Sunday in LA

It's very early California time, but around 9:30 am on the east coast. How ironic that I often have a hard time staying awake in sacrament meeting but when in a different place I can't sleep during it. :)

I'll write about a small miracle that happened last night on my trip to Los Angeles. I came for a week of industry meetings that start on Monday, but I flew in on Saturday. Around 5 pm California time (which was hours later Eastern time), I was hungry for dinner. After I walked the half-mile from my hotel to the nearest place to eat, I had a very slight feeling/thought that I should wait a couple of hours to eat dinner. I couldn't be sure, but it seemed enough like a prompting from the Spirit that I decided it would be better to follow it. It made sense to me that Heavenly Father might want me there to eat dinner when other people from our company finally arrived. (I did quickly get a slice of pizza but planned to come back later for a real meal.)

Several other things came up in the meantime, so I didn't make it back for dinner until it was late. The restaurant in our hotel had already closed (even though the hours sign said they should be open), so I walked the distance to the food court I had found earlier. As I walked in, I noticed all the shops were closing. I panicked because it was almost midnight for me and I still hadn't eaten dinner. Fortunately, there was a small hamburger place in the corner that stayed open. I got my food, sat down at one of the two tables, and was thankful that my choice to delay hadn't become a big problem.

A few minutes later, a man came in to order food, and I was very surprised by who it was. He's the head of one our biggest competitors. He's worked in the industry for a very long time, he's a high profile person at these meetings, and he's always been too busy (or important) to return a call or an email from me over the years when I've tried. He was wearing tennis shoes and a t-shirt and looked tired from traveling. We recognized each other, he sat down, and I moved over to his table. It would have been awkward to not talk since our little tables were so close to each other and we were the only people there. We had a great conversation! It was such a relaxed situation that we talked about each other's families and background and interesting things happening lately. We were just two guys hanging out having a burger. We even stayed to talk a little after we finished and then walked back to our hotels, which were close to each other. I felt like we made a real connection, which was a godsend before heading into a week of stressful, crowded meetings full of debates over complicated issues. It was amazing for me to spend 30 or 40 minutes with a person who I couldn't get 5 minutes with in any other way.

It was a miracle that I was in that place at that time and in those circumstances, which only happened because of a very faint feeling/thought that I had followed with faith hours earlier. The Holy Ghost is real, and He communicates to us small but key droplets of guidance from our Heavenly Father who is trying desperately to bless us in every way in our lives. But He still makes us listen and exercise our faith. I'm learning more and more how important (and great) it is to do that.