This week is going to be shared a little differently. It is Mother’s Day. What a wonderful day to celebrate having and being a mother! There is something I want to recount from a talk given in General Conference in April 1997, by Jeffery R Holland. It was called “Because She is a Mother.” At the moment, as in some instances, I remember the feelings I had when I heard it and how it MOVED me to action.
Those days when that talk was given, I was a student at UVSC, aka UVU now. I had placed an application to BYU since I was finishing up an AA degree. Well, that same day I had received a rejection letter from BYU saying I had too many credits that were transferred from my Fullerton Junior College transcript. Needless to say, I was devastated. Then I heard Elder Holland’s address. It gave me such courage to write a letter immediately to the person who signed the letter rejecting my acceptance to BYU.
I don’t recall what all I said, but the point was that I just KNEW I was supposed to attend there and could they please reconsider? A few days later I received a phone call from the committee person and he gave me a few suggestions to write another letter to the committee directly and also pointed out that the credits the letter referred to was from my cosmetology major. It turns out since BYU doesn’t have that kind of program, it negated those credits going against me. I did exactly what that kind gentleman told me to do. Then I received another phone call congratulating me to tell me I was accepted! I received a letter besides later. I was so excited that I baked that kind man a plate of chocolate chip cookies and took them to the administration building. He didn’t know what to say other than no one had ever done that before . . . and the rest is history! I got in and completed in three consecutive semesters. I applied to the U of U for a Master’s and finished in 2000. Whaa HOOOO!
“One other story. This week I was reading aloud in Doctrine and Covenants 97:1-2. As I finished the verses, [in Spanish], I had this perception come to my mind and saw my great-grandmother Maria Elena Eduiges Rodriguez- Ulloa and her daughter’s sitting in her home in San Antonio, TX visiting each other. I told Ron what I saw in my mind’s eye before I read it in English to get the exact verses to understand clearly what I had read and saw at the same time. Then he said, “I wondered if they have accepted the Gospel on the other side.” There is no doubt in my mind they have, but it was a good question.
Maria Elena Eduiges Rodriguez Ulloa with her family in 1918
Doctrine and Covenants 97:1-2
1 Verily I say unto you my friends, I speak unto you with my a voice, even the voice of my Spirit, that I may show unto you my will concerning your brethren in the land of Zion, many of whom are truly humble and are seeking diligently to learn wisdom and to find truth.
2 Verily, verily I say unto you, blessed are such, for they shall obtain; for I, the Lord, show mercy unto all the meek, and upon all whomsoever I will, that I may be justified when I shall bring them unto judgment.
I feel peace that these faithful women have accepted the truth on the other side. I stand all amazed.
These are the parents of my great-grandmother, Maxima Munoz and Clemente Ulloa.
