Hope letters
Finding hope through noticing God's fingerprints in our lives.
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It’s not much of a story, or a miracle. Still, It’s a hammer stroke that helped forge my testimony in God. I think I was 10, and I was playing a Sherlock Holmes computer game. It was one of those old games where you clicked on the screen, and if it was there was a clue there, it would light up. I had been looking for clues to get through a locked door for what felt like hours (it was probably only a few minutes). It felt impossible, and I was ready to give up. I remember saying a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to help me find a clue. Within…
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A Prayer of a Child
Some years ago, some close friends of ours loaned us their cabin in Island Park, Idaho. When we arrived at the cabin, we found that the key that we had been given to unlock the front door didn’t work. We tried to undo windows and pry open screens, all to no avail. Suddenly our son Steven, who was about seven years old at the time, shouted to us that he had just successfully opened the front door. Steven, with a big grin on his face, was standing triumphantly inside the front doorway. I was amazed. I asked him how he did that. He responded with wonderful, childlike spontaneity: “I bowed…
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Abide In Faith
While serving in Guatemala as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Randall Ellsworth survived a devastating earthquake, which hurled a beam down on his back, paralyzing his legs and severely damaging his kidneys. He was the only American injured in the quake, which claimed the lives of some eighteen thousand persons. After receiving emergency medical treatment, Elder Ellsworth was flown to a large hospital near his home in Rockville, Maryland. While he was confined there, a newscaster conducted with him an interview that I witnessed through the miracle of television. The reporter asked, “Can you walk?” The answer, “Not yet, but I will.” “Do you…
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That Darn Cold
Two weeks ago, my husband got sick with a nasty cold. It was not just sniffles. It was full blown fever, chills, heaviness in his chest. He thought he could die. It was that bad. Hey. It happens. We all get sick sometimes. The problem was timing. We had a daughter getting married and it was important that he could show up and support her. As this cold dragged on, the realization that being there was becoming bleak. With the wedding in two days, we were still waiting for the fever to break, a sign that he was getting better. The day before the wedding, I had the thought to…
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Miracles Through Death
One of the hardest things to go through in this life is losing someone. Especially a child. Our oldest got invited to a sleepover birthday celebration for one of his friends. That night, as most boys do, they stayed up playing games and eating junk food. Early in the morning they decided to go swimming in a reservoir close to his friend’s home. Having been up all night, they made it out about 100 feet and then realized they were exhausted and decided to swim back. All of the boys made it back except one. My son. As they looked around, they realized that he wasn’t with them and they…
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Help Through Prayer
When I was a young resident physician at Boston Children’s Hospital, I worked long hours and traveled between the hospital and our home in Watertown, Massachusetts, mostly by bicycle since my wife and young family needed our car. One evening I was riding home after a long period in the hospital, feeling tired and hungry and at least a bit discouraged. I knew I needed to give my wife and four small children not only my time and energy when I got home but also a cheery attitude. I was, frankly, finding it hard to just keep pedaling. My route would take me past a fried chicken shop, and I…
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A Blessing in Retrospect
A few years ago, my dad’s appendix burst, which was a tender mercy. Most people wouldn’t say that getting appendicitis and having emergency surgery is a miracle, but it was for my dad. When the doctor removed my dad’s appendix, he found cancer in it. Luckily, after some testing, doctors found the cancer hadn’t spread. With his appendix removed, he was cancer free. When we had time to process this situation, my family felt grateful that my dad’s appendix had burst. The cancer in his appendix was subtle, and without the emergency surgery, it’s likely it wouldn’t have been noticed until it was too late. Some people may consider my…
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Who Filled The Font
After missing a bus in Nairobi, Kenya, my companion and I decided to share the gospel with everyone we saw while waiting for another bus to our area. We talked to over 400 people. One of them was Benard, who worked construction nearby. We gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read it daily and ask God if it was true. Four months later, I was transferred to Nairobi. At my first sacrament meeting there, I saw Benard. He had since been baptized and ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. Benard excitedly invited us to visit his home and teach his wife, Megan. As we met with Megan,…
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He Knows Best
Late last year I was struggling a great deal in my job as a manager. The stress was becoming too much, and my employees were trying to take advantage of me. I kept praying that God would find me a new job or position at work where I wouldn’t be in management anymore, but I could still raise my young family. Things didn’t seem to be going anywhere and so I tried to take matters into my own hands and I asked for a temporary position in a different department as a manager. To my amazement they said yes and I thought it was all I could have wanted especially…
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Earthly Angels
Sometimes God uses others to help his earthly family. This day, we were heading home in the van with the family and we noticed the van was making funny sounds. We weren’t very far away from my sister’s home so we headed to there. They helpfully recommended a mechanic shop we could take our van to, to get it fixed. Thankfully, they had a car that my nephew had just purchased for us to drive home in. We were on the freeway just past Salt Lake, when we heard a pop sound that came from the bottom of the car. Both my husband and I looked at each other wondering…
