Miracles

I have been gathering quite a collection of what I am calling miracles since December.  My husband constantly refers to me as a walking miracle because things just seem to work out around me.  I am the kind of person that forgets that easily though and have to be reminded because I feel like a spend a fair share of my time deep in the dark of trials.  So my focus has always been on the trial and not the outcome.  I've got the kind of personality that if I were thrown in a pit by my brothers like Joseph of Egypt I would have thought that I deserved it and brought it upon myself.  Why, because I was stupid and told my family and was bragging about my dream and I should have kept it to myself so now I'm being punished instead of blessed.  That's just how I roll.  I have recently opened my eyes to the miracles that are occurring around me everyday and it is filling me with hope when the world is dark and bleak.  I haven't decided if I want to pull out a bunch of scriptures for this or how exactly to tell about the miracles I have either been involved in myself or heard about that have all happened since December.  I'm not a great story teller, or writer for that matter, and some of them are involving loved ones, so it leaves me unsure how to share.  My purpose is to testify of miracles.  To give hope when hope seems lost.  To remind people that God lives and loves us and is putting forth his hand to bless and help the lives of his children.  To revel the secret of getting the backstage pass to the symphony.

I have been witness to many miracles throughout my life but in December I made a conscious effort to be more aware of them.  I started doing family history and wanted to see if some of the promised blessings that come with doing that work would actually come to pass.  Like it says in Alma 32:27 to "experiment upon my words...."  I think I love this scripture so much because I have a very science oriented son and who doesn't understand what an experiment is?  You can actually keep data.  I was bold last year when my daughter was struggling with keeping a schedule and getting enough school work done in a day that she needed to.  The great thing about an experiment is that you get to decided for yourself if something is bologna or not.  My bold promise was that if she would stay up after getting home from seminary and use those early morning hours to work, she would get more work done in a few short morning hours than she was previously accomplishing in the entire day.  She just needed to go over her data after 1 week and then she would know.  So, can I actually receive the promised blessings of doing family history work by doing it?  The short answer, absolutely!  I have experimented  with the "least particle of faith and all things were made know unto me."

There are 12 miracles that I am going to try and sum up as best I can so that this doesn't turn into a book.  They are also not in the actual order that they occurred, just in the order I remembered them.

