Sunday, June 8, 2014

On Gloria's touch.



How I met Gloria


I first met Gloria in the fall of  1985, in Vicksburg Mississippi.  I was in the Louisiana-Mississippi area teaching people about the restored Church of Christ and helping them to become members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints.
 
When I was fourteen years old I was ask by one of my church leaders to commit to serving a mission.  I loved and respected this man.  I accepted this challenge and used the next  5 years to prepare serve a mission.

My Mom and I entered an a covenant that if I prepared myself to serve she would find a way to support me.  This was a big commitment on her part.  We where not a wealthy family.  My Mom believed in the teaching's of the church. She had not attended services for a number of years, at least 10.  

It is a central doctrine of our church that to enter Heaven we need to be baptized by someone having the Priesthood or authority to baptize.  This authority was given to the founder of our church by an angel, John the Baptist, the same person that baptized Jesus Christ.  This same authority has been passed down from man to man by the laying on of hands.  I was ordained by my Bishop, Glen Owen Waite when I turned 16 years old. 

Our church has a lay Priesthood and all worthy men in our church receive the same authority.  I was ordained by my bishop because my Father, who holds the same authority, had stopped attending church.  My Father had ordained me to the two previous steps in the priesthood, Deacon and Teacher.  If my father had been attending church he would have ordained me to next 2 steps in the priesthood, Priest and Elder.   I was ordained to my final step in the priesthood, Elder, by my beloved uncle, Deloye Grand Herzog, when I turned 18.

My missionary companion and I met Gloria in a Hospital.  She was receiving treatment for brain cancer. It was this cancer that would end Gloria's life.  Gloria had learned about our church while being treated for cancer in a hospital in Jackson Mississippi.  This member of my church had not attended services in a number of years and no longer practiced the faith.


 Gloria life and death started me an exploration.


We have a Priesthood Ordinance.  It is a blessing with Olive Oil and sealing with the Priesthood.  I participated in offering this ordinance to Gloria.  I did want to be seen as a faith healer.


  • I wanted to see Gloria enter the covenant of Baptism
  • I did not want her to join to save her life.  

She was Baptized after I transferred to my next area.  Gloria died of cancer about a year later.



  • Gloria helped me to understand that God works in many wonderful ways.  He uses all children to bless each other.  We are his hands on Earth. 
  • God used my parents, who did not attend church to support me on a mission
  • God used a member of our church who did attend services to help Gloria gain a testimony of Christ.


We may not see the many hidden hands and ways God uses to bless his children.

"... it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose."
 (Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler.)















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