The Lord is Mindful of Us

Six hours away from home in Kharkov we were holding a zone conference for two beautiful days.  Mom and Sister Burr were fixing lunch in the front part of the church building that opens immediately onto a busy sidewalk and street in the down town area of the city.  Mom set her small purse down on a chair while she was making salad.  The purse contained her credit cards, lipsticks, comb, telephone, about 200 UAH ($25.00), her minister's certificate, daily planner, various receipts, and her passport.  We live or die by our passports here and couldn't get home without one.  Being stopped without one would get us jailed.

Just then Sister Burr and Mom were both called away to be part of a panel discussion going on in a room deeper into the building. Less than five minutes later Mom felt uneasy about her purse and returned to the lunch area.  The purse was gone!  The top of the two books she had put it on was conspicuously bare.  She was devastated and went through all the questioning of her actions to determine if she had really left it there and retraced everything over and over.  A small army looked in all the possible places many times each.  I went back to the motel to check. We didn't want to believe it had been stolen in the church in such a short moment of time but a call to the branch president confirmed our fears as he told  us that this was a regular occurrence in that front part of the church building.  Mom couldn't eat lunch.

In the middle of lunch as more of the young  missionaries learned of the theft and the sadness of one of their favorite people (Mom) it was decided to have a prayer.  There were about thirty two young elders and sisters and four senior couples.  Elder Kofoed said the prayer.  He especially asked Heavenly Father to help us so that the documents and cards wouldn't fall into the wrong hands and that they would be protected. Then we continued on with our lunch.

Less than ten minutes later our very good friend and driver who was with us at the lunch and had been helping us look, received a telephone call from one of his branch members (who is also a friend of ours).  President Velikanov is a branch president of the Makeevka branch six hours away back home.  I took the call from Brat Valentin.  Mom's papers and passport had been found!  A lady named Victoria had read in Mom's planner the phone number of an Aloysha. Victoria called Aloysha.  Aloysha called Brat Valentin and Brat Valentin called President Velikanov far away in Kharkov and he gave the phone to me.  We immediately put our lunch on pause and the entire group joined to give thanks to our Heavenly Father. Everyone present was astonished and humbled at the precise and immediate answer to their prayer. It was the subject in all forty journals that evening. They had witnessed a miracle!

Our driver took us to meet with Victoria and interpreted for me as I met with her.  Mom and the Burrs and Aagards waited in the van. The lipsticks, comb, money, purse and phone were gone but she had the planner, certificate, insurance cards, passport, credit cards, all the most important things. I asked her if all  the people in Ukraine were as good as her and asked if I could tell her a very special story.  I told about the prayer and faith of all those worthy young missionaries. She had been in a dental hospital (office) and walked out at about exactly the time we were praying.  For some reason she felt to glance into a hollow protected place on the side of the building and saw what looked like important papers. She saw Mom's picture on the passport and read her ministerial certificate and felt sorry for this "church lady".  She found a telephone number and called it.

I then told her there was a  reason that the Lord inspired her to look in the place where she would find those documents.  I told her Heavenly Father brought her to us to receive an eternal treasure far greater than the money I gave her as a reward.  I gave her a Russian Book of Mormon and  "Family Proclamation".  She said she would read it. As Victoria started to walk away Mom came out of the van and called her back and gave her a hug.  Elder Schoen, whose area she lives in, will call her in a week to thank her again for us and see how she liked the book.