PRAYER

DRIVER'S LICENSE MISHAP 
Feb 2013

I am so thankful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father answers prayers.  I had misplaced (aka LOST) my drivers license and I couldn't find it anywhere! After about a week or so, I was getting pretty anxious about it. I had the impression that I should pray and that Heavenly Father would help me find it. So I went into my office and knelt down by the couch in there and prayed. Before I even got up from the couch, I was just trying to retrace all of my steps and think of any possible places my license could be.  Without even thinking about it - my hand automatically reached out into the couch cushion where it immediately hit something thin and plastic.  I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled out - MY DRIVERS LICENSE!!!  I was soooooooooooo shocked!  Looking in the office couch had never even entered my mind!  In fact, it never even occurred to me to reach my hand into the cushion - but the next thing I knew, that's what I was doing!  AND... of all the places I could have knelt to pray, I was just inches away from it.  I was so happy and gave an immediate prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father for answering me instantaneously!   The next morning during Enrichment with the kids, I shared this experience with them. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of what we need EVEN before we ask it. I am so grateful for this faith building experience :)

Songs for Jesus

May 2013

John and I had a really special experience with Lexi (age 5) this week... she told us that she quietly sings a song to Jesus each day to make him happy.  We asked her if we could hear one of the songs (she said that there were several different songs that she sings) and so she began to sing the sweetest little song in a tune that she had made up herself (I'm guessing since I hadn't ever heard the tune) and it was basically a song of her testimony of prayer. She sang how she will try so hard to be like him and she knows one day that she will be like him. She also sang about how she knew she could pray to him if she ever lost anything and he would help her find it.  It was so sincere and beautiful and it touched my heart so much!!
We also had a prayer experience with Nathan this week (age 6)... he couldn't find his web slinger (for his Spiderman costume) and was getting very frustrated. He then came to John and I and asked if we could pray to find it. He said the prayer and it was found within 1 minute!! We then all came back together to give a prayer of thanks :)  It was awesome!

HOWLING IN PAIN

Dec 2013

Ben had fallen asleep on the couch one afternoon and after about an hour, mom heard him awake with a start and just start wailing in pain (which is very uncommon for Ben.. he has a very high threshold for pain!). Mom ran out to him and it turned out he was having a really bad Charly Horse and couldn't break the cramp. He was just begging and pleading for mom to make the pain go away and then he stopped suddenly and looked at mom and said in an urgent voice "I know! We need to pray!" and so without another moments hesitation, the two of them bowed their heads and said a prayer that Ben would be ok and within about 15 seconds, the pain subsided and Ben was able to go back to his napping :)  I felt so grateful and humbled that prayer was Ben's first line of defense against the pain! I pray that will always be the case for him!

NOT THE VEHICLE FOR US

March 2014

I am so grateful for PERSONAL REVELATION! I am so thankful that we can go to our Father in Heaven in prayer and get direction in ALL areas of our life! Case in point: buying a vehicle! We've been looking for a few weeks now and we finally found one that we could see ourselves in and thought it'd be a great fit for our family (however, it had higher miles and we were worried it wouldn't last us as long as we wanted it to, etc...) so we PRAYED! We both got the answer that it was NOT the suburban for us and so we passed. I 100% know that Heavenly Father will lead us to the perfect car!

LOSING $5,100

May 2014 

Sometimes we don't know why things happen - especially when they are hard things. We've been struggling with getting our deposit back from the duplex that we moved out of in January. As far as we knew - we had dotted all of our "i's" and crossed all our "t's" and were anticipating (even needing) our deposit back.  We've even been consciously praying as a family (for about 7-8 weeks now) to help us in getting our deposit back. The struggle ended this week - and not in our favor. In fact, not only were we now not getting our $2400 deposit back, but we were sent a bill for an additional $2700 (for breaking the lease). Unfortunately their paid representative hadn't been honest with us from the start. After I had a good cry about it (because let's face it - $5100 is A TON OF MONEY!!!) I then turned to my Heavenly Father in prayer and asked for comfort and understanding. I had several thoughts come to me that inevitably brought peace...
     1) The thought came that had we stayed in the duplex, somehow we would have lost even more money! I'm not sure exactly if that would be that we'd find a different (more expensive) house to move into when the lease was up and over time, we'd spend much more than $5100 in additional rent costs (than what we're currently paying) or what but I had the feeling to be grateful it was only $5100!
     2) I had the feeling to really look at the happiness our family has felt since being out here in our current place. It is night and day difference in our "happiness level" compared to the duplex. We all love it out here and I felt so sad to think that we'd still be in that small duplex.
     3) Everyone is well, happy and HEALTHY (well, minus August's broken hand) but nothing life-threatening! It's was just money and how we have been blessed with so many things in this life and the health of our family being one of them!
Anyway, after my prayer, I just felt 10 times better and have been able to make it through that little hiccup of life! I'm so grateful that we can turn to prayer in our time of need (whether it be for inspiration, revelation or simply for comfort). Knowing Heavenly Father is always watching out for me, I can make it through anything!!

