Elder Neal Maxwell said, “Someday when we look back on mortality we will see that so many of the things that seem to mean so much at the moment will be seen not to have mattered at all. And the eternal things will be seen to have mattered even more than the most faithful of Saints imagined.”
As I evaluate my life, I feel my testimony of the gospel and my family are the two most important things that I cherish. I feel blessed as I recall the experiences I have had in my callings and the blessings I have had to have married the love of my life, and to have been trusted to raise my four wonderful children. They in turn have blessed our family with their choices in marriage.
On Sunday morning, June 28, 1987, my husband and I were up early for Stake Conference to assure us a seat in the chapel. We knew it would be crowded because our stake was being divided. The phone rang at 7:20 a.m. and Brother Hadley, the Stake Executive Secretary said as I answered,”Sister Hampton, we’d like you and your husband to meet with the Stake Presidency as soon as possible.” Elder Bigler and President Jueschke were in the Stake President’s office, and it was Elder Bigler, our Regional Representative, who issued the call. We chatted briefly, and then he said, “The call is for Sister Hampton.” Turning to me, he said, “Sister Hampton, we’d like to call you to be the Stake Relief Society president.” I got choked up and a little teary as I accepted the calling. He then told us who our new Stake President was going to be and asked if I could support him. Of course I said yes. It was Steven Escher who had just been our priesthood advisor as I served with him as the Stake Young Women’s president.
He was a wonderful Stake President and I was privileged to work with him for nine years until he and I were released from our callings.
During a Relief Society presidency meeting, we had an experience that I have never forgotten. We had our opening prayer and began to discuss an affair we were planning for the women in our stake. We just couldn’t create a plan that seemed right for this special event. We felt frustrated. Then one of my counselors, Diana Hopkins, said, “Let’s have another prayer.” As soon as we did, ideas began coming to us one after another. It was so apparent to us that our prayer was answered. We felt blessed and excited as we realized, without a doubt, that we were being blessed and guided.
As a teenager, one afternoon, I stopped on my way to the kitchen and asked myself how I knew the Church as truly the Lord’s church. As I stood there in the dining room, I listed in my mind everything I knew to be true in the gospel. Then I thought to myself, “Yes, the Church is true.” And to this day, I can repeat without a doubt: Yes the Church is true!
Gerri Hampton
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