at night. Everybody should be excited to end their day talking to our father who is in heaven. And Taysom, my grandbaby, is that example that we should all follow. As soon as we get to our rooms, we should drop to our knees and we should say our prayers. And we should be able to say amen as exciting as Taysom does, because he's so proud of himself for saying a prayer every night. And it makes me rejoice, Megan. It makes me so happy. It doesn't get old, and I'm just so proud of him. And I look at him and I'll start singing the, you know, he knows our typical songs that we sing. And Emma, my daughter, teaches them some very basic sign language. And so after I'm done singing one song, and they're mostly primary songs, he'll he'll put his little fingers together and he's like, more, more, more. And he loves it. He loves the primary songs because I know that it brings the spirit into his little room so that he can peacefully just go to sleep, knowing that his heavenly father loves him. And I know that he can be an example to each of us as to how we should end our day turning to our heavenly father and thanking him for just all the blessings for a new day of life and the things that we've learned that day, whether it's spiritual or physical or intellectual or social. Anything, yes. But uh he wants us to, you know, that's what we get to take with us when we die, right? Is our knowledge. So no matter what we're learning, um, we should be so grateful for that. So that's just my little taste and I miss him so much. I've been away from him for a week. So I'm excited to go back home to him tomorrow. I feel justly reprimanded from that story.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Because I don't say my nightly prayers with that much joy. Sometimes I just fall into bed. But I love how you said we should all rejoice that we get to speak to our Heavenly Father every night. Yes, I do want to feel that way. I do want to act that way. I do want to be 19 months old again.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Not really, but not in our 40s, but again, maybe 19 years old.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

I know even then I think I was still just falling into bed. But what a wonderful example, what a wonderful reminder, and I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

I love him, Jason. I love him so much. All right, I want to talk about one more thing, and it is about my husband. I love him. So I got to meet him in an institute class. We met each other. I had moved to Jacksonville for a short time, and I had come back to Pensacola because I was in a car accident, and I just wanted to come home for a little bit. So I came home, I went to Institute and I met him. And when I came home after the institute, I didn't really think much of him. No offense, Sean, but I didn't really think much of him that day. I had just been in an accident and I was home and lots of things going through my head. But when I walked back into my house for an institute, my dad, my stepdad, I talked about my father passing away as a young child, but my stepdad, he, as soon as I walked in the door, said, Lori, this guy named Sean called with an urgency in his voice. I really feel like you need to call him back. I really feel that you're gonna marry this man. And I'm like, whatever, you know. And as a matter of fact, I'd moved to Jacksonville to get away from another boyfriend that I just kept getting back with, but I knew that that's not who I wanted to marry. So I'm like, I'm out of here. And so coming back and him just saying that, I'm like, I am not ready for this in my life. Well, I called him because we didn't have cell phones, so he just called my home line at that point, and he asked me to go to the spaghetti dinner that the institute was having, and that he was gonna come pick me up. And I'm like, oh great. Well, I had to tell him that I didn't even live there anymore, that I was going back to Jacksonville, but that we had, you know, that I had a great time. And I didn't know when I was going back to Jacksonville because I'd lost my job because of the accident, too. That's a whole other long story. But what ended up happening is we spent every day together for like a week, and then the world thinks we're crazy, but I'm like, I'm moving back. I'm gonna be with this guy, and my dad was right, and so Sean went to Jacksonville with me. We packed up my things and I moved right back to Pensipola. It's only like a five-hour drive. But I moved back and we dated, and we got married like I think eight months later. And that was one of the greatest things of my life. August 9th, 2002, Sean and I got married. I shared with him very early in our marriage my P Sharpo blessing, and we started talking more about families because I always just wanted to be a mom, like we talked about. We both wanted a big family. And as I bring that up, I wanted to tell you that a few weeks ago, and it's still in my nightstand at my house, I came across again a letter that I wrote to myself when I was 15. And I had written it for it to be open when I turned 25. And I did open it when I turned 25, but I've read it multiple times since then. I don't have it in front of me, but I had told myself that all I wanted to do when I grew up was to get married and have 12 kids. What? 12 kids? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

The ambitions of our teenage selves.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

12 kids. I do not even know. Oh, well, I got halfway there. So I do have six kids. And um, I'm pretty I'm pretty happy about that. Yeah. I think you shouldn't, and now I'm having grandbabies, so we're we're happy.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

I wanted nine babies when I was a teenager, and I only got a third of the way there, so you you did way better than I did.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

No, every father has a plan for each of us. Yes. Sometimes I'm wondering how he's trusted me with six of them, but it's just one day at a time, Megan. One day at a time. So true. So true. And most of the days I rejoice because of being their mothers, but some days I do not rejoice. Some days I do not. I hear you. We will not talk about that during this podcast. So we have six children. We have three boys and three girls. And I think out of looking back at my whole life, my family means the most to me. And raising children was very hard. Give me a diaper change, give me a little toddler to potty train. But raising these teenagers is rough. And that is why I need to be more like Taysom and fall to my knees at the end of each day and ask Kevin Father for his help. Because it's hard. It's hard to be a mom. But at the same time, it's something that I just always wanted to do. And so um, I'm grateful for that. And we love our family. Everybody, we all my kids get along, and that's a big blessing. And we're able to do fun things for the family. And I see the savior through my children as they do certain things, and it makes me very proud to be their mom.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