GLASSES LOST IN THE RIVER

June 2015

Ben had a wonderful experience this week with his prayer being answered. After he lost his glasses in the river (and everyone was in helping him look) he said that he was just praying so hard to Heavenly Father that He would him find them... shortly after he closed his prayer he said he felt something with his feet (and originally just thought it was a stick) but then as brought the object to the surface he realized that it was his glasses!!! And more miraculous was that they weren't broken! He said he immediately gave a prayer of thanks for the help.

TURNING IT OVER TO THE LORD

June 2015

I love the power of prayer! With August gone to Boise to take Cami to her High School prom (and Dad and I not really liking that decision) I have been praying a lot! And you know what?... I have felt at peace. After turning everything over to the Lord and asking for protection over August, what else is there to do? When the 3 of us prayed all together to get an answer, we felt that it would be good for him to not to go, but that if he did then everything would be OK and that it really needed to be August's decision. August said that he too felt good about either staying or going and after thinking about it for an additional 10 days, he finally decided to go. He has been very respectful of our wishes while he's been there and I'm happy that he's been able to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Vogt.

A HOT BREAKFAST (AKA: HOW WE FOUND THE PERFECT HOUSE IN BILLINGS)

April 2016

The past few weeks have really been faith testing! I'm one who struggles with letting doubt creep into my heart and start dwelling on the "what ifs". It has truly been a blessing to have the Temple in our midst again and to be able to have gone a couple of times since arriving here into town! Like I mentioned earlier, the inventory for a larger home rental is scarce and expensive! We have seen a house that we liked but didn't like the neighborhood (it was a bit run down and junky) and then we've seen a house that we loved the neighborhood but the house was run down and junky! We started wondering if maybe we should just take one of these houses since there were literally no other choices and we were scared that if we didn't jump on one of them, we'd miss out and have no where to move into! Finally I took my concerns to the Lord while at the Temple. A story that I had recently read on "Answers to Prayers" came strongly to my mind. This story is about a man who receives a knock at his door in the middle of the night. It turns out to be a long time friend that he hasn't seen in a very long time. He excitedly invites the friend in and then realizes that his cupboards are bare and he has nothing to offer his friend. He runs next door to his neighbors home and begins banging on the door - waking the neighbor, who sticks his head out of the upstairs window to see what is needed. The man tells him how he really needs some milk and bread RIGHT NOW to serve his friend. The neighbor tells him to go back home and that he will bring him a nice breakfast over in the morning. The man bangs on the door again and begs for "Milk and Bread!" and the neighbor again tells him to just be patient and he will bring over a nice, hot breakfast in the morning. Again, the man bangs on the door pleading for some milk and bread to give to his friend right away. Eventually, the neighbor comes downstairs, opens the door and give the man the milk and bread he so desperately feels he needs.

This story came strongly to my mind while in the Celestial room and the thought came that if we wanted to settle for "milk and bread" that we could take a house that we had already seen... BUT that if we would trust in the Lord, he had a "nice, hot breakfast" waiting for us! It wasn't long before doubt began to settle into my heart and I kept thinking "but what if nothing comes available for us!?" and John would remind me by saying "do you want milk and bread or a nice, hot breakfast!?" After a couple of days, my anxiety was getting the better of me and I asked John to give me a blessing. During that blessing, it was reconfirmed that the feelings I had in the Temple were from the Lord. I was also told that He knows the exact needs of our family and is preparing the perfect house for us and that it would be the ward that we are needed in. The time is soon and I just need to KEEP THE FAITH and to NOT DOUBT! I am so grateful for the blessings of both the Temple and the Priesthood that can help us in life and direct us to where we will find the most happiness! I will not settle for Milk and Bread!

a short while later...

