Shining moments: No coincidence
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I live in West Los Angeles and am a temple worker at the Los Angeles California Temple. On Fridays, I like to take walks of about 3 to 4 miles. I hop a bus and get off wherever it seems nice. It is a different location each Friday. I also take a different route home.
I got off near Overland Avenue, a north-south street, and started my walk home on Friday, July 3. I was walking on the northbound side of the street toward the temple when, where Overland crosses the Santa Monica Freeway, something ahead caught my eye — a blue temple family file card on the ground stuck to a fence.
As I bent down to pick it up, I saw several more cards, both pink and blue. I picked up 47 cards, all showing signs of being outdoors for an extended time. Looking at the temple codes, I saw that the cards had been all over the world. The last ordinance indicated on some cards had been completed in 1968.
I went back the next day, broadened the area of my search, and found 23 more cards. In subsequent days, I found about a dozen more. I often walk that route now.
On that first Friday, I called the submitter and left a message. She returned my call two days later and told me her stake had a temple night on June 26. She had given a large number of cards to another member of her ward. They somehow got lost.
I later learned that the cards were placed on top of a car and forgotten by the passenger. The cards fell off at the freeway overpass. They have since been returned to the submitter or directly to the temple.
Finding the cards was no coincidence. Several events had to fall into place. First, I chose to walk home via Overland; second, I decided to walk north instead of south; third, the first card I saw was face up; and finally, being a temple worker, I knew that the card represented unfinished temple work.
This experience shows me that the Lord watches over and directs His Church. More specifically, it confirms that He is watching over the temple work of His Church, and that temple work is very important to Him. — Martin MacDonald, Westwood 2nd Ward, Los Angeles California Stake
