Miracles often come through the kind acts of others - blessing both!

Our living room acted as an assemblage area for
our Sub for Santa project.

2020 hasn't been the year I would have foreseen.  While we all wish for changes in life's circumstances, there have been many miracles to go with these challenges. These miracles have come through blessings in my life that came from the kind act of others.  While I certainly was able to render assistance to others, I just wanted to take a few minutes and share how different acts of others, were direct answers to my prayers.  A testament to the fact that our Heavenly Father often blesses our lives by the acts of others, ultimately blessing both.

Replacing our driveway from 
rutted asphalt to concrete

For many years, 90 feet of our back driveway, which was put in by my mother in the late 70's became rutted and challenged.  I had tried some spot repairs with asphalt cold patch, which helped for a while, but eventually it was beyond repair. While I had tried to get bids to repair it, I actually couldn't get anyone to come look at it and it seemed like there was no great path.  My brother-in-law Bill Nielsen offered to help us pour a new section with concrete.  My neighbor Brandon, who also wanted to do a driveway extension as well, offered to rent a skidster and help remove the old asphalt. Brandon also helped us pour our concrete.  It also just happened that the Federal Government decided to do stimulus checks, providing me the needed gap money to pay for the concrete.  What seemed insurmountable, found a solution through the kind acts of others.  

Rose Park & Riverside Stakes efforts to provide
firewood for the Navajo Nation

Last September, on the day after Labor Day, our community experienced hurricane force winds, causing many of our canopy trees to come down.  As I looked at piles of trees on both sides of the streets in my community, it seemed like no easy solution would be available to us in the short term, however neighbor after neighbor helped each other remove trees that seemed formidable and with the help of crews from the Utah Department of Transportation, our community was cleaned up in a matter of a few weeks.  Near the conclusion of this effort, word came to us to provide firewood for the Navajo Nation which had been hurt severely by the COVID pandemic.  Each Stake in our area had been asked to provide a semi load of wood, but much of our wood had been picked up.  However the call went out, we collected the equivalent of two semi loads together with the Rose Park and Riverside Stakes but when it came time to have the wood loaded, we had been unable to secure a front-end loader to load the wood.  We had exhausted all our sources, when I knelt down and prayed, asking my Heavenly Father for help.  When I arose, I decided to call a rancher down the street from our church recreation property and he graciously provided us a front end loader free of charge.  We loaded both semi trucks in an evening.

Presents loaded in the car to take to our 
Sub for Santa family

A few weeks ago in my Rotary club, they asked for volunteers to help families attending a very modest neighborhood school on the west side of Salt Lake City.  I had decided it would be a good experience for my family, so I volunteered.  I didn't think much about it, until a few weeks ago, when a day after my furnace was declared dead requiring us to not only replace it, but a second furnace in my basement as well, I received an email outlining a family of four children, who had some very basic needs for Christmas.  We decided we could use our credit card and meet the commitment, but then felt like I should ask family and friends if they wanted to help.  Over the next five days, contributions in cash and items came generously to the cause.  A dear friend and her husband who works for a local retailer offered to purchase items on his employee day, saving us substantial money.  A local neighborhood business owner, brought over a gift card to a local grocery store, others brought stockings, toys and my own family contributed time and efforts.  When we delivered the items last night, we discovered that neither the father or the mother had been able to work, the father was recovering from a recent surgery and as the children carried the wrapped presents in, the joy on their face were unmatched.  What personally hit me hard, was to see the joy on the father and mother's faces that they were able to provide Christmas for their children.  And finally to watch the children be excited as they rolled their new bicycles into their homes.   It was a sweet sight to see.  All in all, nearly 15 people helped us in different ways to help someone else.  It was a miracle and in the end, our own cash outlay, was very modest, and the joy we shared with others, was a tender mercy this Christmas season.  

New bicycles strapped down on the trailer to
deliver to each of the four children.  Provided by
the generosity of others and through the discount of a friend