Our "Nice, Hot Breakfast" was delivered!!! We are so grateful! Here's the story...
My (mom) full-time job has pretty much been looking for a home. I check Zillow, Realtor.com, Billings Rental forums on FB and freerentalfinder.com multiple times a day PLUS go to each of the 12 individual Management Property websites daily. Looking for a house has consumed me! The inventory in Billings is very limited to begin with and there was literally only 1 or 2 homes that could even be a serious consideration for us. I was getting stressed. I was worried we'd not find something in time and have to start paying for the hotel out of pocket (which retailed for about $600/night for the place we were in)... plus our 30 days of storage for our household goods was quickly coming to an end! Several times I felt anxious enough to consider taking one of those "Milk and Bread" homes and start the moving in process but then John would remind me to have faith and patience on the Lord.

It was a Wednesday morning and I'd already checked all of my daily sites (actually twice already and it was only noon!) when I went to freerentalfinder.com and clicked on "new residential listings" like I always did when I saw a new property pop up and my heart literally did a little flutter and my stomach did a flip flop and I just felt that this is what Heavenly Father had been preparing for us! It was a 4 bedroom/3 bathroom, 2900 sqft  home on 2+ acres right on along the Yellowstone River (plus a 3 car garage that also had an office and work space included) and was located in Park City (20 miles west of Billings). I immediately sent John the listing and called him and he was just as excited so I called the owner (who didn't answer so I left a message telling them that we were very interested in viewing the house that day). I got a text back shortly that stated he'd call me later that day to set something up. We were so excited! The whole afternoon passed and no call. As the evening approached, I texted the owner and asked if it was possible for us to come that night to check it out (it was about 6pm at this point) and he replied that he was trying to set something up. He indicated it was empty but he was trying to arrange someone to come let us in (since he lived out of town) but wasn't be successful at getting a hold of anyone. So we went to bed with the plan that we'd get up super early and head over to the house to check it out and see the location and peek through the windows to see if it was anything we even wanted to pursue. John had to be back in  Billings to work by 8 so we were up and out the door by 6:30am. The closer we got the house, the more excited we became. As we turned on the private drive, our hearts were soaring and we kept saying to each other "I love it already and I love this area!" and then as we pulled into the driveway and saw the house we both exclaimed "This is it!!" We got out and walked around the grounds and just couldn't believe it! We peeked in the windows and loved what we saw. On the back deck, we were looking in through the patio door and for fun, I twisted the handle which was unlocked and opened up to a beautiful kitchen! We both thought "this is trespassing but we want to see it!" so we did a super fast walk-through (like less than 5 minutes) of all 3 levels and quickly went back outside. There was no doubt... this was our house! We walked back out to view the river and then we noticed the neighbor getting into his golf cart and heading our way. We panicked! We were busted! (note: since it was 6:30am, I hadn't even bother to get dressed out of my sweats or even comb my hair... big mistake! haha) So an older gentleman approached (and I was relieved to see that he was still sporting his pajama's as well!) asked if we were the ones that were interested in the house and that Rob (the owner) had emailed him asking if he could show the house to us. We said that we were indeed the ones and he said "Great! I've brought the keys so I can let you in to take a look!" So we went through the house again - not being rushed and really taking in all of the details (all the while, trying to act surprised with each thing we saw). We chatted a bit longer with the neighbor, thanked him for seeing us and coming over to let us in and then headed back into Billings. Back at the hotel, we immediately prayed and asked if this was the house we should pursue and both got the undeniable answer that IT WAS!! I immediately texted Rob and told him that we had driven to the property to do a drive-by to see if we liked the location/area and while there the neighbor let us in and after viewing it we definitely wanted it and to send over the Rental application. He said he'd do it later that day, but nothing came. Then Friday came and nothing came. I called him and texted him and no answer. We were getting worried. We have made it our goal to go to the Temple every week and so Friday night we were at the Temple and I expressed my anxiety to the Lord and got a peaceful reassurance that all would be well and to not worry about it. FINALLY on Saturday night, he sent over the application and we had it filled out and sent back to him within 30 minutes! Then it was crickets again... no word for another 2 days! Finally on Tuesday afternoon he called and said all looked great and we could move in the following Monday (which was the date that we had scheduled for all of our belongings to be delivered). We were kind of worried about his lack of communication but we have since found out that he and his wife were having 2nd thoughts on even renting it out (the house has been their "baby" and project for the past 11 years - they moved out over 9 months ago and just weren't sure if they wanted to rent it out or not. Then when we pounced on it within 30 minutes of it being advertised, I'm sure it all moved a bit too fast for their comfort level). Anyway, the movers came and delivered our goods on Monday and Rob flew into town and met with us on Wednesday of that week to show us everything about the house (and after meeting each other, I think we both felt relieved!).

