Sept. 21, 2011

A Story of the Lord’s Blessings

There have been many times in my life that I have known almost immediately that the Lord has heard my prayers and sent the appropriate messenger to fulfill my needs or the needs of my family. There has been one person who the Lord has sent many times and he has heeded the call each time. I know also that the Lord ahs asked him to do it for many other people as well and that he has also heeded those calls. But for the sake of keeping it possible for the Lord to continue to bless him and so that it doesn’t appear to you as the reader that he has done it to seek earthly recognition I will not mention his or the name of his family. Just know that we have come to love them through these and many other opportunities where we have been served by them and also many times that we have been able to return service to them.

The event though I will try to spell out in detail so as to not be misunderstood as to how the Lord blessed us so greatly.

During my marriage we as a couple and family have received many blessings through good employment for myself. For many years I was able to be the total bread winner for our family. I was first employed by American Television Service in Orem for three years. I ended up leaving that employment because of consistent loss of income due to the employer going back on promises. I found myself working long hours and knew that my family was suffering from my never being able to be home with them. The boys small and I very often was gone before they woke up and not home until they were in bed again. So between the job and home I felt it important to try and change employment. I can’t even remember the final straw that caused me to quit but I do remember the morning that it happened. Marie and I had talked about it and she made the comment “You may want to quit but you won’t.”  So I put all of my extra shirts in the van and later left for work.. When I got there I talked briefly with Carl Haupt, the owner and boss and then left the keys with him and walked home. I left around 8:30 Am and got home around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was 14 miles part of which I followed the train tracks so that I wouldn’t continue to be asked if I wanted a ride. The blisters formed and I finally accepted a ride from Frisby’s for the last two miles.

I went without a job for nearly two months until I finally got employment at Signetics at between a third and a half the salary I had been making at AM TV. However one of the Lord’s blessings came within a year when I was the making more than I had been and my original salary was tripled. I worked with Signetics until the company moved to New Mexico and I wanted to stay here with my family. Bishop Anderson found out that I would be unemployed and asked if I wanted to learn how to make chocolates since they owned Kara Chocolates. I started working there 9 months before Signetics actually shut the doors.  Within a couple of years Bishop sold the candy company and a little over a year after that I also quit that job. (This time though I didn’t walk home.) I had been asked several times to work graveyard shifts for the company and did it willingly until it became evident that I was wasting time there during the night. I was asked to work but would often run out of raw chocolate or place to store the candy as I made it. The night I quit I had told them I would work on condition that there be enough chocolate there that I could produce the candy all night. Well I got there and had enough to keep me working for 1 and a half hours. So in keeping with my promise to them that I would leave I left the key on their desk and locked the door behind me. I had enjoyed working there but again missed promises were more than I needed to worry about.

Little did I realize though that my worries had just begun but so also had the real blessings from the Lord began to be manifested in my behalf and that of my family also. I worked as an Insurance agent for a few months and as a full time photographer and later at a cabinet shop (Anderson Cabinet and Mantle) and finally at my current employment with Provo Craft. There were many times that finances would seem to be all gone and we would lose the house and yet each time we would either be able to refinance enough to keep us going. I had $40,000 saved in an IRA account when Signetics shut down that ended up being used to help us stay afloat. But one day in particular before I was hired at Provo Craft the hours I had been able to work had not been bringing in sufficient finances. I remember that day so well because I sat in the den trying to pay bills and was nearly $1,000.00 short. I broke down in tears and then fell to my knees to pray for an answer as to what I should do to be able to pay the bills.  It was only a few hours later when the doorbell rang and our friend had come to see us. He inquired of our family as he always does asking me to report on each child and what they were doing. We talked for an hour or so and then he pulled a check from his pocket and said he had a feeling come to him that morning that we needed this and left it with us asking only for a big hug for thanks. After he had gone we opened the check to find it made out for $1.000.00.

That was only once of several times when we have received help form the Lord. Some of them we don’t know where they are coming from but they always come when we have done what we can to make ends meet. Then the Lord whispers in someone’s ear and we are blessed. I only hope that I have done the same when the Lord has whispered to me, although I am sure I probably haven’t done it enough. I am truly thankful for the Lord’s blessings and truly thankful for those who have heeded his call in our behalf. 

