His Apostle

When we first heard that Richard G. Scott was coming to our Stake Conference, both Todd and I knew that somehow we would have to find a way to have Gabe meet him.  You see, he's Gabe's apostle.  The  Sunday morning after Gabe was born I was just getting up.  I had only been released from the hospital myself the day before and was still nursing my c-section.  The phone rang and the voice asked if I was sister Sparks.  I said yes and he introduced himself as Elder Zwick from the Seventy.  He asked if I had a baby at Primary Children's hospital.  I said that I did and then he said that he and Elder Scott were going to be up at the hospital that evening and asked if I would like them to come and have Elder Scott give a blessing to my baby.  I was stunned!  Never would I ever imagine having a phone call such as that, but I was so grateful that he would even be willing to come and bless my sick little infant son.  So later that afternoon our family all gathered and and we met with these two brethren up in the hospital lobby.  He visited with us for a few minutes before we were allowed to bring everyone into the small room in the neonatal intensive care unit.  They had to make an exception to allow that many people in at once since it is the NICU policy to only allow one parent and one other person into the NICU at a time.  Elder Scott had Todd stand in with him and they both placed their hands on Gabe's head and blessed him to heal.  What an honor and a privilege.

Since that time, every time we see Elder Scott on General Conference or a photo of him, we always say to Gabe, "There's your apostle".  So when we heard of him coming and speaking at our Stake Conference we were so excited and happy for Gabe.  The night before we received a call asking Todd if he would be willing to help reserve the parking space for Elder Scott and remove the cones for his car when it arrived at the Stake Center.  So Gabe followed his dad around that morning and they even gave Gabe a little usher button.  After Elder Scott arrived and got out of his car, Todd introduced Gabe to Elder Scott and told him of the blessing he had given Gabe 11 years ago.  Elder Scott was cute and remarked that Gabe certainly looked better than the last time he saw him!    It was a quick moment, but he was gracious while a very sweet lady from our stake snapped a few shots!  I am thankful to her for being right there and then sending them to us.  What a cool experience and one that Gabriel will always remember!