This was an enjoyable book, easy to read, and uplifting with many stories from his life.
As I read his book I learned to be more aware of the hand of God in my life, and that many times, things which seem to go wrong are actually the course that does the most good.
For example, last year, Ephraim and I had an interesting experience.
He had been preparing for his mission, one item which included the task of sending his passport, with his visa application and 4 pictures to the Salt Lake City Church office buildings. In his excitement to get it all done he neglected to put a stamp on it. This he realized later that day, several hours after the mailman had picked it up.
We had just arrived at the dermatologists office and passing a mailbox–
Ephraim said to me, “I forgot to put a stamp on my envelope to the mission.”
I thought he was kidding, but realized that this was no joke. I reached for my cell phone, called my other son, Hyrum at home, and explaining the situation, asked him to drive around the neighborhood to look for our mailman.
He was most cooperative, and I went back to the dermatologist and waited it out.
The call came and Hyrum explained that although he found our mailman, it was not our regular guy and the sub was not too helpful, saying he would look for it if he had time. So Hyrum, persistent as he is, tracked down another mailman and this one offered a phone number that we could call to get some help.
As we left the dermatologist, I called the number and had to leave a message for the supervisor, Jose, who then called me back. After taking the information that was on the envelope, Jose kindly offered to look for it when our mail delivery truck returned to the office.
About five o’clock we got the call that Jose had found it–addressed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints–no stamp.
We stopped at Starbucks, bought a $20 gift card, and returned home, having to wait until the next morning to recover our envelope. During the ordeal, I had quietly prayed that the supervisor, Jose, would be the one to find it, as he was most kind offering to look, whereas our “sub” mailman had not. And I wanted to reward the kindness of Jose.
We arrived the next morning, retrieved our letter (paid for the postage and certified delivery) met Jose and gave him the Starbucks card–who knows, maybe the lack of the stamp gave us a chance to do something good in the name of the Gospel.
Life has a way of showing you that not all that appears to go wrong is bad.
It all depends on your perspective.
