Mission Miracle: The Christmas Lights

When we were in the MTC, we were challenged by our district leader to look for mission miracles every day of our mission.  To remind us, they gave us M&Ms.

  Mission miracles are really the same thing as tender mercies.  They are times when you feel the hand of the Lord in your life, letting you know that He is very aware of you and of your work.  The challenge was to find at least one each day and record it in our journals.  I thought I would like to record some of them on the blog as well.  I will label them as mission miracles. 

This may look like a regular string of battery operated Christmas lights to you.  But to me, they are a mission miracle. 

We arrived here just before Christmas.  Waiting at the mission office for us was a package from our daughter, Kristen.  In the package was a little Christmas tree, a string of lights, handmade ornaments, gifts, and other Christmas decorations for our new apartment.  I may or may not have cried for ten minutes when I opened it.  It was so nice to make our little apartment Christmas-y and more like home.  After just a couple of  days, though, the lights quit working.  We tried fixing them, but couldn't get them to light.  I was sad.  I realized it wasn't really a big deal, but I was sad inside. 

After being here only a few days, we had to go back to Sendai for a Christmas conference.  Each missionary was asked to bring a $5 wrapped gift, which we put under the Christmas tree when we arrived.  Then, after the meeting, each of us went up and chose a gift to open.  When I opened mine, I found this precious string of lights that would fit just perfectly on our little tree.  I may or may not have cried.  Of all the missionaries at that conference, I got the lights.  I think that was Heavenly Father's way of letting me know He knows.  A mission miracle.