The Baklava Story

There are several stories I like to tell from the mission that I served in Arizona for my church, but my favorite is the Baklava story. I gained a lot of weight in my first seven months, and decided to give up chocolate in an effort to lose some of it. Since it was just a few weeks before Christmas and everyone thought giving the Sister missionaries candy was a brilliant idea, it was quite a sacrifice. (Sadly, my resolve only lasted about three days. Oh, well. It was a good idea. It still is.)

Well, on that second day I was sitting in the backseat of our Toyota Corolla, and I said to my two sister companions, "You know what I really want? Baklava." My companions laughed and said things like, "Oh, Sister. You are so funny!" 'Cause, honestly, where does one find baklava in Northern Arizona? I admitted it seemed far-fetched, but the fact remained that I wanted some.

That evening, we visited a member family; we were teaching a less-active member there. After the lesson we sat and chatted for awhile, the mom turned to us and said, "One of our Christmas traditions is to make Christmas candy and set it out for visitors. We have cookies, chocolate, and baklava."

I was stunned, and my companions' heads whipped around to stare at me. We quickly filled in the family on my declaration from that morning, and they quickly dished out some of the sticky pastry and presented it to me. It was delicious -- exactly as I had hoped!


The story continues:


Six months later, I was serving with one of those Sisters again. We were serving in North Phoenix and tracting in 112 degree heat. And as we walked along I said offhand, "You know what sounds good? Steak." And Sister W quickly said, "Don't do that!"

"Do what?"

"Don't give me 'do what?' Sister I-Want-Baklava! I don't like steak!"

She was joking, but that night we had a steak-and-chicken stir fry.

Now, some might call these a coincidence, but I don't think they were. I think they were thoughtful blessings from my Heavenly Father. I think this because they came at times when we were struggling. We were working really hard, but having trouble finding people who wanted to hear our message. And since Heavenly Father wasn't about to take away the agency of the listeners and make them accept us, He instead gave us little blessings to remind us that He was still mindful of us and wanted us to be happy.

I've been thinking about this story a lot lately as I reflect on 2009. I had to go through a lot of junk last year, and the "big" blessings I think I want aren't working out the way I keep hoping they will. But, whenever it seemed life was getting too hard, I'd go to Cafe Rio and realize I had a free meal, or a dear friend would call and invite me to lunch, or I'd remember that I already had money set aside to cover my co-pay for the umpteenth doctor visit. Heavenly Father would divert my attention from my struggles with wonderful, personal, tender mercies to remind me that He knows and cares about me.

I am very grateful for these little blessings. There is a lot I can't control -- relationships, my job, scary drivers -- and I tend to get really overwhelmed with the details of life. I don't like surprises and I don't like changes. But all I need is to recognize one of those tender mercies... and then I notice another and another and suddenly remember how blessed I am and how good life is in general. I know I can't manage everything I have to do by myself. My difficult trials are only manageable with Heavenly help, and since I'm not always good at asking for help I'm glad that Heavenly Father knows how to get through to me!