Home » Angels, Demons, Miracles and the like... » Miracles » New Shoes (A Miracle just because...)
| New Shoes [message #1597] |
Fri, 14 December 2012 12:25  |
Seeker
Messages: 244
Registered: June 2010
Location: Las Vegas
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Senior Member |
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I was inspired to share this by the post, "A Bottle of Medicine" by CalledtoServe.
My wife and I had invested our money into the Las Vegas Nevada Real Estate in the early 2000s. My wife is a Real Estate Nut and finally convinced me that investing in rental properties in the Las Vegas market would result in a 6%-9% return on investment caused by the steady climb of market prices averaged over the previous 10 years. In addition, we would have significant write offs against my earned income.
It was awesome. Using real estate loop holes were ended up with Tens of Thousands of dollars more write-offs than my earned income, so we lived without paying income taxes for years.
In addition, the market climbed faster than expected and within a few short years we owned 3.5 million in property, had a passive monthly income of between 4-8k (depending on vacancies and repair costs), and a net worth of around 1.5 million dollars in real estate equity. I hired a property manager, and retired. (Sounds like a dream huh!) It was nice for sure, but not all roses.
Anyway, 2 years into my early retirement, the market began to implode and prices began to fall. This wouldn't have been a problem because we were interested in the rental income more than the equity... Then the rental market started to drop and our loans started to rise... Houses that made $600 a month were now loosing $600 a month.
I was forced to go grudgingly back to work. I was blessed to get a good job which doubled my previous working income. We had $300-400k in the bank which along with my income we used save our small empire. It was gone far too quick... I can't count remember how many $30-$60k checks I wrote trying to fix holes in our sinking ship.
Less than a year after going back to work, we decided I needed to make more money and I trained my replacement and got a new job. I was making over $100k and almost all of it was going into our mortgages. There is a saying among investors, Assets feed you and liabilities eat you. Our assets had been eaten by our liabilities, and now our liabilities were trying to eat us too.
We moved out of the rental we were in to live in a travel trailer pulled by our truck. We used to live in a beautiful house around 3000sqft and now were in a box that was about 175sqft. We stayed in wal-mart parking lots and parked in quiet neighborhoods, moving around every day or two so not to wear out our welcome. (We wanted to know what it was like living in a trailor, so this wasn't a really big problem for us at the time. And I was still making over six figures, but all of it was going to debts.)
In addition, I will say, and my wife will vouch, that at the time, I was cheap like nobody you have ever know. I mean, if you told me someone was "Jewish" in reference to how tightly they held on to their money, I would have laughed and though, they have no idea or they would be using my name instead. I had discovered new levels of tight...
For example, my shoes. I had the same pair of shoes from my mission. I was still in my 20s, but my work/church/play shoes had holes all the way to my feet and I would just keep adding cardboard layers as inserts and kept on going. I could have bought new shoes, but why waste the money, right? LOL!
So, one night my wife and I parked our little trailer in a quiet neighborhood along side a 10+ foot tall hedge that spanned the length of 2 houses and their yards, Well over 200 feet. There was no sidewalk where we parked but there was a 2 foot section of grass between the curb of the road and the hedge.
It was wet and raining which is why I was finally talking about replacing my shoes. Cardboard and water doing mix well...
So my wife and I were talking about getting me some new shoes and had decided that we would get me a pair of work/church shoes and a pair of tennis shoes for play.
We went to bed that night. In the morning when went I stepped out of the Trailer to go to work, there set perfectly to the side of the trailer were 2 brand new sets of shoes. One was a pair of Sunday shoes Doc Martin style and the other were tennis shoes without laces. I looked all around and there was no sign of foot prints in the grass. We were too far from any of the houses for someone to have heard us talking the previous night. And we never mentioned the size of the shoe I needed, but these were a perfect fit. Except for the tennis shoes, they were a little large. Later I realized that they were self pumping tennis shoes which inflated as you walked and formed a custom fit based on the air pressure in the sides/top of the shoes. So they fit even better than the other shoes.
