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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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Let’s Play Chess
Not too long ago, I invited a son from another mother to move into our apartment. His circumstances were grim. Here was a grown man with two young children living in the basement family room of a family friend. This room was probably 300 sq. ft. at best. He didn’t have his own bathroom, no kitchen, and no actual bedroom. This room was his home. His bed and the children’s bunk beds were in there. So was his heat plate to make his meals. This circumstance was difficult at best but fit his price range at $400.00 a month. Here in our apartment of 1300 sq. ft. was a one…
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The Change
Last week I called the airlines to get tickets to Seattle for the big convention this weekend. Normally, I’d just go on the app and reserve there, but I had a voucher for $600.00 that I wanted to use. The lady was nice, helped me through it all and reserved the tickets for me. Fast forward to today. I went on my app to check in early and there was no reservation. I was sure I had seen the reservation last Friday after I got off the call but I had no trips, so on the phone I went. The first woman I spoke with had no help for me. …
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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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Thank God for Redirected Prayers
I had the coolest experience today. I was thinking about this house we are planning to build. It’s really been a strain. We’ve gone back-and-forth, over and over about if we should do it or not. Today, which is Sunday, I thought, “Well, let me really go pray about this.” I went to my bedside and knelt down. (My husband was not home.) I then began to pray about the house and I did so for maybe 3 or 4 minutes, when my son’s name came to mind. Suddenly I was filled with a great desire to pray for him. I began to ask the Lord what I could do…
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20/20 Vision
Today, as I had breakfast with my husband, I overheard the table next to me talking about how interesting it was that this person would lose their job, only to get a better job that made their life circumstances better. They commented how lucky she was. Hindsight is 20/20. Oftentimes we have hard things happen to us, only to see a much better circumstance come out of it. It got me thinking about an experience that I had that had an amazing outcome. When my mom was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, I was living in Sandy, Utah, running my first company, Utah Property Solutions. We secured bank owned properties,…
