My Mormon Moments

I had two experiences on my way to San Francisco that I wanted to remember. 

#1
On my flight from Portland to SF I sat by a lady that I ended up talking to the entire way.  She was similar to me in that she married young (21), had 3 kids, had similar morals, and we are both religious.  Other than that we lead completely different lives.  She lives in a ritzy area north of SF, has a second home in Tahoe, and she has a nanny.  She works in a high up position for her company and travels a lot.  I am very middle class, Mormon, and stay at home all day with my kids.  I'm my own nanny. 

What I found most interesting about this woman though is that she was curious about Mormonism.  Not that she was interested in converting, but she was curious about our beliefs.  The no coffee, no drinking, type of questions.  I found this interesting because she told me that there were lots of Mormons in her neighborhood and the CFO of her company was Mormon and she had noticed that he and his wife never drank at functions.  While she had made all of these observations she had never asked any of these people why.  She obviously felt safer asking a complete stranger these questions than someone she saw on a regular basis.  I can't remember the last time I was asked direct questions about my religion.  Perhaps because I'm like one of the Mormons that this woman lived by.  A little too caught up in my little Mormon world, perhaps?  There are 3 LDS families on my street.  There are a fair amount of LDS families here but not a ton.  I know that we are known.  And none of them have felt that they could ask me about my church.  I'm not exactly sure how yet, but I need to find a way to fix that.

#2
I was really nervous about traveling by myself.  I have absolutely no sense of direction.  None.  Literally.  I knew I could handle my layovers and changing planes fine.  But I was terrified to get myself from the airport to my hotel.  By myself!  I needed to get a shuttle and somehow they were supposed to know what hotel to  take me to even though I barely knew.  I wasn't very trusting. 

But after getting lost only once I found the shuttle vans and got myself on the list to get a ride to my hotel.  It was shortly after this that I realized I didn't have my phone with me.  I panicked.  I NEEDED my phone.  I was in a strange place with no help.  It was like I was living in 1997.  How was I supposed to get ahold of anyone?  Or remember the specific name and address of my hotel?

My name was called for my shuttle.  I announced to the crowd that I lost my phone and I went back into the airport.  I had an idea of when I might have lost my phone but I couldn't remember where I had been at that moment.  I immediately started praying.  Quietly but verbally as I was walking.  I asked the first people I came to that were sitting where I thought it might have been but they didn't speak English.  I continued walking and had the thought to ask the woman at a flight counter if she could use her phone to call my phone and maybe if I was lucky I would be able to hear it ringing somewhere.

I walked up to her and just said, "I lost my phone..."  she stopped me and asked, "Is it purple?"  I almost cried.  I just said, "Yes it is!"  I was so relieved.  I was also so grateful that someone had turned in my phone.  I've heard horror stories about theft in San Francisco. I was also so grateful I had been led to ask the woman that had been given my phone.  Tender Mercies.