Friday, October 24, 2008

1978 - 2008

You undoubtedly have heard me relate the story of how, on the night before we were to be married in 1978, a member of our ward who had agreed to accompany Brenda as her escort to the temple called and told Brenda that she would not do so. You may remember that Brenda – in some desperation – called Ardeth Kapp, whom she had met once three years previously, and asked if Sister Kapp might go with Brenda to the temple the next morning. Sister Kapp graciously agreed, staying until the ceremony was complete and then quickly leaving because she was late for a meeting with President Kimball! In the years since then, we have maintained a correspondence with Sister Kapp.

A few weeks ago we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Sister Kapp was to be the speaker at our annual Stake Youth Standards night. I bent (okay, broke) the rules a little and wrote to Sister Kapp asking if we might be able to see her while she was in town to speak. She was nearly as excited to see us as we were to see her and we got to enjoy dinner (hosted by the Stake President’s family) with Sister Kapp and a little bit of private time with her following the youth meeting.

Prior to this opportunity, we did not know if we would ever see Sister Kapp again. What a blessing it was for us to renew our acquaintance with her and to understand in richer detail than before just why she agreed to put her busy schedule as a counselor in the General Young Women presidency on hold and accompany Brenda to the temple. We are richly blessed to know Sister Kapp and hope that in some way we might be able to impact the lives of another individual as she has ours.

We do not have a photo of Brenda and Sister Kapp from our wedding (she had to leave before we took photos), but here is a photo from our recent reunion with her.

1 comment:

S.Faux said...

There are deep ways to help people and there are superficial ways. Most of us take a lifetime to learn the difference. I get the sense that Sister Ardeth Kapp mastered the difference early in life.

Read this interview of her.