A few years ago my son Jase had taken his car and parked in on USU campus w/some friends  so they could attend a dance. When it was time to come home, they couldn’t find the keys anywhere. He returned home w/out his car figuring he’d find it when the sun came up the next day. For several days he and his friends went back to that area and searched for the keys. No success. I was starting to get nervous bcs I knew that he had to get the car off the lot before the next week or he would have it booted and towed. (another expense I couldn’t afford). L I sent him back several times. I called a locksmith and found out it would cost about 200$ to replace the keys. I just didn’t have it. I called all of the campus offices and the campus police to see if anyone had reported them. One night I had a dream. In my dream I saw very clearly jason’s keys….they were in some hedge bushes up against a large brick building. So I had the thought of asking jase, “where else did you go when you were there?”.

 “no place else, just the dance” he replied.  

Then the thought occurred to me that maybe he had been doing his parkour/monkey climbing on the campus buildings, so I asked and he confirmed this thought.  The next day I was very upset at jase. He had given up on finding them. He and several friends went up to campus and searched again only to return empty handed. When they arrived at home I went a little berserk. I reminded him that I don’t have the money to pay for new keys, nor could I afford to pay the boot or tow. I was major stressed out. I tried to get them to go back, but they insisted they weren’t there. I even told him of my dream and he sd, “there aren’t any brick buildings up there”.  Then I asked the clincher question: “have you asked Heavenly Father where they are?”

He and his friends sniggered at me. “no mom, that’s stupid.”

I sd, “maybe so, but if anyone knows where they are, it is He”.

“fine then, YOU ask”. I

I sd I would. I called meg and she came to get me. In my emotional state I told her that I needed to pray for help and that if there ever was a time when I needed my prayers answered, it was now. That I needed to prove to these kids that HF answers prayers. So I prayed.

Meg took me to campus and pointed out where the car was parked. I walked around the spot where the car was, I looked in the garbage cans nearby. Then I walked to a raised garden planter and hopped up on the wall. Lo and behold, like the heavens themselves opened and a finger was pointing, the keys glistened! (okay, okay, maybe there wasn’t a glisten, but there MIGHT have been…it was hard to tell through my tears). I raced home, showed the boys and told them how my prayer was answered.   I know it seems simple and even stupid, but I knew that if I went back empty-handed I would have several boys who would have fuel to be doubting thomases. J HF took that excuse away. J

One year I drove to northern California as a single mom w/my 4 boys at the time. because of divorce, I had to get 2 of my boys to meet their dad in Nevada. Long story short, I was struggling really bad financially, and just prior to our trip had bought my oldest son Jase a pair of sneakers. I was so tight on money that I was hoping those shoes would last the entire school year. Anyway, there were a lot of little miracles on that trip, including driving past a couple of deer who were between us and a mountain and they didn’t run out in the road, and a couple of other things that I don’t now recall (shame on me for not writing them down), but the biggest miracle was this:  about halfway into our day long trip I decided to pull over and let the boys get out and run around under the guise of trying to catch a lizard or find a tortoise. Anyway, we randomly pulled over and got out and ran around for a bit, then hopped back in the car. We drove on to our destination and started the return trip with just me and Jase and Taylor. Most of the drive consisted of a road driving between tan sandy desert dotted w/black rocks and occasional cactus. After about an hour of driving (if my memory serves me right) at about 80 mph I thought I spotted a black shoe. I asked jase, “do you have your shoes?” he sd, “yes, I do”. I sd, “get them”. He looked around and held up a shoe. (all the while I was still driving, but had slowed down to abt 60mph). I asked him where the other one was…and he looked realizing he didn’t have it!! I drove back and miraculously found the missing shoe (that we hadn’t known was missing) within a few minutes. It was a miracle bcs I wasn’t looking for it, it was a random fall-out-of-the-car, and it was in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and I was driving super fast and didn’t have the best eyesight. (still don’t).  Had we gotten back w/out the shoes, I don’t know what I would have done. I truly didn’t hae the money to replace them. That was a huge tender mercy for me.

Just thinking about tender mercies... thought i ought to write abt a few of them. I have to tell you that these are personal and sacred to me. but they are my testimony that there IS a loving creator who is our Father in Heaven. i cannot deny that i know this, and here are some of my reasons...This past week we had a toilet clog. I understand that’s not a big deal, but it has happened so often that I am just soooo disgusted by it. …and it didn’t just clog, but it overflowed…so there was brown poopy water everywhere. And as I plunged and plunged, it splashed all over me. I felt like a kid who had fallen into an outhouse hole. It WAS that disgusting.  But there’s more to the story…. The week before, it had happened again. After plunging and snaking for a very very long time, I finally called a plumber. He came and spent a good 15 minutes working on it w/his industrial snake. …and between that and the new water heater that was needed, we spent $500. So I could NOT afford to call him again. I spent an hour trying to snake the poop, but couldn’t get the snake down at all. Twice I left it, figuring I’d leave it for Eric to take care of when he got home. And twice I returned feeling guilty. But I was using every muscle in my body to get that snake down, and it just wouldn’t go. I was sweating like crazy, and on the verge of tears. Finally I said a silent prayer as I was plunging, “I need help. I can’t do this by myself. Please. We can’t afford the plumber again. Please” ….and AS I WAS PRAYING, I FELT THE SNAKE HANDLE START TO GO LOWER… I’m not kidding either… it was  a little miracle. A true blue miracle. Sure enough, the toilet unclogged and I was able to flush it, clean it all up and have the bathroom fresh smelling again. And STILL had time to shower before p/t conference!