" I will go before your face...mine angles round about you, to bear you up"

As I type these words, my heart is filled with gratitude. Gratitude for my circumstance of life. I became very ill the past few days, and this is the worst possible time to be sick. I lost my apartment due to debt, both business and personal. I live in my parent's1984 RV with has leaks when it rains.. Having no way of repairing the roof, my father bought us a tarp to cover over the RV until the raining season in California ceases. There is no paved cement on which the RV is parked, so my wife and I either have to go through my parents house, which inside resides a cat that Liz is very allergic to, or to walk in mud and do our best to keep it out of the RV. When its dry and the windows are open, the dust settles all over our tables and clothes, it truly is a chore in itself to keep the RV tidy.

It is the Christmas season, and we both work in retail. We work long and hard hours, and I have become ill. When one of us misses work, we miss a bill to be paid, or food to eat. There has been times where we have sat in our break rooms at work and envied others eating food while our peasant portion wasn't enough to satisfy our hunger. I have contracted a case of Strep Throat, a sickness that I haven't had in years. This is the worst possible time for me to have this sickness because of the work that I will miss.

I felt that all was lost, everyone keeps telling me that" it could be worse", and then it gets worse. I keep telling them "Yes, but it could always be better..." I say that so I will do my best and focus on the positive aspect of my life's, even though I feel that I can count my blessing on my fingers.

As I went to the urgent care, I wondered how would I pay for this. Our cell phones are about to be turned off if I don't pay them and this money now has to go to making me better. I feel so selfish and wished there was another way.

Liz and I got out of our car and Liz reads the name on the door and suddenly gasps "Dr. Robert Rigg JR." I recognized the name, and it reminded me of the slight envy that I have of Taber's career success, and the yearning I wish to give that success to Liz and he has to Becca. I figured that was no relation, and believed it was a foul trick played upon a broken man. As we entered the Urgent Care, I started filling out the paperwork and Liz asked if Dr Rigg was there and the nurse said yes.

We then were taking into a observation room and were asked the normal procedure questions that a nurse is required to ask. Liz told the nurse that she believed she was related to the Dr, it being Taber's brother. The nurse then walked out the room and informed Dr. Rigg of us claiming to be related to him, we could her Dr. Rigg outside ask "What's their last name?" The nurse responds "Mucci". "I don't know any Mucci's" Dr. Riggs replies. After the conversation Dr Rigg enters our rooms and says "How do I know you?" Once he entered the room, Liz knew right away he was Taber's bro, and began linking the missing pieces.

He was so excited that we were there, he was telling everyone that his in-laws were there. He sounds like a boy who received a new puppy for Christmas. It amazed me to think he was so excited to tell everyone we were there, surely he had closer relatives that mean much more to him than a couple of strangers he met merely 10 sec prior.

However, I have come to learn that this was not the case. I learned that he is successful yet lives alone, with his son who recently returned from a mission. Oh, how my heart ached for his situation, for I know the pits of loneliness far too well. After he checked me out he asked if we had insurance. We told him we are waiting on Liz's work to send us a card and the details on how to use it. He simply said "When you get it, just fax it over to me" and "Don't worry about paying today, I won't charge you anything." He gave me the antibiotics that I need to get better and we were about to leave, then he asked if he could take a picture of us and send it to Becca. We laughed and said sure.

After leaving Becca called Liz and they chit chatted about the experience. I on the other hand was taught a wonderful lesson by the Lord. I recently have felt that the Lord has abandoned us until we "learned our lesson" so to speak. I felt punished for trying to live a normal life. I felt like because I was married so I wouldn't fall into excommunication, that I was cursed for not being sealed and using self control until March 20, our original wedding day. We sacrificed almost everything, including ties to family members, to be together and it seemed that the Lord wanted to take more. I was wrong.

The Lord was with us through it all. He is all knowing, and because of his great power, created a plan that started more than 30 years ago for this one moment in time. If Dr Rigg never became a doctor.....if Becca never met Taber....if I never met Liz...If I didn't lose it all...none of these extraordinary blessings would have ever came to pass. But they did, and because of those wonderful blessings, I too get to enjoy a small blessing of a $13 prescription given to us by a man, who loves his family, and by a God who loves us all.

The Lord is real, his gospel is real. "Therefore, ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." (3 Nephi 18:19-20).

I testify that the Lord is always at work "to bring the immortality and eternal life of man."(Moses 1:39) He knows each one of our problems, all the way down to the sickness you contract the night before. I prayed to be borne up by the Lord last night,and an answer to that prayer I did receive. The Lord had to humble me so that I might once again see his awesome power and his mercy that he so willingly gives. May you all not be like me and go the hard way to know that the Lord is there, but keep the commandments and focus on your sins of omission, so you may enjoy the fruits of the Spirit, and know of the love that God has for all of his children. We are all #1 in His eyes. May this testimony be recorded here on earth and in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.