We tried to figure out who left them there for us, but nothing makes sense. Nobody would have even walked where we were parked and if they did, they would have gone around the trailer on the road because it would have been weird and uncomfortable to squeeze between the hedge and the trailer.
To this day we still don't know how it happened, but we greatly appreciated the new shoes.
It's been over 5 years now...and although I have had to replace the Sunday shoes, I still wear the tennis shoes all the time!
~ Seeker
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| Re: New Shoes [message #1691 is a reply to message #1601] |
Sat, 22 December 2012 02:53  |
Ashleyd
Messages: 100
Registered: May 2012
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Senior Member |
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I love this story. Thank you for sharing!  On that note I have kind of an embarrassing/funny little story. When I was about 13 or 14 my cousin and I were on our way to church. Not lds. I wasn't lds at the time. But I craved spiritual knowledge and so did my cousin so I started going to church with her. On the way her car overheated due to a hole in the radiator hose. We had to pull over. My brother just happened to come with us that time. We found help at a small local car repair place in this little in the middle of nowhere town. At some point during this excursion we stopped at a bathroom that had a drink vending machine. I watched as this little girl who looked poor and was alone try to get a drink from the machine. Her clothes looked worn and dirty and I think she might have been bare foot too. Anyway, the machine wasn't working right and it took her money but wouldn't give her the drink. She seemed upset by it so I came over to try and help. More money didn't seem to help. I don't remember all the details of the story but I remember the thought came to me to command the machine to release a drink. So I put my hand on the machine and commanded in the name of Jesus Christ for it to work and no sooner than I said the words then out popped the drink. The little girl just looked wide eyed at me and said thank you and left.
Later as I was reflecting on what happened and I excitedly told my big brother about it. And I remember my joy was kind of squashed because he said that it was silly to pray over something so insignificant and that Christ wouldn't care about something like that. And that Christ wouldn't want us to pray over something like that. Then I felt dumb for having done it and wished I didn't tell him about it.
Over the years the memory of that experience still comes to my mind. Since then I have learned that my brother though good intentioned perhaps is very wrong about what he said. Christ does care about all aspects of our lives. And if we are told if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can move mountains. Why can't we command a broken vending machine to work? lol Its kind of funny I'll admitt but I have learned that Christ does care and that no matter is too small to take to the Lord. I had a very child-like faith and its something I shouldn't have been ashamed of no matter what someone said.
[Updated on: Sat, 22 December 2012 02:56] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: New Shoes [message #1694 is a reply to message #1691] |
Sat, 22 December 2012 09:37 |
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Denryu
Messages: 88
Registered: July 2012
Location: American Fork
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Member |
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Ashley,
I am currently writing a book of the spiritual experiences of my lifetime - not for publishing, but simply for my own history. Many of those experiences which are very sacred and important to me, I know would be laughed off or explained away by most people, and possibly even most LDS.
As we learn in the Book of Mormon and elsewhere, the Lord can achieve great things thru small miracles. Often we need to learn the lesson on a small scale before we can apply it on a large scale.
I know the Lord has helped me find things - sometimes things that were not that important that I find, but the fact that I desired to find it badly enough to pray for help, and exercised faith, I received that help even though what I was looking for was inconsequential. Thank you for sharing that story, I appreciate it.
Libertas optimas rarem, nunquam servili sub nexu.
"There is no gift like Liberty, therefore never live under slavery."
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| Re: New Shoes [message #1746 is a reply to message #1694] |
Thu, 27 December 2012 16:47 |
FreddyV
Messages: 50
Registered: December 2012
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Member |
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I love these stories. New shoes and a bottle of soda. Both illustrate to me the matchless and eternal love that is given so freely to God's children. How small both of these things might seem in the eyes of some. Yet, I believe they are as miraculous as Moses and the Red Sea. Ashley, I hope over the years your anxiety of sharing this experience has turned to joy. I am filled with such joy hearing this testimony.
I find myself yet again giving thanks to my Father for leading me here. I have been so blessed by hearing these testimonies. I hope y'all had a very Merry Christmas!
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