I was watching general conference again this morning while Duff was taking the kids to the airport. The choir sang the hymn Do What Is Right in-between speakers. I love this song. I learned something from this song that helped my testimony when I was a little girl.
It was Sunday, June 2, 1968. My dad's side of the family met regularly on the 1st Sunday of each month for a Family Meeting. It was fast Sunday so in those days we went to church in the morning and had Sunday School and Fast and Testimony meeting right after. Usually we had SS and then went home and came back for Sacrament meeting in the evening. But on fast Sunday we had the whole rest of the day uninterrupted. On this particular Sunday, we met in Monterey Park at my dad's aunt and uncle's home. They had a pool in their backyard and we LOVED to swim there. It was a warm day and so the 'younger' kids got to go swimming while the adults had the meeting and visited. It was a great day!
We drove home and I remember that it was dark and late. We pulled into the driveway and garage. We 3 kids had fallen asleep on the ride home. We came into the house quietly and went to our rooms to get ready for bed. They were ransacked! Our home had been broken into and we were robbed! If you have never experienced this, let me tell you that it is AWFUL! It is such a violating feeling to have your drawers dumped on the floor, items hanging out of your closets, etc. My dad called the police right away. Our late night became very late as the police came and investigated everything and took our statements and pictures. I remember shaking and shaking. It must have been shock. I remember going outside in the back yard with my dad and one of the policemen. Our next door neighbor was out on their patio, apparently concerned with what was happening at our house. My dad said hello and waved. He waved back and went in through the sliding door. We later learned that he wasn't the neighbor at all! It was most likely the burglar because our neighbors were out of town and when they got back their home had been robbed as well and it appeared that the burglar slept in one of their beds! The nerve! We cleaned things up and went to bed, but didn't sleep much.
My dad's gun was missing. A few days later, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed with the same kind of gun that was stolen from our house. We spent a few days with a lot of anxiety until the serial numbers didn't match up. Whew......
The next day, Monday, I was practicing the piano. I liked to play the church hymns and pretend I was the organist/pianist and was accompanying in church. Oh, childhood fantasies! That is the farthest of dreams for me now. I turned to the hymn, Do What Is Right, and played it over and over. The message sank into my heart as I was still trying to come to terms with our break-in. Even though we had gone to church, we had not kept the Sabbath Day holy. We had gone swimming without any thought or regard to keeping the sabbath. ".....let the consequence follow". Now, I understand that our break-in probably had nothing to do us kids swimming (but you never know...), BUT it pierced my heart with the importance of doing what is right in all circumstances.
And I've never forgotten that experience.
