Olene S. Walker

July 09, 2019 04:00 PM MDT
All my life I have been taught to accept Church callings, knowing that despite my inadequacies, with the Lord’s help I could do my best. However, in September 2009, the bishop of our ward came over to our home for what my husband and I assumed was a friendly, get-to-know-you-better kind of visit. We were both completely stunned when he asked me, at age seventy-eight, to be the Primary president in the Bloomington Seventh Ward. My first response was, “Bishop, what are you thinking?” Why the surprise? My age aside, I informed him that I don’t see very well, I don’t hear very well, and I certainly don’t breathe as well as I did when I was younger. The bishop explained to me that as he reflected upon a new Primary president, my name kept coming to his mind. Although he tried to dismiss the feeling, after praying about the matter, he still felt impressed to call me. He even went to the temple to pray about who should be Primary president, and the impression continued that I should be called to this position. And so when he came to my home and offered his explanation as to why I was being called, I knew I could not say no. Could you say no, with such an explanation? Of course, when I told my daughter about the conversation, she said, “But did you tell him that you can’t sing?”
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