I agree with that. I see the savior through my children. I think that I probably see the savior more in my children's lives. Well, that's not true. I see the savior a lot in my own life, like all the time. But I see his hand in their lives, and that's almost more rejoicing for me. Because I'm just like, oh, because they see it too. My kids will come to me and be like, Mom, Heavenly Father, help me this way. And that almost makes my heart burst more than when I'm like, oh, Heavenly Father, help me this way. But when I see them recognizing the hand of the Lord in their lives, it just, it's so true. I see the hand of Christ through them.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

I feel like it's easier to see the hand of the Savior through the children because I feel like they are more in tune with the spirit. Well, at your children's age. My children, they want to rebel. Children are a little bit older and they definitely like to rebel. My youngest Walker, he is 12, and he still aims to please. He wants to do what's right, he wants to make me and his dad happy, and and he definitely does. One last thing is as I was going to sleep last night, it just popped into my head, and I just want to share because I think it's just as important as our families, is close friends. Um, I thought about the savior, and the savior had friends. He had very good friends that followed him, and they followed him until the very, very end. And I feel that our Heavenly Father puts people on our lives to one make our make our lives even happier, but to be there when we fall, or be there as a sounding board when maybe something isn't going so right in my own particular life. But it is through our family and our friends that we associate with that help shape us into who we are. I have learned growing up that quality is better than quantity. So I have a handful of very good friends that I trust with my life and that helped build me up and help my testimony grow as I watch them live their lives. So we know that our savior had, you know, his closest friends followed him through his ministry. And he chose, he chose the right friends, right? Sometimes we um had to filter out some friends in our lives. And and that could be sad, but choosing the right friends will help shape us into the type of person our Heavenly Father wants to be. And hopefully we can help shape them as well. But I love, I love my friends. I'm I'm not going to name off any friends. They know who they are, but I'm so grateful for them. They they bring me true happiness and they help me want to become better. They've helped me want to be more like my savior. And my good friends help me recognize my savior. And I'm very grateful for that in life. No matter if they live in Utah or Pensacola. Thank goodness for technology nowadays. It helps.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

It helps a lot. It does help. This has been so beautiful and so amazing. All that you've said, I've loved every word of it.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

As I've shared some of these stories and as I have thought back through my life, there's so many things that I can rejoice in the savior over. But the most important things to me have probably been those that I've spoken about today. My grandbaby, my children, my husband, my mission, my patriarchal blessing that is just a blessing for me to help guide me through my life. And these things bring me joy. They help me rejoice in the gospel. And if I could share my testimony, I know that I'm a part of his gospel. I know that he lives. I know that he lived every day of his life to the fullest so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. I know that He is my savior. I know that He is your Savior. And I know that I will get to see my dad again. And I know that it was because of that first Easter morning that we got to celebrate yesterday that we can have eternal families and we can all live together.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lori. That is a beautiful testimony. This whole interview has been a beautiful testimony after beautiful testimony. Thank you so much for sharing it. I'm just going to end with our final question. What action or practice would you suggest to help others to recognize and rejoice in God's hand in their lives?

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Me personally, I think I should just go back to the story of my friend that has come back to the gospel. When you have a prompting, follow the prompting. If you're not following promptings, Heavenly Father is not going to trust you. He's going to have to use somebody else because he has promised to answer our prayers. So he can either answer other prayers with us because we're listening to the spirit, or he can answer their prayers through other people. But I know the more that we follow the promptings of the Spirit, the more he trusts us with those promptings and that we can be the Savior's hand in our families' lives, people around us, people in our ward, and active folks that haven't come to church for one reason or the other. But it's the small promptings that if we just act upon them, the Lord will just guide us through and how he wants to help that situation. So I think that that's my answer is follow those small promptings.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

I love that answer. It reminds me of President Monson. I always wanted the Lord to know that he could count on Thomas S. Monson.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

Yeah. I remember that. I remember that. And that's I'm glad that you remembered that because that's perfect. I want him to know that he can count on Lori's Chevy. I know I don't follow all promptings, but I'm trying to be better as I grow up. I'm trying to slow down just a little bit so that I can hear and feel those small promptings. Just a little text. We have these computers that are handheld in our hands all the time, even if it's just a text. Hey, I'm thinking about you. Sometimes that changes people's lives. It did change my friend's life. It turned into something so much bigger. And you just never know when someone's going to need that small text from you. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Lori, thank you so much for your time today. This truly has been a blessing in my life. You have shared some amazing stories, and I feel a lot that I want to change and that I want to become because of your stories. So thank you so much for sharing them with us. You're welcome, Megan. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Recognize and Rejoice, where we come together to rejoice in the many ways that the Lord shows up in each of our journeys in unique ways. We hope you have found peace and joy in the time you spent with us today and encourage you to continue recognizing and rejoicing in the hand of the Lord in your own life. We would be honored if you followed and shared this podcast so others may come and rejoice with us. If you or someone you know would like to be a guest or co host, please send us a text and we'll see what we can do. See you again next week.