"Honesty" talk

Yesterday I gave a talk on "Honesty" in sacrament meeting.  I told a lot of stories about myself and how I had learned honesty during my life.  At the end, I said I want to go off topic and tell this story from church history, and then I'll get back on topic.

This story from Joseph Millett's journal is one of my very favorite stories.

“One of my children came in, said that Brother Newton Hall’s folks were out of bread. Had none that day. I put … our flour in sack to send up to Brother Hall’s. Just then Brother Hall came in. Says I, ‘Brother Hall, how are you [fixed] for flour.’ ‘Brother Millett, we have none.’ ‘Well, Brother Hall, there is some in that sack. I have divided [it] and was going to send it to you. Your children told mine that you were out.’ Brother Hall began to cry. Said he had tried others. Could not get any. Went to the cedars and prayed to the Lord and the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millett. ‘Well, Brother Hall, you needn’t bring this back if the Lord sent you for it. You don’t owe me for it.’ You can’t tell how good it made me feel to know that the Lord knew that there was such a person as Joseph Millett.” 10  ( Gifts, Thomas S. Monson, APRIL 1993  Gen. Conf.)

Then I told the congregation that I was able to  participate in an answer to prayer a couple of years ago.  I was shopping in Target one day, and looked down and saw a wallet.  As I was turning it in to an employee at the front of the store, I opened it and discovered it belonged to Rachel L., a young mother who was in our  ward at the time.

I called her and left a message.  Later  she called me back.  She said that after they had looked for the wallet and couldn't find it, they had left the store and said a prayer.  Her little boy had prayed that someone honest would find his mommy's wallet.   You don’t know how thankful I was that God allowed me to be the answer to her little boy’s prayer.