We are so grateful for this beautiful home that Heavenly Father prepared for us (and prepared the Stile's hearts to even rent it out!). Just like in the blessing I had been given, "He knows our family's needs and has a specific house and ward waiting for us..."

One thing I hadn't mentioned is that the price was $200/month OVER what we felt comfortable in spending, but as we prayed we felt that this was really where we needed to be. The Friday before we moved in, I decided I'd better to our taxes (since it was pretty much April 15th!) and I had been procrastinating doing them because I just knew we'd owe (like in previous years) plus I hadn't really had a lot of free time with the move and all :) Anyway, so I set to work on getting them filed and.... another miracle!!! We were actually getting a REFUND this year What?! The amount... $2400 (the exact amount to cover that additional $200/month). Heavenly Father is so aware of us and watching out for us!! Again, we are sooooo very grateful for his blessings to us and especially for providing such a wonderful HOT BREAKFAST for us!! Here are some pictures of our new home

A HATCHED PLAN

Feb 2018

I find it interesting how throughout my life, the Lord has had different paths for me to take and that many times, they were not paths that I had ever considered. Sometimes, they were paths that I had looked at and was completely against but when the time comes, there is a change in my heart and after prayer, I know it is what the Lord has in store for me/us. I know it is just right.

A few examples:

Joining the Church

Joining the Army

Taking a duty assignment in Korea

Leaving our beloved Idaho for North Dakota

Leaving North Dakota for Montana

Sometimes these ideas are revealed to Shandy years in advance as a feeling and it takes me a long time to come around. Years before we left Boise, Shandy would say, "I have a feeling that in a few years, we will be moving out of state." My reply was always, "Why would we ever do that? Our family is here, Boise State football is here, Boise is home." Lo and behold, the opportunity to take a job with Rain for Rent and move to North Dakota presented itself and I knew that it was right. We fasted and prayed about the decision and we were given confirmation through the Spirit that that was what we should do.

When the Spirit tells me what to do, I'm completely on board and we move Heaven and Hell to make it happen.

With that being said, here's an email that I sent to Seth a week ago:

So, your mother and I have hatched a plan. 

Here’s the seeds of the plan:

Your mother and I have a theme song (she doesn’t know it) which is Metallica’s Wherever I May Roam. Rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond - call me what you will...yeah, yeah!

With her growing up as an Army Brat, she’s always been used to picking up every two or three years and moving. I’m kind of that way, too.  I have lived in 13 different towns, spanning five states and three countries. I have lived in third world countries and have been in 12 countries across our globe. 

I love the company that I work for, I love the pay I get and I’m grateful that I can support our family. I don’t love my job, however. When I wake up, I’m not excited to go to work. 

I’ve always thought that the best thing would be to have a job where you would enjoy what you did and still have a way to support your family. I’ve never been able to find that, yet. I have a lot of ideas, but they have all revolved around when I’m retired and the jobs would just be break even type things to keep me busy and entertained. 

Your mother and I love watching House Hunters International. We are always envious of people who are getting out of the rat race and heading off to live a more simplistic life in an exotic locale. 

I love guns. I love hunting. 

I have always wanted to grow out a big beard. I’d also like to spend my days in a t-shirt, cargo shorts, and flip flops. 

I am putting in for VA disability. We anticipate that I will end up getting classified as at least 50% disabled and will have a monthly income from that.

