I know that Heavenly Father watches out for each of us, and knows each of us individually. 

Last week we had stake conference at church.  Mom and I were anxious about this one, because we knew that that would be the end of our serving in the stake young women's presidency.  Mom had reached her 5 year mark of serving in that position, and I had been in for almost 4 years. We had known this was coming, since June, which made each activity more bittersweet.   

We had a visiting member of the Seventy presiding for our stake conference.  I had a MidSingles activity on Saturday night, so I didn't attend the Saturday night meeting or I would've known what I'm about to share a day earlier. 

We had a "morning-side", like a devotional, but we had it at 8:00 a.m. with our youth and their leaders.  We got there a couple minutes before it started, so we sat on the second row and near the center.  The meeting was going, it was a nice meeting, and then the member of the Seventy started talking.  He had this cute Spanish accent, and he was talking about growing up in Argentina.  As I was listening to him, I thought that my cute dad would've loved to have been there.  He served his mission in Argentina...

---Once upon a time Sandy Nicholes was shopping at Harmon's in Sandy, and overheard a young woman speaking Spanish, Argentine-Spanish.  He followed her voice, and introduced himself to her.  After talking for a short time, he invited her and her family to dinner at our house the next night.  My poor mom, being the only one not able to speak Spanish, besides us little ones, made dinner and passed it to everyone without being able to communicate with them. 

Our families hit it off right away!  The girl at Harmon's name was Christina, she was married to a man named Rudy.  Christina's mom, Maria, took care of Cristina's kids, and when I was 4 and Collin was 2, she babysat us for a while.  (I have no memory of how long, but I don't think it was very long, because once I started kindergarten, we were babysat at Grandma Mamie's .)

Maria's husband, Hugo, owned Precision Time clock store. We moved to Layton, and Daddy died.  We'd occasionally see them at their stores when we were downtown or at Fashion Place, but we didn't have much to do with each other after that.  We saw them around Collin's mission farewell.  They gave him a beautiful watch.  Sometime in 2007 was the last time we saw Maria, right after her cute Hugo had passed away.---

So, back to Sunday...  I leaned over to Mom, and said, "That guy reminds me of Rudy."  His name was Elder Rudolfo Franko.  Rudy/Rudolfo, I didn't put it together until the end. We were heading out, in between meetings to clean out the stake yw closet, and when I stood up, I looked down the row, and there was this woman, that although older, had eyes that I would never forget!  It was Christina!  I walked over to her, and Cyd was going to introduce me to her, and I cut her off (not even thinking), and said, "You're Christina.  Maria babysat me!"  What an amazing experience!  We talked for a long time!  I got to hear all about their family, and how everyone is.  We talked about my dad.  It was so sweet!  Rudy... Elder Franko was up talking to some of the leaders, but then he came down, and Christina told him who I was.  He turned to our stake president and told him what a great guy my dad was.  He then told me that Dad has been a part of their family.  They talk about him, and have wanted to be like him, because of his kindness and love for everyone. 

Some sad news was that this sweet Maria passed away last Christmas.  I wish that we would have known.  She was an amazing, beautiful woman that was so kind and generous!   Whenever I hear Peter Cetera on the radio, my heart jumps back to being in her living room listening to it with her, as she watched us, and taught us about her Argentine culture.  We were so blessed to know her!

I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father gives me little tender mercies, when I need them!