Tag: blessings
The Power of Trust
What a blessing it is to have friends who are truly honest and trustworthy! Can you imagine what life would be like if we lived in a society where such…
How a Near Miss on a Shanghai Runway Gave Me a Lasting Spike in Gratitude
A little before the Thanksgiving holiday, I was taking a flight back to the US to help a sister of mine as she was about to have a toe amputated….
Primed by a Mosquito for a New Ministering Assignment
Dr. Rampa Rattanarathikul, mosquito expert, with Jeff and Kendra Earlier this week I lost some sleep here in Shanghai when a mosquito viewed me as an all-you-eat buffet. Mosquitoes seem…
It Took Two Typhoons, Two Kind Italians, and a Strange Computer Glitch to Get Us to the Temple in Seoul, Korea
The Seoul, Korea Temple My wife and I just returned from a marvelous vacation in Seoul, Korea, where we unexpectedly ended up staying in a wonderful part of town within…
The Beauty of Chance Encounters
From several years ago, a photo of my wife and I at Mount Lao near Qingdao, China, by a large stone with the word “yuan” meaning destiny or fate. In…
Coincidence or Miracle?
On my recent trip to several parts of the United States, I was in the Chicago airport for a couple of hours on my way to visit my parents. I…
Christmas Coincidences, or the Blessings of Bureaucracy
If we were more skilled in listening to inspiration from the Lord and more diligent in seeking it, the Lord might not need to use so many blunt techniques to…
Prayer and the Journey of Two Thousand Kilometers That Begins the Thousand Kilometer Trip
According to a modern Chinese proverb, a journey of a thousand kilometers begins with a single ordeal involving two thousand kilometers of back and forth trips to get approval to…
The Human Cost of Drawing People Away from Faith
Anti-Mormon zeal brings a high human cost, in my opinion. Sometimes I see people who seem to value attacking Mormonism more than actually helping the people they are supposedly trying…
Upgrading My Gadgetary Life in China: More Blessings from Frustrating Failures
Over at the Nauvoo Times, I just shared a story involving the frustrating failure of two Samsung devices that happened within the same week. Wonderfully, the failure of the camera…