The Temple & The Emergency Room

This last weekend we unintentionally mixed a special occasion with a violent illness and the result made for a very interesting day. Our friend Kevin (who is especially near and dear to our hearts) had set a date to go through the temple for the first time and Scott and I were looking forward to it with anticipation. Nothing could stop us from going - in fact, we had to bow out of other important family plans in order to attend. So of course nature (and/or Satan) had to take a shot at us too and sure enough, we started to feel the flu set in a couple of days before the event. I had been totally bedridden those two days with fever, chills, full body aches and a painful head and chest cold. Scott followed right behind and it knocked him right off of his feet too. When the important day came, we prayed for strength, called in a babysitter, drugged up and went to the temple. Other than my embarrassing amounts of coughing, I felt fine and was grateful. I assumed Scott was doing just as well, but I couldn't see or sit next to him. When I finally did see him at the end of the session, he looked grey and corpse-like. His fingers were blue and he was shaking all over. I urged him to get out of there and go home to bed. He insisted on coming out to dinner to celebrate Kevin's special occasion. So we did, but I kept a worried eye on him. At the restaurant when he turned red and flush and his face began to break out in blochy hives, I announced that Scott would be leaving and I pushed him out the door. We were both unsure whether his flu had develeped into strep or pneumonia or something else more serious, so I made him promise to go straight to urgent care. Since none were open, he ended up at an emergency room (meanwhile Kevin, Ryan and I finished eating and visiting).

Sounds like an unhappy ending, I know, but there were some other unexpected circumstances to prove that we were (or at least Kevin was) in the exact right place at the exact right time that day. Kevin had asked me ahead of time to invite the missionaries who taught him to be at the temple with us. I did my best, but one of them had a baptism that day and the other one was already home from his mission. We thought neither one of them would be coming. However, as I was sitting in the chappel waiting for the session to start, Elder Blackhurst (the missionary who had gone home to Idaho) came walking in and sat down in front of me. I asked him if he was there for Kevin and he said no, he didn't even know about Kevin, he had come with someone else. But he was as pleased as me that God had led him to that session on that day. And Kevin beamed when he saw Elder Blackhurst in the Celestial Room. It was like a little Temple-Day present to Kevin from his Heavenly Father.