Sometimes You Just Need to Laugh

My husband has a stressful job and he came home one night with visible stress weighing him down. I suggested we go on a date. It was a school night so it would have to be a quick date somewhere local. Local, for us is a challenge. We live in a farming town with only a gas station close by. We have to travel 15-30 minutes to go anywhere, luckily for us, a great diner opened up about 7 miles from us in the middle of about nowhere.

I served our kids the dinner I had made and Brett and I headed for the restaurant. It seemed darker than usual with just one side of dining area lit. We walked in and headed to a table. A few tables were occupied and the owners sat at one. They looked at us and asked a question, something with the word “party”. Not knowing exactly what they said because I didn’t actually hear them, but assuming she was asking if we were having a party or coming to join the party, some little funny comment about the two of us out on a school night, I nodded, gave a little laugh, and set down.

It wasn’t long until the waitress came over and gave us waters, which I promptly knocked over spilling all over the table and floor. The waitress was good about it, teasing I shouldn’t have anything stronger to drink and cleaned it up. She came back minutes later and took our order. It was while we were waiting for our food that we noticed the room filling up. We also noticed everyone looking at us. Just after our food came is when we realized that everyone else knew each other. They were talking loudly between tables, getting up to hug one another, and asking what to order.

If you know me, then you probably can imagine I wasn’t shy when a lady asked what I ordered and if it was good. I launched into a description that I thought she would appreciate only to stop talking when I noticed her attention was now looking at another table.

Brett chuckled and said, “I think this is a private party. Everyone is looking at us weird and wondering who we are.” I looked around and sure enough they did seem to be looking with confused faces.

It was just seconds after that a lady came to the table to hand us raffle tickets. Brett then explained we weren’t suppose to be there and we would package our food and leave. The lady was super nice and told us it was a party for her husband who was ranked #2 in the national rodeo and they were headed out the following day. We talked for a bit wishing him luck and telling them how awesome that was. We then found the waitress and asked for boxes and our bill.

After noticing they needed our table sooner rather than later, we stood up and made our way to the cashier where our waitress was. She thought we were there with the party and was in no hurry to bring our boxes and check and laughed when she realized we were actually serious about leaving. When she walked off to grab our boxes, I had a good look around. I inwardly laughed when I noticed a big poster board saying, “Good Luck Cody!” and a three tier cake in the middle of the bar with the same words. As we walked out I handed his wife $5 dollars and said, “Good Luck to Cody!” She laughed and thanked us.

Once we were back in our car we noticed the sign out by the road said CLOSED and laughed all the way home. Apparently they are not open Monday or Tuesday but those days can be rented for private parties, as we learned for ourselves.

We could have felt guilty or humiliated for crashing their party, but instead we laughed. With some things I do, we find ourselves laughing frequently, and it always helps lift spirits. We went out to relieve stress that night and it worked like a charm!

-Mary Ethington

A Father's Whistle

During the Christmas break, we scheduled a trip to Bear Lake with the family. We spent 4 days there playing in snow, swimming in the heated pool and simply enjoying family time. On New Year’s day we rented snowmobiles and a side by side and headed up Ogden Canyon for some trail riding. We arrived and quickly unloaded the machines and everybody took off! Monson was on a snowmobile, Dave on another one and 4 of us were loaded up in the side by side. About an hour into our day, Merrell came and asked if anybody had seen Monson.

We organized what search parties we could with our limited play toys and went looking for Monson. Another hour went by and still no Monson, no machine. Austin and Merrell took off again looking up and down the mountain sides, searching, Chelsea and I were at the car where we started asking others strangers to help, Dave and the rest of the crew went in the side by side looking. Dave came back and looked worried. He said “Let’s get in the car and go down the road and see if we can see him.”

As I went to hope in the car, I looked over at Dave to see him saying a silent prayer. I know many silent prayers had already been offered. Dave and I got in the car and began driving down the canyon, as we were looking, we could see in the distance a young man wearing what looked like a carhartt jacket, and jeans. Dave pulled off the side of the road and got out and “whistled”. The kids know dads whistle. The figure we saw stopped and turned and looked around when he heard the whistle. We were too far away for him to spot us, but we could see him looking around. My heart was comforted, I knew it was Monson. We went back to the parking lot where more strangers offered their help. Dave started hiking towards Monson and I guided the strangers to the two figures walking along the mountainside.

As I have thought about this experience and the significance of hearing “a father’s call”, I have thought how often does our Heavenly Father see us wandering, lost, needing help; does He not “whistle” for us? How familiar is His whistle or call for you? Do we hear Him? He continues to call for us Mathew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. There are so many invitations from the Savior; In Moroni Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him,... again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift,.. He does watch over us, He loves us! It’s up to us to Trust in Him and heed his call! I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who does watch over each and every one of us, He calls for us, warns us, guides us and Loves us!!

-Shannon Morley