Your mother and I have been working very hard to kill off all of our debt to include both vehicles and the last of our student loans. Without the VA disability, we will have this done in two years. With the disability, it will be even sooner. 

When I went to Mexico, as you know, we talked to guys who said they could live very comfortably for around $1K/month. I talked to a woman who had moved down there twenty years earlier and ran a rental business that rented four wheelers and side by side UTV’s. These discussions planted some more seeds. 

So where do all of these disjointed items, facts, and tidbits lead us?

Drumroll....

In five years your mother and I are selling everything, packing up the remaining kids and moving to Nicaragua. 

No, seriously. 

Here’s the plan:

Get out of debt no later than two years from now. 

Continue to live like misers for two years and save up $100K. 

Sell everything and head down. 

Nicaragua is a premiere destination for duck and dove hunting. Duck season is November through March. Dove season is November through April and mid July through mid August. Nicaragua also has excellent river, lake, and salt water fishing. Rich folks fork out big bucks to fly down and go on guided hunting and fishing trips. They fork over $4K for a three day duck hunting outing. 

We would start our own outfitting and guide business catering to these hunters and tourists. They would rent the shotguns from us, buy the ammo from us, we would provide food and drinks and would take them out. They fly into Managua, we pick them up in our shuttle vans and take them out to the hotel we have partnered up with (eventually, we would build our own lodge). They have dinner and head to bed. We wake them up at 3:00am and head out in the vans. We get to our duck boats and head out to the duck blinds and get in place by sunrise. The limit is 25 ducks per person per day. They hunt until lunch time. We head back, they have lunch and then a siesta. In the afternoon, we head to the peanut and sorghum fields and go dove hunting. Same limit. We cook up the birds they want to eat. Send the ones they want stuffed to the taxidermist, and give the remaining ones to the locals as an act of charity. Repeat for the next two days, and then take them to the airport. If they bring wives, your mom and the girls can take them shopping and sight seeing. We can also do guided tours and will also partner up and do guided fishing trips. We will also, rent four wheelers, UTV’s, and scooters in the touristy areas. 

With the VA disability, we wouldn’t even need to do this and we could live comfortably for the rest of our lives however, we think this would be a great way to spend life. We can tap into the RM pipeline and hire fresh RM’s who want to earn money for college and have them be guides. I would love to see this as a family business and have you and August involved if you guys wanted. 

There is actually an outfit in Chinandega that does this. Nicaragua continues to grow as a destination location for tourists and sportsmen. 

No pressure on you. You will be 24 at the time and well into your adult life. Might even have a child by then. No need to be involved if you don’t want to. 

Maybe Augie could start up an IT/electronics shop. 

Mom and I have joined several Expat in Nicaragua groups and are seeing how Americans are living in Nica.

**end email**

So, not something I had really been expecting. What I can tell you, like so many times before, everything seems right about this. We are all so excited about this new opportunity. It has consumed our thoughts, dreams, conversations, and waking hours. Through shrewd planning and scheming - Shandy finagled a plan that could potentially get us down there in 2-2 1/2 years. She and I had planned on fasting and attending the Temple on this coming Tuesday to get confirmation on this decision. Friday, we felt like we couldn't wait and we were just busting at the seams. We decided to forego the fast and attend the Temple the first thing in the morning on Saturday.

And so we did.

And we didn't get confirmation on our decision to move down to Nicaragua. We didn't receive the answer that it wasn't the path for us, either, though.

What promptings that we did receive was that this was a very major life decision and that we needed to spend more time researching the decision, having family councils, looking at all of the pros and cons, etc. Also, that we needed to come to the Temple fully prepared and fasting.

And so that's what we have been doing.

I can tell you that in our minds, it makes logical sense.  In our hearts, it makes sense. We are still optimistic, joyful, full of anticipation, hope, and excitement.