Even now with Marie and I both working we are often without money but I have always noticed as that happens we get blessed with a wedding to photograph or a family to photograph and sufficient money for our needs are received.

New Entry 02/08/2010

I feel that I need add a segment to this story. We have ended up getting a Passat Volkswagon. It is more expensive than we had hoped and may end up being far more expensive before we will be able to trade it but I hope to be able to someday soon. Anyway the real story I have to tell this time was about our trip to Colorado this past weekend to Kasia’s baptism. Ben, Hayden , Tia , and Marie and I with their families all made the trip to Colorado despite snow storms predicted both going to Colorado and coming home. Hayden left first on Wednesday and went half way to Grand Junction and stayed overnight then went on in on Thursday getting there around 4 or 5 pm.  They went swimming with Hallie in the morning and made the trip a little less stressful for her. Scott, Tia, Marie and I then left around 2 pm and drove straight thru getting there around 10:30 pm.  Hayden hit snow storms but didn’t have too much trouble getting thru. He also went thru fog just as we did when we came thru later and we also hit snow from Vail to Eisenhower tunnel. We went quite slow and didn’t have any trouble either. Ben then came thru as far as Grand Junction that night arriving there about the same time we got to Jeff’s. They had hit heavy fog thru the areas where Hayden and I also had only theirs was much thicker. Well they came on the next morning after letting the boys play and enjoy themselves arriving around 4 pm Friday night. I was so thankful to have us all there safely. 

We had a lot of fun playing and having dinner together Friday night and then had fun going to Kasia’s last basketball game of the season and later to her baptism. It was such a special day and we all enjoyed it. For some reason though that day Hayden had decided to check the fluids in his car. It was good that he did because he was low on oil so after we got home from the dinner following Kasia’s baptism he and Jeff went and got some oil. The car was 4 quarts low meaning they had driven to Colorado with only one quart in the engine. The Lord had really blessed them since the extra heating from having to cross over the mountains had not caused the engine to seize. Hayden and Cheyenne left for Grand Junction Saturday evening around 5 pm and arrived safely in Grand Junction around 10:30 pm.

We  again played games and had fun but retired to bed a little earlier that night. The next morning due to bad weather reports in Grand Junction we decided to leave t 8 am instead of going to church. Ben wanted to leave at that time and I felt it best that we travel together. We had heavy storm thru the mountains just west of Denver but when we came out of the Eisenhower tunnel the roads were clear and we were able to travel a little faster. However prior to that we had lost track of Ben and didn’t know why we had lost him. We had passed a van that had slid from the road and rolled. The passengers were apparently Ok since they were standing outside the vehicle. We slowed way down and found out that as Ben was approaching that accident that his car started to slide around and so he got into the outside lane and slowed down. He later caught up to us as we were going slow enough for him to do so without added danger of driving faster.   After we had started down the other side of the mountain we were getting near to Vail Tia got a text from Cheyenne stating that sliding off the road was fun Go Team Go. We were not sure what it meant until she later informed us that they had slid off of the road. They were doing about 70 and the car went into a spin of about three turns and then hit a snow bank and rocked up onto tow wheels then back down. They had to call a wrecking truck to pull them free from the snow and get them back on the road. As he got up to speed the car started to shake and he found out that the accident had caused it to go out of alignment. They were only able to drive the remaining miles home at less than 60 miles per hour arriving n Payson around 4:30 PM.  They had truly been blessed a second time by not being injured as the car could have rolled had it been in any other area of the highway.

We came home on dry roads pretty much the rest of the way with just a little precipitation around Grand Junction. It was a true relief when we were all safely home again around 5:30 PM.  The Lord had blessed all of us but Hayden had been the recipient of his greatest tender mercies. I am thankful that we had his watchful care upon us as we had gone to this wonderful event. Jeff and Brittany also arrived safely home form a cruise that they had been on, a present from his boss. They had a great time and were also safely home. Loren and Rachelle were at home in Texas as the distance for them to come was too prohibitive.