General Conference spring 1012

Like the last few years, I spent General Conference time at the Bohlings home. With Jim, Laura and Hannah Bohling. We sure missed their daughter Rachel who is at Alabama, and son James who is on his mission. But knew they were watching Conference also..  Also on Saturday missed Lakin, Kim, Savannah and Christopher as they were at a Girl Scout Open House for Middle Tennessee, celebrating the 100 Anniversary of the Girl Scouts.

General Conference was uplifting and reminded us on how to treat friends and family.  Refrain from judging others and stop the gossip seemed to be the theme of the day.  STOP IT  was the byword..

Some of the 'counts' of the day were 2949 Stakes, 340 Mission areas, 14,441,346 Members, 5540 Missionaries. The one I was really interested in was 2299 Church Service Missionaries of which I am one in the count.

During the 1st session they 'released' Brothers and Sisters from various callings. They had given their time in these callings without any pay.  Then they started to 'call' Brothers and Sisters to serve for the next few years. At that time Laura and I were the only ones watching the conference, Jim had gone to work and Hannah was up stairs. They were calling the Area 70s, Laura and I listened just  to see if there were any names we recognized. All at once they said "Alvin F Meredith III" Laura and I looked at each other and and both said "did he say what I think he said?".  As Laura was taping the conference, she was able to go back to make sure. YEP It was our TRIP Meredith...  He had been the Murfreesboro Ward Bishop (before the ward split) and had been Stake President. He was an active member of the Blackman Ward. Most of the members were not surprised at the calling he received. All knew he would do great things in the Church. He will have the backing of the Murfreesboro ward and the Blackman Ward and all who know him.

My main memory of President Meredith was, I had belonged to the church almost a year and was preparing to go to the Temple. When I received my endowment I would be able to attend the Sealing of Savannah Grace to her parents.  I had been to the Doctor and they had done an ekg and some other tests. I was to go back to the doctor the next week for more tests. They thought I had had a 'silent' heart attack and needed Open Heart Surgery within the next few weeks. Lakin, Kim and I went to talk to then Bishop Meredith about doing the endowment and Savannah's sealing several weeks early. Bishop Meredith said he would check with Salt Lake but that was not a request that was granted except in pending death.

As we were about to leave, Bishop Meredith ask if he could give me a 'blessing'. A blessing in our Church is given by someone in the priesthood, who with the help of our Lord helps calm and sometimes heals the receiving person.   I said yes knowing it would calm me during the next few days. He gave me a 'blessing'.
At that time I knew things would work out. Went to the Doctors the next week for a EKG and a stress test
I noticed the tech person and the Doctor had a funny look on their face. The Doctor ask if I had taken any medicine that morning. I hadn't. They could not find the problem that was there the week before. They compared EKGs. NO PROBLEM!! They could not figure it out, But I knew what had happened.  Bishop Meredith had ask the Lord to help me and he did!!!  I still had some irregular beats but not the life threatening problem they had seen the week before.  It held up for 8 years before I needed a stent placed in a heart vessel.

Elder Meredith gave of his time and his family's time when ever he was needed.  As I said before he will do great things in his calling.