Wednesday was my first subbing day. I was called last week
to see if I would sub for the PE teacher. It was really fun! I went to the
school about 20 minutes early and had to set up (which took longer than I
thought). Luckily, I had kindergarten first and they have a shortened PE Time.
The game I was to play with them was a little complicated but I made it through
the 25 minutes. One little girl was all worried because I had them line up at
the wrong door and did a few things different than the normal PE teacher. The
other kids just went with the flow and did what I asked. I had to explain
several times that I wasn’t Coach Deaton and I was sorry I did things
differently. After Kindergarten, I had to go outside for recess duty for about
45 minutes. I walked around and helped kids was all over the blacktop and the
in the grass (there was another lady out there with me). Brittney came out to
recess, so she came and gave me a hug and Hayley came out too. After recess
duty, I had about an hour before my next assignment, so I really read through
my lesson plan and had a better idea of how to run the next PE Classes after
lunch.
I decided I’d better eat my lunch before my next recess
duty. I went into the Faculty Room (by myself) to eat and I had my phone so I
could read my Conference Talk while I ate. I had just eaten the second bite of
my sandwich when I looked down at my hand and noticed my diamond was no longer
in my ring. There was nothing on my prongs! My heart just sank to my feet—I think
I was in shock a little too! I hurried and put my sandwich back in my lunch bag
and walked to the office to tell Bonnie (she is the assistant secretary and she
is in our ward). She was talking to someone so I waited and my heart was just
racing inside thinking of how was I going to find a little diamond—I had been
all over the place—all over the playground and all over the grass. When Bonnie
was done, I told her I just lost my diamond and my voice was totally cracking because
I was on the verge of tears. She asked when the last time I noticed it and the
last time I remembers was when I put it on this morning. The assistant principal
came in and we started to look. I backtracked to the faculty room and searched
under the table and to the door that lead outside. I went to the PE office to
check under the desk where I had been sitting reading the lesson plans and
couldn’t see anything. As I walked out of the office, I saw Mallory’s teacher,
Ms. Ottley, in her classroom by herself. I walked in and told Ms. Ottley. She
said, “You had better find a place to pray.”. I told her I had been praying in my
mind ever since I saw it missing. Ms. Ottley told me she would have her class
come and help me when they returned from computers. I decided to go outside and
check the floor of my truck. I searched the pavement as I walked out and didn’t
see anything. As I was walking outside, I heard Mr. Clough over the PA system
make an announcement that a substitute had lost her wedding ring and for the kids
to keep their eyes open and that there would be a reward in the office for
anyone who found it. As I walked back in the school, I thought, I need to check
my purse. I had been digging in my purse looking for my phone when I first got to
the school. So I went back to the PE office and started looking through my
purse. At the same time, I was trying to call Scott and work to let him know.
While I was on hold and searching my purse, Ms. Ottley came in and said, “You
need to look in your car and in your pockets.” I told her I had just come from
the truck and she started rummaging through my coat pockets. I told her I hadn’t
worn my coat yet so I started taking things out of my jacket pocket I had on. I
had a dry erase marker and some magnets in my pocket and then I stuck my hand
in my “Empty” pocket and felt a little hard stone and pulled out my diamond!!!!
I couldn’t believe it!! Well, I could believe it because I was holding it in my
hand!! I was very emotional as I hugged and thanked Ms. Ottley for her
inspiration and help and for knowing where to look. It was about 10 minutes
from the time I noticed my diamond gone until the time I pulled it out of my
pocket. MIRACLES HAPPEN!! Meanwhile, I was still on hold waiting to talk to
Scott. Trevor (a guy at work) came back on to tell me Scott was now with
another customer and to see if he could call me back later. I told him to have
Scott call me if he had a minute before 11:45. I hurried to the office to tell
Bonnie and Mr. Clough that my diamond had been found in my pocket. I then went
back to the PE office to say a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for
inspiring Ms. Ottley in helping me know where to look. I was right by Hayley’s
class and I caught her eye and told her to come into the hall. She had no idea
that the missing ring announcement had to do with me. I quickly told her the
story and reminded her that Heavenly Father truly answers our simple prayers
for things that are important to us. Ms. Ottley called Mallory out of computers
too and I shared how Ms. Ottley helped answer my prayer.
I went into Ms. Ottley’s class again to thank her again. She
told me how after I left her class the first time, she stopped and said a
prayer. She said she had an image of a car and a pocket come into her mind. She
told me she has lost many things over the years and she never hears a voice
telling her where to look—she sees an image in her mind (she told me of an
experience with a lost credit card and she saw a white lunch sack in her mind—the
pharmacist had put her credit card in the white sack when picking up a
prescription and the sack was in the garbage and she found it in the white sack
in her garbage). Anyway, I thanked and thanked Ms. Ottley. I thanked her for
being in tune and I thanked her for her spiritual gift because she has a
spiritual gift. She then said something so profound (I have been thinking and
pondering about this since Wednesday). She said, “Isn’t that why we go to
church each Sunday, to partake of the Sacrament so we can ‘always have His
Spirit to be with us’”? Wow! That is so true!! Ms. Ottley gave me a Ziploc bag
to put my ring and diamond in.
Scott called me a few minutes later and was grateful to hear
it had been found. I had about 7 minutes to hurry and eat my lunch before I
needed to be outside for lunch recess.
The rest of the day subbing went really well. Mallory’s
class came to PE as well as several neighbor kids (3rd graders and 2nd
graders) that I knew.
After school, I took my ring and diamond to Aaron’s Jewelry
to have them reset the diamond. I had absolutely no prongs on my ring—I need a
whole new crown to hold my diamond. The lady at the jewelry store was amazed at
my condensed version of my story—lucky is what she said – blessed and miraculous
is what I said. It will take a week for them to fix my ring so I am wearing my
pearl ring this week.
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