Liz's Wedding Dress

My family seems to have a certain amount of luck. My mom has won a lot of drawings and funny things here and there. Doug and I call Ryan the oil, because someone he can get people to do things they normally wouldn't do like refund airline tickets etc. But of all the people in our family, Liz seems to be the person that when something happens we're not surprised.  Like on her mission someone nominated her for some service award, which went to the state of CA and eventually went National. She found out when a letter of appreciation came in the mail from President Obama.

Or once she simply shared a donut with a worker at the airport and was bumped up to first class. Things like this just happen. She's kind, brave, likable so its good. 

This last month trumped every thing. Liz and Jimmy recently got engaged., my dad has been out of a job for a while so naturally money has been a concern with planning the wedding. One morning Liz said a prayer, asking for help to find ways to cut costs with the wedding expenses. Turns out at that very same time, my parents were at the temple seeking answers and comfort. 

Later that day, Liz had some time to run to a dress shop so she went by herself and tried on a few. She found one that she describes as "the one." So she went to put it on layaway to make payments on it. But to her surprise, the store clerk told her that the dress was already paid for. Liz was shocked and confused. She tried to get information out of the lady but all she was told is that another bride-to-be was dress shopping, didn't find one, but wanted to buy one for someone else. And Liz happened to be that lucky person. 

  

Obviously we were all touched by the story. Erika suggested Liz write it up and share it with KSL. Well one thing led to another and Liz found herself with the store clerk at the dress shop being interviewed for the nightly news. And slowly the word got out and Liz's story was on CNN, Yahoo, and many other news sites. She was interviewed by a number of radio hosts and other reporters. Of course it happened that way. The cool thing was the response it got from people. In the comments, people were sharing their stories of when a stranger "paid it forward" and helped them in a time a need.

And of course Liz was able to share a little bit about the gospel, answers to prayer, etc in some of the interviews.  

What a witness that people are good and the Lord cares about us and answers our prayers.