We'll continue to research, counsel, and pray. We are grateful that we can seek out the will of the Lord to help us as we navigate this world.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

AN UNEXPECTED NICA ANSWER

March 2018

I had been to the Temple and the wisdom and Revelations came strongly for me that day. John and I had been pondering, studying and continually praying about Nicaragua (but that was not our intent of attending the Temple on this particular day) as we felt we maybe still needed to do more extensive research. After we prayed in the Celestial Room, John turned to me and said "Do you have anything fun to share?" and I was like "Fun? What do you mean?" He then asked if I prayed about Nicaragua and I said that I hadn't really- as that was not my intent of attending that day (but that I had asked for further direction on what else we needed to study out and had gotten the impression that "All would be revealed soon and that we'd know what we were to do.") John said that it wasn't his intent either but he felt like the time was right to ask as he prayed and so he did... and he got an answer... He got the answer that all of the happy, joyful, hopeful and excited feelings that we've been having about moving there were of Heavenly Father and that it was His will for us and our family to move to Nicaragua! I was like "What!? For Real?!" and John was just smiling from ear to ear and so full of happiness! I was like "Well, I feel like I need to pray about this too then!" and so I did. Before I even had the first sentence of my prayer out, my mind was just FILLED with so much wisdom and knowledge! It was seriously like a flood gate had been opened and massive amounts of wisdom and inspiration were just overflowing! These were the wonderful things that were revealed to me:

* Yes, it was His will that we move to Nicaragua - the Spirit accompanied this thought and brought warmth and peace to my heart!
* He needs us there. He needs to be able to count on us to do His will and to serve in ways that he asks us to once there.
* We need to take these next couple of years and really prepare ourselves spiritually. We need to have our hearts turned to Him 100%. We need to be ready to answer whatever he calls us to do. We need to use this time now to practice following through on all promptings and to show that He can count on us.
* If we wanted to sacrifice now (move into a cheaper rental, sell the truck, etc) and have our timeline be 2.5 years until departure then that would be fine OR if we wanted to take our time and it be more like 4-5 years away, that would be find too. He had people prepared for us in both timelines and would leave it up to us.
* If we did want to move into a cheaper rental, I felt that He really needed us to stay in our current ward and that He would prepare the perfect place for us in Laurel to move to.
* Do not doubt this answer (He knows me too well! haha)

After my mind was flooded with all of these thoughts, I was like "But I haven't even asked my question if our decision to move to Nicaragua was right or not..." (even though I was in the Celestial Room AND had already felt the Spirit confirming things, I still wanted to be on FIRE! or something.. I mean this was BIG and I wanted an EXTREME answer) and then this came immediately to me: "I've just opened your mind and given you wisdom and knowledge and revealed much to you. Would you have rather just gotten a stronger burning in your heart or had my will revealed to you?" I felt humbled (and sorry!) and was so grateful for having this answer.  I have only had the experience once before where Heavenly Father has opened my mind in this way (that was when we were contemplating homeschooling) and I am so grateful that he trusts me enough to reveal His will in such a way.

So.. it looks like we will be heading down to the land of Nica!! The kids are so excited (Nathan is a bit worried about learning the language but he has been Fasting today for the gift of tongues so that he'll be able to learn it) and the girls are beyond excited about the upcoming adventure! I was sitting in church today when I "remembered" that we got the answer to go and I was immediately just flooded with happiness and excitement! haha... it's actually kind of weird to think about! 

WHY DO YOU THINK IT'S STILL AVAILABLE?

May 2018

A really neat answer to prayer came during my scripture study one morning. We were getting ready to put a deposit down on the house in Nampa and (of course, true to my nature) I was having doubts to all of the good feelings I'd been having and even second guessing my answer to prayers when thinking of moving there.

Things I new:
1. The rental market was VERY competitive and we had already been beaten out of 2 other house in Boise even though we had contacted the landlords within the first hour of advertising.
2. Even though Lisa (landlord for the Nampa house) was very much against pets, she came back and was willing to let us have Lambert
3. The Nampa house was under market value (has a rental value closer to $1500 vs. the $1300 she was willing to rent to us and was the absolute highest we were willing to spend)
4. Apparently, the Lord didn't necessarily want us back in the exact area since we felt soooo good about selling our house last Fall (and it was only 2 miles from the new office)
5. Even though the Nampa house was being advertised and under market value and the rental market being HOT... it was still available a month later!
6. Lisa was willing to hold the house for us and not charge us any rent until we arrived in Idaho
7. The house was everything on our wishlist and more (except for the longer commute for John) - but for the kids and I everything (shopping, church, the Seminary building, the library, etc are all within 2 miles!)
8. We had both prayed about it and felt that is exactly where we should be! No doubt about it! I had even gotten the words, "Why do you think it's still available?" come into my mind very strongly multiple times!

