Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. John, Exodus 7 through 13. You’ve told me you have a story that fits. What is it?

John Bytheway:               00:15                   Yeah, you remember after all these plagues, boy, Moses says the coolest thing, Exodus 13:3, Moses said unto the people, remember this day, in which you have come out of Egypt. That idea of remembering a day, Hank, when’s your anniversary?

Hank Smith:                      00:31                   That would be March 18th.

John Bytheway:               00:33                   You remember that day?

Hank Smith:                      00:34                   Yeah, absolutely.

John Bytheway:               00:34                   Okay, mine’s November 28th. When’s your birthday?

Hank Smith:                      00:37                   That would be May 12th.

John Bytheway:               00:40                   October 8th. So you just, you remember those things. Yeah. They’re important days. Elder Dale G. Renlund in April of 2020, he gave a talk and he told this amazing story. He said, “I became acquainted with Thomas Nielson, a remarkable man who needed a heart transplant. He was 63 years old. That hits home. And lived in Logan, Utah in the United States. Following military service during World War II, he married Donna Wilkes in the Logan, Utah Temple, became an energetic and successful brickmason. In later years, he especially enjoyed working with his oldest grandchild, Jonathan, during school vacations. The two developed a special bond in part because Tom saw so much of himself in Jonathan. Tom found waiting for a donor heart frustrating. He was not a particularly patient man. He’d always been able to set and achieve goals through hard work and sheer determination. Struggling with heart failure, with his life on hold, Tom sometimes asked me what I was doing to speed up the process. Jokingly, he suggested avenues I could pursue that would make a donor heart available to him sooner. Remember Elder Renlund is a doctor, right?

Hank Smith:                      01:48                   Yeah.

John Bytheway:               01:49                   One joyous, yet dreadful day, an ideal donor heart became available for Tom. The size, the blood type were a match. The donor was young, just 16 years old. The donor heart belonged to Jonathan, Tom’s beloved grandson. Earlier that day Jonathan had been fatally injured when the car in which he was riding was struck by a passing train. When I visited Tom and Donna in the hospital, Elder Renlund says, they were distraught. It’s hard to imagine what they were going through knowing that Tom’s life could be extended by using their grandson’s heart. At first, they refused to consider their proffered heart from Jonathan’s grieving parents. Their daughter and son-in-law. Tom and Donna knew, though, that Jonathan was brain dead and came to understand that their prayers for a donor heart for Tom had not caused Jonathan’s accident. Their prayers for a donor heart, right? No, Jonathan’s heart was a gift that could bless Tom in his time of need. They recognized something good might come out of this tragedy and decided to proceed. The transplant procedure went well. Afterwards, Tom was a different man. The change went beyond improved health or even gratitude. He told me he reflected every day.

Hank Smith:                      03:07                   Wow.

John Bytheway:               03:08                   …on Jonathan, on his daughter and son-in-law, on the gift he had received, what that gift had entailed. Even though his innate good humor and grit were still readily apparent, I observed that Tom was more solemn, thoughtful, and kindhearted. He lived an additional 13 years after the transplant. Years he otherwise would not have had. His obituary stated that these years allowed him to touch the lives of family and others with generosity and love. He was a private benefactor and an example of optimism and determination. Now, just as Tom, Elder Renlund concluded, did not take Jonathan’s heart for granted. In a joyful and reverent way, Tom remembered each day, the tragedy that brought him extended life.

Hank Smith:                      03:55                   Wow.

John Bytheway:               03:56                   In the exuberance of knowing that we can be saved and exalted, we need to remember. Salvation and exaltation came at a great cost. Wow. I just thought, remember this day said Moses. And every day he remembered that gift.

Hank Smith:                      04:14                   Wow. What a powerful story about remembering, and it’s because you’re looking in the mirror that you’re gonna remember, right? Yeah. It’s the fact that you’re still breathing, that you’re gonna say- Yeah. Wow.

John Bytheway:               04:28                   Hank, can you remember Elder Kevin Brown of The Seventy gave a talk a conference or two ago and how he remembered the day?

Hank Smith:                      04:36                   Yeah.

John Bytheway:               04:36                   Right? Remembered the day that he accepted the gospel. These are important days, and here’s Moses saying, okay, everybody, don’t forget.

Hank Smith:                      04:45                   Remember this day.

John Bytheway:               04:46                   Remember this day.

Hank Smith:                      04:46                   That’s beautiful. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We’re with Dave Hadlock this week. He has quite a background in biblical Hebrew, and he shows us some really fun things about the Book of Exodus you’ve probably never seen before. And then come back next week. We’ll do another followHIM favorites.