Wendy Watson Nelson - The Heavens Are Open

Introduction

Some Things I Believe

I am a believer.

I do not remember ever not believing in God, our Heavenly Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

I believe in

the ministering of angels,

dreams that bring messengers and messages,

words from hymns that float into our minds unexpectedly and yet exactly when we need them, and

scriptures that open to answer the questions we most need to have answered on a given day.

I believe in miracles. Actually, I count on them. And, at this point in my life, I believe that the Lord brings us

the precise miracles that will help us grow into our true selves, and

miracles that will help us do His work.

I believe that in the temples of God we can receive His power through ordinances that

enlighten our minds,

invigorate our spirits,

heal our hearts and bodies, and

provide the eternal perspective that helps things make sense.

I believe in the power of priesthood blessings to heal. My widowed father was given a death sentence by a doctora specialist who told Dad that he had two weeks to live because the colon cancer (which had been excised seventeen months earlier) had metastasized to his liver, accompanied by total shutdown of his kidneys. My father was told to go home and to get his affairs in order.

Before he left the hospital, Dad received a priesthood blessing from my brother-in-law.

My father was at peace about his diagnosis and didnt want any heroics, so he received no radiation, no chemotherapy, and no special diet (although we tried to get as many chocolate shakes into him as possible). He carried on serving others as he had done all of his kind, brilliant, gentle, and optimistic life, and he continued receiving hemodialysis for kidney failure. From time to time Dad would say, Doctors can give you a diagnosis, but they should never give you a prognosis.

According to my father, his fifteen minutes of fame occurred on a September day five months after the doctors two-week prognostication, when, because he was starting to look and feel better, I took him for an ultrasound-guided liver biopsy. My fathers moment in the sun came when the doctorwho called in two other doctors because he couldnt believe what he was seeing on the ultrasoundsaid that he would not be able to do the biopsy. Why? Because there was no cancer present! The doctor then showed us the ultrasound pictures from April, clearly showing ten dark spots of cancer in the liver. And then he showed us the pictures from that September day. No spots. Dad lived seven more years , loving and learning every day, bringing joy to his familyand to his clients as he continued as their accountantwell into his eighty-second year of a wonderful life.

I also believe that there are times when the healing promised in a priesthood blessing is a complete and total healingfrom the Lords perspective. That blessing of healing translates into people being freed from all the suffering that accompanied their afflictions and from the vicissitudes of mortal life. How does that complete healing happen? They are taken Home. This was the case with my husbands daughter Wendy on January 11, 2019.

I believe in the power of prayer. As a grade-school child, I often wrote my prayers on the doors of my parents wardrobe. It is fascinating to me that they never said a word to discourage me from this (although that was really so characteristic of my parents). That wardrobe was like a portal for me, linking me and my earthly worriesPlease help me get an A on my math testto heaven.

I believe in the power of fasting. When I was about nine years old, the principle of fasting resonated with me. So I began to fast for many of the tests I took. My parents never commented on what I was doing, just silently supported. I continued that practice through receiving my PhD degree. As I gained more experience with fasting, I learned that the Holy Ghost would bring all things to my memory as I increased my spiritual sensitivities to His whisperings. Fasting seemed like a good companion to my studying.

I believe in Jesus Christs power to cleanse and heal, redeem and strengthen us. I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father for His plan of happiness, of continuing progression, which provided a Savior for us. And I will be forever indebted to Jesus Christ for coauthoring and editing my life history.

With all of that power available, and with my bedrock belief in all of that power, does that mean everything I have ever wanted in my life has happened? Hardly.

For example, I always knew that I would marry in my twenties and have ten children.

As it turns out, I married in my mid-fifties and am younger than the eldest of my husbands ten children.

The Lord was and is the Source of the love and hope and peace and joy that my husband and I feel now that we are together. Our covenants with God, including the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, become more real to us every day.

So, what helped when things didnt turn out as I originally hoped or planned? First and foremost, I knew my parents loved me. That certainty cut through everything. Then, regularly doing all the spiritually strengthening things that you and I know to do kept me moving ahead: praying, fasting, serving others, fulfilling Church assignments, and spending time in the temple and in the scriptures.

Often the Lords counsel to the Prophet Joseph Smith helped me to look beyond the present during disappointing, really tough, even frightening times: All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good (Doctrine and Covenants 122:7).

And how has my life been blessed by various unexpected experiences? What are some of the things I learned?

I learned about the reality of life after death when my long-awaited baby brother, David, lived only seven hours. On that first day of my fifth-grade year, September 1, I was thrilled with the Polaroid picture my dad had taken of David that morning when he was born and immediately placed in an oxygen tent. I took that photo with me to school to show all my friends. Later that day, as I walked home, I knocked on every door I passed and asked, Would you like to see a picture of my baby brother? I was elated, and our neighbors in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, were so welcoming.