But a day or two later, I started second guessing and knew I needed to send the deposit ASAP and so asked for another witness during my scripture study and true to Heavenly Father's nature, he provided one. I was reading in Helaman ch 16 and using my Book of Mormon Devotional app to better dive into it. Part of the app has a "Personal Application" section and when I clicked on it, my heart stopped because I knew it was my second witness! It read, "Do you try to explain away the marvelous things you have seen as mere coincidence?" My heart was pricked and I thought back upon ALL of the things that had to work together for us to get that house and realized that I could not explain it as a coincidence - but as divine design! Needless to say, the deposit was sent off right away!

FINDING LAMBERT

July 2018

Lambert has always been a cat who comes and goes as he pleases. Some nights he stays home and sleeps on our beds, other nights he heads out and does who knows what. Same with day time. One thing that is a constant, however, is that he always comes home and is never gone for more than about 12 hours. We were a bit concerned when we moved to Nampa because he had spent all of his life in rural settings with lots of land to roam vs a subdivision with homes, neighborhood dogs, streets, etc. So far, though, things have gone well...

...up until the Fourth of July.

We had never even had to make allowances for our pets, being so rural. It didn't even dawn on us to secure Lambert in the house until the evening rolled around and we were headed out. He had already taken off for the day and we had no idea where he was. If he is gone during the day, he always comes home at night and so we cracked the garage door for him and headed out. After an evening of watching the Boise City fireworks, we returned home to find Nampa to be a noisy war zone with loud mortars being fired off well into the wee hours of the morning. Lambert was no where to be found and we worried that he may have fled with all of the loud explosions. We looked for him and called his name to no avail. We went to bed with some concern but had hopes that he would return that night and we would see him in the morning. Nathan was particularly worried as he is so attached to Lambs.

The next morning, I checked the garage, hoping to see our sweet boy but he was still gone. I began to be a bit more worried and headed off to work. As the day progressed, the kids were heart broken. They were so concerned and tears were shed. Nathan would go outside regularly and look for him and call his name. As the day progressed, the temperatures climbed to over 100 degrees. I joined three different lost and found pets groups on Facebook and contemplated making a post. I checked in with Shandy several times during the day only to have my hopes dashed each time.

Towards the end of the work day, I felt inspired to look up an article about pets that run away during stressful situations. I learned that cats have a tendency to hunker down and defend their territory vs dogs who just bail. The article stated that until the cat feels it is safe again, they will remain hunkered down - even if they hear you calling your name. It stated that this could take several days and that cats have been known to hide in their own houses or in their own back yards. I called Shandy and read her excepts from the article. She called back shortly after telling the kids about it and had felt prompted to have me read it to the kids to comfort them. I read it to them over the phone. Nathan, hearing this, felt prompted by the Spirit to look in the back yard again.

There was Lambert laying in the shade. The kids were happily reunited with Lambs and Shandy snapped this pic. I received a text with the pic and excited message stating that, "Lambs has been found!!!"

We all said a prayer of gratitude and cuddled the heck out of him (me, once I got home that evening). It really struck me how Heavenly Father loves us, listens to our prayers, and attends to our needs. I know that in the big scheme of things, a lost cat is not that big of a thing but he means the world to us and is such a big part of our family.

LEXI'S PRIMARY TALK ON PRAYER

October 2016

Lexi gave a talk today in Primary. She did a real nice job! Here is what she said:

Heavenly Father hears and answers the prayers of his little children. He loves us and wants to hear from us.

There was a time when I said a prayer and Heavenly Father answered right away! I was driving in the Suburban with my mom and Aubrie. We were in the middle of the highway when the car broke down. We were in a dangerous place because another car could come and hit us. My mom said that we should all say a prayer and so we did. Immediately the car started back up and we were  kept safe. I know Heavenly Father protected us. I am also glad that my mom has taught me to pray whenever I need help. We can also pray to tell Heavenly Father that we are thankful for the things that he has blessed us with. Things like our houses, our toys, our cars - everything in the world! When we are grateful it makes Him happy.

I hope that we can all remember to pray to Heavenly Father each day.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen