1. Stinging nettle is appropriately named.
2. The Lord does His most important work through small impressions and good people making good choices.
There's an African woman in our ward who had a baby this weekend. Mary doesn't speak German and is alone here in Germany, so a couple weeks ago Sis. P started worrying about her and asking us to call her and tell her things. I thought it was wonderful that P was worried about Mary, but I knew the Relief Society presidency was taking care of her so I wasn't too worried about it. Once P mentioned that if no one was already planning on being with Mary for the birth, she would gladly go.
Then on Friday, R from the Relief Society presidency called and asked us if we would go visit Mary in the hospital. We said we would, and right before R hung up I mentioned that she should call P and ask her if she wanted to visit Mary, too. She said that was a good idea and hung up.
We did end up visiting Mary on Saturday morning, but we didn't find out what all had happened until church on Sunday. R called P and told her Mary was in the hospital and she should visit on Saturday if she had time. It was already 10 pm, but P felt prompted to go to the hospital right away. Through a series of small miracles, she was allowed to sit with Mary for a couple hours even though it was well past visiting hours.
At 1 am, the doctors tested the baby's heart rate and found out it was racing, as well as some other stuff, and determined that instead of waiting for a normal birth they needed to perform a c-section right away. None of the doctors spoke English, or if they did, didn't take the time to explain to Mary what was happening. But P explained it to her and comforted her enough that she agreed to the c-section. Afterwards, the baby was unstable so they rushed her to intensive care. Mary was so out of sorts and scared that it took P 2 hours to explain that her baby was safe, alive, and in the hospital, and she would be allowed to see her in the morning. P went home at 5 am.
As P was telling this story in sacrament meeting, I was overwhelmed with the realization that if P hadn't shared her feelings about Mary with us a couple weeks ago, and if I hand't remembered at the last second to ask R to call P and tell her Mary was in the hospital, it's very likely that the baby would have died. And if not, Mary would have spent maybe all night in terror, unaware of where her child was or whether she was alive.
I can't help but feel that saying "Oh, you should call Sis. P, she mentioned she wanted to visit Mary when she went to the hospital" is possibly the most important thing I've ever said in my life, and I am beyond grateful that the Lord allowed me to be a small part in this wonder.
Please don't ignore small ideas to do good things. Just do good things. When I made my planner cover for this transfer, I picked a sentence from an Ensign article about our prophet Pres. Monson: "Put simply, President Monson does what most people only think about doing." If you've thought about doing something good for someone recently, even if it's dumb or small or maybe a little uncomfortable, just do it. Allow the Lord to bless you by using you in His work.
Love, Sister Teusch
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