PRES. MONSON AND OUR STAKE

PRESIDENT MONSON AND OUR STAKE

PRES. SUMMERS 11-2010

President Thomas S. Monson’s love for the members of the church is well known and documented. Our stake has also felt his love. Pres. Monson has attended numerous stake conferences in our valley. He was the General Authority who selected Pres. Douglas Cleghorn as President of the Grand Junction Stake in 1973. He also wrote and talked in General Conference about his experiences with a family in the G. J. 5th Ward. The mother and father requested a personal conference with Elder Monson to discuss their son who was going to leave his mission in Germany and return home early. Elder Monson told them their prayers were answered because he was assigned to tour their son’s mission in Germany on Thursday of the coming week and he would visit their son. He did and their son completed a successful and honorable mission. Pres. Monson stayed in touch with the family and sealed them in the temple once the father became temple worthy.

Pres. Monson continues to have personal influence over the members of our stake. On October 17, 2010 an application was sent to the First Presidency for Dustan and Kadee Blair to be sealed together in the temple for time and all eternity. This permission was necessary because of a prior sealing. Sister Blair was eight month pregnant and of course the Blairs wanted to be sealed before their baby was born so the child would be “born in the covenant.” I explained to them that applications like this take at least 60 days to process and their application would not be approved before the baby would be born and they should just plan on having the child sealed to them after its birth. The due date was about November 20th, 2010.

About November 10th, the office representing the First Presidency processing these matters called Bishop Palmer to find out if the baby was born yet. Sister Blair had experienced labor pains but no baby yet. On the afternoon of November 11th, I received a call from the same office wanting to know if the baby had been born. I told them I would get back to them with the answer. I contacted the Blairs about 3:30 p.m., found there was no baby yet , and reported that the First Presidency was very concerned that the child be born under the covenant, and permission to be sealed had been approved by the First Presidency. I was advised by the Blairs that they wanted to be sealed in the Manti Temple. I called the First Presidency office back and reported and was advised that the Blairs should call the Manti Temple and arrange for a sealing.

Three hours later the Blairs were in my office. In that length of time, they had contacted their bishop, obtained “living ordinance recommends,” called their parents to advised them they were getting sealed the next day in Manti, contacted the Manti Temple to arrange for their sealing and were in my office for their stake presidency interview. Because the baby could come at any minute, they determined they needed to go to the temple immediately. The temple called the First Presidency and received oral permission to perform the sealing. The next day, November 12, 2010, Dustin and Kadee Blair were in a sacred sealing room of the Manti Temple accompanied by their parents, one brother and one cousin and were sealed together for all time and eternity-before their baby was born. It was a marvelous experience for them. Their baby, Ryker Dean Blair, born November 18, 2010, is a “covenant” baby boy. There are over 14 million members of the church, yet our prophet, Thomas S. Monson cares enough about a young couple in Fruita, Colorado to expedite a procedure so the Blair baby could be born in the covenant. He truly cares about us as individuals.