1-2.  We'll start with the 2 Christmas miracles.  There's not a lot I can say about these 2.  The extremely short version is that 2 things that I thought would never happen, like never.  Really truly not possible.  Happened.  The only explanation is that they were miracles.
3.  We wanted to help out someone that was looking for a job and recently lost one of their front teeth.  Not easy to find a job with a missing front tooth.  We know a dentist and my husband decided that he needed to talk to him to make a plan.  Finding time for my husband to make a call and when this dentist could receive such a call was tricky and discussing such delicate matters over the phone is not easy. He hadn't figured out how to do this and happened to be sitting in an airport in LasVegas when who should walk up to him, but this dentist.  How miraculous is it that 2 people that live in ABQ should meet up in an airport in LV when my husband really needed to talk to this person.  The plan for how to go about this was all made there.
4.  We were supposed to go to UT for spring break and ended up staying home (previous post about this)  because we were home my husband felt the need to check up on his sister that has some health problems.  We went over there with some treats and company and found out that they had been praying for someone to be able to help her husband give her a blessing and we showed up.  If that wasn't cool enough to stop there, she went to a new dr and is doing the best she has been in years since we were there.
5.  Some might not count this as a miracle, but to me it is, so there! :0)  I have also written about this as well.  Only a miracle helped me to pull off the massive family history activity we had that by all accounts should have failed.  Too many hurdles to overcome.
6.  There is someone else in our lives that has been struggling heavily with health problems that have changed this persons personality and when last we visited, this person seemed to be doing better than I have seen in a very long time and this observation was confirmed by their spouse.  I can't claim any part in this miracle other than putting their name on the prayer roll, offering prayers and my new favorite way to take credit for blessings ---family history work.  This is just a miracle that I'm putting down as witnessing.
7.  Another small thing that to some wont seem miraculous but to me is evidence that our Father in Heaven cares about the smallest of things and wants to help.  I have had a lot going on and I have been crazy busy and trying to be the best I can to as many as I can was starting to get a bit challenging for me.  I was struggling with pinning down an activity for my Mai Maids and was discussing this with my advisor while at a church activity.  One of my options was taking the missionaries up on helping me and they literally appeared and were walking straight at me.  Problem solved right there.  That was kindness and mercy for me trying my best but not having all the time I need sometimes to accomplish all that I need to.
8.  My friend told me about one of the miracles a mutual friend of ours was just involved in.  This woman who's husband had just lost her job was out for a bike ride when she slipped in some gravel and crashed.  She was unable to speak either from the wind being knocked out of her or from shock.  While she was laying there this friend of ours happened to be driving by.  She noticed that this woman was wearing garments and told her that she was her "sister" and she was going to go through the church directory and when she came upon her "ward" she could blink and then she would be able to call someone to help (isn't technology great).  In times of darkness we can be blessed.  My friend was put on the path to help a fellow sister so she could know that even though her husband lost his job and she just got really banged up (not a broken bone) she was not forgotten and was loved.
9.  This last weekend we got both sides of a horrific accident involving an RV and a minivan.  The RV driver blew through a red light and teed a minivan with a family in it.   My husband got the side from a friend representing the family in the minivan seriously injured. My BIL started telling us about his coworker that had just been in an accident so we got to hear the perspective of that family injured.  After my husband had heard about things from a legal perspective thinking of the tragedy of this family and all the pain and legal battles they were now going to have to face.  My BIL filled in the personal element and told us that when the accident happened one of the girls was near death and a trauma surgeon happened upon the scene.  He got out of his car and revived her 3 times while waiting for an ambulance.  She was revived 1 more time in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  Her and her sister were both given long term recovery goals and they have both recovered (using the term loosely) faster than predicted possible.  This woman has been through 2 divorces in the last few years and is having struggle after struggle but all she can do right now is "praise Jesus"  for his kindness and mercy for the quick and miraculous recovery and for that trauma surgeon stopping and saving her girl.  Again, in darkness there is light.  Again, not involving me but how interesting that we got both sides (well not of the RV driver) of the story within a day of each other.
10-11.  Just talked about the towel for the baptism and the meeting at the bookstore on previous post.
12.  My BIL told us of another miracle that he was a part of a couple of weeks ago.  He has been sharing the gospel with another coworker and trying to figure out how to introduce her to the missionaries.  She has been struggling with life as well.  My BIL was bugged that he actually had to meet this coworker at a storage unit to do a transfer of product to her (they are drug reps) because he had other things he needed to do, but sucked it up and met her there.  Who do they find just down the row from them but the missionaries helping a single sister in their ward.  They went down and talked briefly and the single sister in essence bore her testimony of faith in trials and the joy you can have to someone that really needed to hear it and they were also able to open the door for visiting with the missionaries.

So there you have it, my list of super cool things that have happened that some would cast off as coincidence or nothing special.  To them I say, believe what you want and I will believe what I know.  What I am marveling at right now is that though the world is getting darker and darker I am seeing more and more light.  I was talking to a friend today trying to describe the feelings and knowledge that I have and it feels like it would be about as easy as describing to someone what the color blue is to someone that doesn't know anything about color.  You just cant do it.  That's why you have to get your own oil in your lamp and it can't be given to you.  My invitation is for you to get your own oil in your lamp (its by those sunday school answers that never change).  Experiment upon the words of the Lord and then open your eyes and see the abundance of light surrounding you and then help those around you to do the same.

ps, my husband just called me at lunchtime with another miracle, but I definitely can't share this here because it involves work, but just know that it was a whopper of one.