Giving

We had stake conference this weekend, and Elder Tiexiera [I THINK I spelled that right...] of the Seventy came to visit. He's from Frankfurt Germany but he seems to have lived just about everywhere. He told us this story about a man who lived with his family in Rwanda in the 70s. They were very wealthy and had a lot of possessions, but were very good people. One of the things that they had that was very important to them was a Mercedes Benz that they had picked out directly from the factory and they loved it very much. Anyway, a war started in Rwanda, and they needed to get out of the country. The fourteen year old daughter left fist, because the whole family could not travel together. They sent her to Portugal where they had a lot of family. The two sons left next, and then the wife. The man remained in Rwanda for a time to help the customers of his bank, to make sure that they would be taken care of. He had nearly everything taken from him. His massive collection of books was confiscated by the government. His money was absorbed into other funds. His house was foreclosed. He had nothing but money enough to leave and his Mercedes Benz. He met a friend of his on the road one day and asked how he was doing. The friend broke down into tears and told him how his mother was very ill and needed to go to hospital, but he couldn't get to her because he had no car, and they would never be able to leave the country on foot. This man reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys and handed them to his friend. "If there is any car that can get through the borders, it's this one. Take it." His friend thanked him profusely and left. The only thing this man still had and he GAVE it away. Years later, after he'd been reunited with his family and they had been living in Portugal for some time, he was walking along a port with his wife and on a ship docked there, they saw a car that resembled the one that they used to have. They went over to the captain, who told them they'd had the car for months just waiting for someone to claim it, but no one had. All they had was a note with a single name on it. It just so happened that it was this man's name, and it was this man's car. He opened the note and it read: "Dear [his name], This car saved my mother's life. I return it to you with a heart full of gratitude. Signed [his friend]." The only thing that he GAVE away was returned to him.
Elder Teixiera's message was this: what we give, we always recieve. And we recieve more than we ever give.
It was an amazing conference.