Hope letters
Finding hope through noticing God's fingerprints in our lives.
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The Dream
My dad was a brilliant accountant. He had retired from the family company and decided to pick up a few accounts to do on the side, never really wanting to retire fully. Sometimes, being the teacher he was, he would ask me to come help him balance out his accounts, teaching me little by little his business. At the time, I had a full time job. I never planned on doing accounting for a living so working with my dad was good because I got to spend time with him. The beginning of the new year, my dad found out he had cancer, and it was terminal. I felt confident…
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Never Miss a Prompting
On one occasion many years ago, I was swimming laps at the old Deseret Gym in Salt Lake City when I felt the inspiration to go to the University Hospital to visit a good friend of mine who had lost the use of his lower limbs because of a malignancy and the surgery which followed. I immediately left the pool, dressed, and was soon on my way to see this good man. When I arrived at his room, I found that it was empty. Upon inquiry I learned I would probably find him in the swimming pool area of the hospital, an area which was used for physical therapy. Such…
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The Angel at my Door
When I first moved to Pleasant Grove, I brought with me my two daughters and my mother. It was a big step. I had moved into a town where I knew almost no-one. I had purchased this big old home that needed work but I loved it. I had spent many hours dreaming of how to fix up and decorate this home and had so many ideas! I remember one specific day, really wanting to go shopping. It was a Saturday, and I wanted to get out of the house and go shopping. Maybe to a yard sale. Or maybe to the Deseret Industries. I was hoping I might get…
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Out of Gas
Sometimes I say in jest, “If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all”, but the truth is I am so lucky, so very blessed with the best family and friends. Last night, I drove to my dad’s home, spent a few precious hours with him, slept, had breakfast with Dad, and then spent the day at a wedding and other festivities. Then I had to drive back to St. George, leaving Lindon at 7:30. On the way back to StG, I did something tonight that I have only done once before in my life. I ran out of gas. Almost to the top of the Scipio hill,…
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The Miracle of Life
In April of 1961 my family was on vacation visiting family in Idaho. They were heading back home to Riverside California going through Oregon. My mom was 34 weeks pregnant with me at the time and she was getting antsy. She was hoping that if she drove that would help her. My dad pulled over and let her drive and he then took a nap on one of the seats of their VW van. Several miles down the road, the Axel of the van broke and my mom lost control. The VW ended up rolling a few times which threw my father out and killed him instantly. My siblings had…
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An Answer to Prayer
A few months ago, I started reading a book “God’s Smuggler” by Brother Andrew. I had heard of this book before and decided it was worth a read. This story is an excerpt of one of the many miracles that happened on his Service mission for the Lord. This book is FULL of miracles, it was hard to pick out just one. The roads in Yugoslavia were extraordinarily hard on cars. When we weren’t climbing fierce mountain trails, we were fording streams at the bottom of steep valleys. But the worst threat to the little VW was the dust. Dust lay over the unpaved roads like a shroud; it sifted…
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Without Purse or Script
I love how the Lord takes care of those who are on a service errand preaching of God. In this case, Brother Wilford Woodruff was sent on a mission without purse or script, preaching the word of the Lord. In every instance of his mission, no harm came upon him. He did, however, suffer through the tempests and storms, the unfriendliness of others, lots of wading through mud, travelling sometimes over 50 miles a day by foot to get to where the Lord wanted him to go without the sustenance of food. To preface this story, he was protected from certain death by the hand of the Lord. On the…
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Small Blessings
I have the most beautiful tender mercy I thought I’d share with you, prefaced with a little background. When I go to church every week, I always just slip in the back usually because I’m either right on time, or slightly late and can avoid any kind of disruption of the worship walking in front of people, having people scoot over, etc. In the back of the church, the chairs are hard, with the softer benches at the front of the chapel. They are uncomfortable! There have been more than a few times I’ve complained to my friend how hard the chairs are, longing for padded chairs. This morning, as…
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The Gift
Miracles big and small all come from the same place. The difference is that we often claim the small ones as lucky, something that just aligned in our lives for no reason. We celebrated the gift giving part of Christmas late, since some of us were sick the day of actual Christmas. There was one son I hadn’t purchased a gift for. I had really pondered what I should give him. He has a partner now and so it was even more challenging choosing what to get them both that would be thoughtful. Finally, after much thought, I decided to get him a gift card at one of the local…
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STOP
Late one afternoon, we were heading home from a hunting excursion our family took every year. I grew up in this small town, and as you drove down the street, there was a railroad track with a stop sign. The tracks were rarely used, and as a kid I would just barrel through the stop sign, no need to look. This afternoon, going down this same street, fast approaching were the tracks and the stop sign. I had many of my children with me, chattering about the weekend, all of us looking forward to going home. As I approached the tracks, I heard this loud voice say STOP. It was…
