LDSW #12 - A Minor Miracle

While on our mission in Toronto, we were asked to plan a Dominion Day ward picnic that was like our old Lewisville Park celebrations, which was still being talked about months later. On the day of the picnic one of the leaders had an assignment to bring sandbag weights for the volleyball stands but he forgot. My husband had a minor miracle occur. It was a holiday and stores were closed, so he just started driving around trying to think of something. He turned into a cul-de-sac where there was a pile of 2' by 4' cement slabs with a sign saying, "free take some." They were perfect for the job and the bishop said he would keep them to use next year.

LDSW #11 - Why We Decided to Serve a Church Mission

In late1999 my husband and I had been on a visit to the Portland Temple. On our way home that evening he asked me how I felt about going on a mission for the Church from September to September.  He was a white water rafting guide and only wanted to miss one rafting season. I had several reasons why I didn’t think it would be a good idea, the major one being that my mother was living in an assisted living facility and I was her main moral support. I don’t know what cosmic beings heard that conversation, but my mother died exactly one week later. That was in February of 2000.


One of my sons who came to the funeral had a discussion with me. He pointed out that we had reasonably good health and we were out of debt. We had a regular pension income. He called it a window of opportunity. I had received a modest inheritance and felt that going on a mission is something my mother would approve of.


We started the process of applying to go on a mission. We had a lot of household goods we needed to sell or give away so over the summer we held three garage sales. During the last hour of our third sale I literally saw people come to the sale to buy the very things that were left. We still had some big items that weren’t in the sale, and we only had three days to get rid of them while cleaning house before our renters were to move into our home. In those two days we sold a car, had someone offer to store our washer and dryer in their shed, and eight other “miracles.” By the day before we entered the Missionary Training Center all ten items were taken care of. There is no doubt in my mind that we were supposed to go. We entered the MTC in late August of 2000 prior to our serving in the Toronto Ontario East Mission.  It was a great mission!