Last week I finally got around to putting the podcasts of the Old Testament scripture discussions by BYU religion professors onto my iPod.(See byub.org/scriptures) Rather, I got around to having my son putting them on. These are so cool! Imagine having three of four LDS people who study the scriptures for a living sharing their insights for 30 minutes. This is the best colloquium to listen to Now I have 30 podcasts to catch up on to get to the place in the Bible that we are studying in Gospel Doctrine. That’s OK. So I listened to the first two while I exercised Tuesday and Wednesday. I was feeling so enlightened and eager to hear the next morning’s round of two podcasts while I exercised. But that night, I lost my iPod. Somehow it seemed to have floated away.

That made the next day of running/walking not as fun. I was missing my epiphanies that come while listening. I missed hearing the great insights about the OT from my former next-door neighbor in Provo Brother Kelly Ogden. Where could it be? I racked my brain and I prayed that night, asking God to bring it back to me. I imagined myself cradling this astounding tool for learning in my hands once again. The next morning while I was walking I wondered how that iPod could have just disappeared into thin air. I reviewed the events surrounding the last memory I had of it. I had had it downstairs while listening to Democracy in America and then I went upstairs to go to bed and somewhere in between it went POOF! Lo and behold, I got an idea. Or rather, God spoke to my mind clearly with the thought that I should check the clothes I was wearing the night before that I had put in the dirty laundry. The iPod was probably caught in my clothes since I had had the iPod tucked down my front while I was listening to what my four-year-old daughter calls de Tofu (de Tocqueville).

I called my scholar phase daughter then and there to ask her to carefully check all the dirty laundry as she put in the wash that day (Her scholar phase stewardship is to was all the laundry in the house). Later that day she said she did but no iPod. What do you know, but two days later, my son heard a clunking in the dryer. Sure enough, that was it. It had been through the washer and was now getting fried in the dryer! AAAAAACKKK! The image of my dear iPod floating in my washer, with water seeping completely through it, made me feel sick. At least it wasn’t one of my children drowning or something that is alive, I kept reminding myself.

I wasn’t so much mad at my daughter for not finding it as I was mad at myself for not following through on that revelation I got and checking myself. My daughter apologized for not finding it. The amazing thing was that I was at peace. I knew that it was replaceable. Any time I have a problem, I just remind myself that if time and/or money can fix it it is not a problem.

My son however, the techno-geek son, took a different approach. His reaction was as if it was one of his children, as he raised his voice to ask if it was OK. He immediately Googled “how to fix an iPod that goes through the wash.” Can you believe what answers are on the Internet, just a google away? The answer was to stick it in a bowl of dry uncooked rice, to draw the water out. Bless my brilliant son, he gave me hope. I never would have thought to google that one.

That was Saturday. On Sunday I bore my testimony in fast and testimony meeting that God spoke to my mind and answered my prayer. But I was in mourning the next day when I exercised sans iPod. Then the next day another son reminded me that I had an mp3 player on my cell phone that I could use until my phone got resurrected. That’s right! Last fall when it was time to get a new phone, I had a distinct impression that I should get one with an mp3 player. That was God speaking to me again. So I was blissful again with my OT podcasts the next time I exercised.

By Wednesday, my iPod was completely resuscitated. it was amazing to witness. A complete miracle! Hooray! I feel so blessed!