The Prophet

A month ago our family had an unforgettable experience.  We got to hear the Prophet speak to us at Safeco Field in Seattle, along with 49,000 other Latter-Day Saints from around Washington State.  The event was scheduled on a Saturday evening but we were warned to plan ahead for the traffic and crowds of people.  Naturally Randy was scheduled to work that day, Ethan had a football game, and Landon had a soccer game so it took a lot of coordinating to get every thing to fall into place.  And then everything fell apart.  Ethan's football game started 45 minutes late so I had to leave him to get a ride home with friends while I took Landon to his soccer game.  We left Landon's soccer game early and went back home to pick up Ethan, loaded up in the car with our church clothes (I literally put on my skirt in the driveway) and zoomed away to meet Randy in Seattle.  Just as we were about to get on the freeway Ethan asked me if I had the tickets.  Of course it was the one thing I forgot.  I couldn't believe it.  So we turned around and headed home, waited for Randy to meet us there so we could all drive in together, and headed into Seattle.  I had reserved a parking spot for us ahead of time using the Spot Hero app, downloaded the Waze app which helps find alternate routes when there's traffic, and was prepared for every scenario.  Well, there wasn't any traffic and we found plenty of parking at a much closer parking garage so all my plans were for nothing. 

 But the crowds of people were huge!  Lines of people intersecting and wrapping around the building going every which direction was unlike any sporting event I've ever been too.  We searched for a shorter line and eventually found one and got to our seats just as it was starting to lightly rain. 

Hashtag - Follow the Prophet, even if you don't want to

We ate snacks and people watched while we waited for the meeting to start.  It was exciting just being there.  I was surprised at how many people we knew among the crowds of people.  President Eyring was the first speaker and he talked about how he knew President Nelson is a prophet.  Then President Nelson's wife spoke.  She talked about what it's like being married to a prophet, that God does speak to him regularly, and she could testify in a court room that revelation is real.  President Nelson spoke last and it was just incredible to see a 94-year-old man with so much enthusiasm and energy.  My favorite thing that he said was that reading the Book of Mormon keeps you immune from evil.  It is that powerful. 
I know all my boys (except Henry) will never forget this experience or the feelings they had as they listened to a prophet.  It was also more than coincidental that after the meeting had started and the last of the people in line had made it to their seats, there was a huge downpour of rain.  It rained so hard we couldn't see the building outside the arena.  God is truly in everything, even the weather.