The Small Things Matter

I had a pretty powerful experience this past week and I apologize to my readers for not being more diligent in recording it sooner. This experience, though of a secular conclusion, was absolutely spiritual in nature and for those of you who aren't very religious or spiritual by any means than I hope that at least through reading through some of my posts, though I don't promise that all of them will have some sort of spiritual background, that you'll be able to see the value that an ideal of learning from everyone and everything is very precious indeed. But anyway, to continue on with my experience. It wasn't until I served a mission, basically a two-year commitment in which a man or woman consecrates themselves to living special rules and preaching the gospel, that I really began to understand what it was that I wanted to do with my life as a career. Up to this point I had always found interest in a variety of things but that was as far as it went, just a scratch on the surface. I had recently been transferred to a new area, just another one of those things that we do on missions, to serve with a new companion by the name of Elder Jacobs. No his name was not actually "Elder" but it was a title that we all used being representatives of not only the LDS church but also of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was during my time in this new area, simply a different part of the city of Las Vegas which is where I spend the majority of my time as a missionary, that I met and came to befriend someone who has changed my life forever and someone who I hope will continue to be a close friend and major part of my life. The name of this individual was Brian W. Burton, but I later came to know him as Father Burton for a variety of reasons which I might endeavor to explain later on. Anway, Father Burton and I quickly became very close as my companion, the other missionary I was laboring to preach the gospel with, and I continued to meet with him frequently to share more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and as he shared more and more about his beliefs and his experiences. Father Burton is a special man, his career and sole focus is to feed the communities of Southern Nevada as he is currently the CEO of Three Square Food Bank. When I found this out, and continued to learn more about the things that he did for work, I became completely fascinated by it and thus began my quest to enter the realm of Nonprofit business. Since this time in 2012 I've been striving to learn and do all that I can so that I could some day be placed in a position in which I can help facilitate the feeding of hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of people. So how does this all tie into my experience of last week? To make an already long story short I had been struggling for quite some time to figure out really the best means of going about accomplishing these goals of mine. It had come to the point where really I just wasn't having any success and had seemed to exhaust all of my options and so the depression began to set in. Remember all of those other interests I mentioned at the beginning of this post? I was constantly being plagued by these thoughts that I should move on to something else, despite the special feelings that I had received about doing my best to help feed others. It wasn't until two Sundays ago, and many many prayers and much studying, that I finally received what I believe to have been an answer to my many supplications to the Almighty. I won't give you all of the details, but to be more succinct my wife and I ended up in some random ward of the LDS church out in Orem UT. It was there that I met a man, who later identified himself as the Managing Director for the school of Entrepreneurship at BYU where I was currently attending, who put me back on the straight and narrow path toward ending world hunger!... or something like that anyway. He simply told me a few things that I had been praying to hear, things that he couldn't have known to say without having been inspired of God. Moral of the story? God lives, and takes great interest in our lives and the paths that we follow. He love us. We truly are special to Him. I know that He not only hears our prayers, but with great care and wisdom He answers them, as only and omnipotent and omniscient Being could do.