If We Only Knew

by Emily Jensen

Three years into Ryan’s graduate program, Ryan’s mentor came to him and told him that he was moving to Philadelphia and asked Ryan to come with him. This was definitely not a part of our plan, as we were expecting to finish the remaining 3 to 4 years of Ryan’s schooling in Ohio. We had developed strong friendships there, bought our first home and loved where we lived.

We had only been to Philadelphia for one day during a vacation prior to this. It wasn’t a place that we wanted to live and raise a family, and would move us further away from our families back in Utah. Everyone we spoke to told us how horrible it would be to live in Philly. It would complicate Ryan’s schooling, and our finances. It seemed like an easy answer.

Despite all the reasons to say no and stay where we were, we decided to pray about it and go to the temple. I just felt that this would give me confirmation to know that we should stay put.

Well, needless to say after leaving the temple we both felt impressed that we were to move. I was not thrilled and we got a lot of push-back from our friends when we told them we had received an answer to move. They encouraged us to keep praying but I knew that Heavenly Father had already given me an answer and it didn’t make sense to me to pray for a different answer.

So somewhat begrudgingly, we moved. Not knowing what awaited us. Because of a lack of time we contacted members (who we didn’t know at the time) to help us find a place to rent (the internet wasn’t what it is now). They helped us find an apartment and we moved, site unseen.

Almost as soon as we arrived we were faced with trials. I was pregnant and became very sick and unable to take care of our two year old, while Ryan was working. We had left our support network back in Ohio and it felt like we had made a huge mistake.

Throughout our time in Philadelphia we had many challenges but we were also able to see the blessings that Heavenly Father had in store for us and were given a glimpse into why our family was led there.

One such blessing was the ward that we moved into, which afforded us many amazing experiences and spiritual growth.

Around the same time that we were moving from Ohio, many many refugees were moving into Philadelphia from refugee camps in West Africa. They were forced from their homes during the civil war in Liberia. They came to America with their suitcases and little else.

During the five years that we lived in Philadelphia we were blessed to see many of these sweet people come to church, gain testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel and get baptized. They touched our lives in ways that no others could. We grew as a family and the members of our ward became our family.

We were able to serve some of the most loving people. We were able to attend the temple with them as they were endowed and witness them being sealed to their families. We had experiences there in Philadelphia that I know we couldn’t have had anywhere else.

Our testimonies grew and we were able to see the love Heavenly Father has for each of his children. Although our time in Philly was hard, I am grateful for the opportunities that Heavenly Father gave to our family and for giving us an opportunity to move there and answering our prayers to do so.