An Appeal, An Answer and an Ab-Wheel

In December of 2020, as part of the "Light the World" challenge, Mom/Margie shared a couple stories about prayer from her youth (Mom's Memories). Not long after, Derek shared a story as well. Here it is. 

God Has a Sense of Humor (Ab-Wheel Story)

Shared by Derek Westra via email, December 2020

When I had only been on my mission to Brazil a couple of months – I had this strong desire for a piece of exercise equipment that I had used every day before my mission – it was called an ab-wheel. I’m not sure why I wanted it so bad, but I have always hated sit-ups and they just weren’t doing it for me out there and I felt like I was losing my six-pack. :) My companion was a Brazilian named Elder Mariano, and while I still didn’t know the language very well yet, I told him about the ab-wheel and asked if I could find one in Brazil somewhere. He had never heard of one but said I should mention it to some of the members to see if they had. I did this at several houses, but no one had ever heard of one. Since I was new to Portuguese, I remember struggling to explain what this was. “E uma roda. Como… uma roda plastica, pequena que voce usa para fazer exercicios. Assim – eu vou te mostrar.”

I’d say: “It’s like a plastic wheel with handles that you use on the floor to do exercises, like this!” Then I’d try to demonstrate – which must have look ridiculous. One of the members was taking a trip to Sao Paulo to go to Wal-Mart and I asked them to look for one and buy it for me and I’d pay them back, but they couldn’t find one. I became sort of obsessed with finding one and since missionary work can be somewhat monotonous and unimaginative, I started working my new-found obsession into our door approaches. “Hey there – I was hoping you could help me with something: I’m an American and I’m looking for this exercise thing (I’d describe it) have you heard of this?” The answer was always no, but Brazilians love helping and to ask for a favor (a glass of water or help with an address) was always a better, more effective approach then just telling them we wanted to share a message.

My companion started to really tire of my obsession with finding an ab-wheel. I could tell it was starting to bother him, but I didn’t know a ton of Portuguese yet and I had gotten pretty practiced at my approach so I kept using it. Finally, one morning during our companionship prayer before leaving the apartment, Elder Marino was saying the prayer and said (with a lot of pent-up frustration): “Heavenly Father, please help us today to find Elder Westra’s stupid ab-wheel so he can stop talking about it.” I opened my eyes to scowl at him, but this was as earnest and sincere as I’d ever seen him. I got the hint that he had had enough and decided to drop it.

We went out knocking doors as usual and I avoided the “ab-wheel” approach since I knew my Senior Companion was at his wit’s end. But one street in, we came to a house where this really strong guy was exercising out front with his shirt off (doing pull-ups). I looked at my companion and he said “Okay – ask about the thing.” I went up to the guy and said, “Excuse me, but you look really strong and like you exercise a lot.” He was flattered and entertained by where this was going. I said, “I’m an American, and there is this one piece of exercise equipment that I can’t find anywhere in this country, it’s called an “Ab-wheel.”’ His eyes lit up and he got really excited. “They don’t make it here.” He said. But he had a huge smile, like he knew something I didn’t. “But I do!” He told us to come in his house and he had three of these home-made ab-wheels that he had made out of wood and broom handles. “I’ve seen these on TV, but they are only in the United States – I wanted to try one so I made a prototype out of wood. It’s not perfect, I’m still working on the design, but this ought to take care of you.” He handed me one of his three wood prototypes and said “It’s yours.” I looked at Elder Mariano and he was speechless. We had somehow found “Elder Westra’s stupid ab-wheel” on the day that he earnestly prayed and asked that we would. I’m convinced that in that huge country, we were led to that house, where someone was making these out of wood and was willing to just give one away.

Now, wouldn’t it be cool if I had some awesome conclusion about how we went on to teach that man, and how he became a great Church leader? Well, that didn’t happen. :) He had no interest in the Church or our message, and I never saw him again, but I used his homemade, wooden ab-wheel every day until it broke a month before I came home from Brazil.

I’m convinced that Heavenly Father knows us personally and cares about the details of our lives – even the insignificant things that matter more to us than they should.

Check out MargiesMessages - Prayer Section for more inspirational stories.

Mom/Margie's Memories (Prayer)

Written by Marjorie Norman Westra in 2020 for a #lighttheworld challenge of sharing a teaching story. Chris said he had heard the first one, but not the second. Wendy said the second one sounded familiar but that she hadn't heard the first one. Chris added the stories to Family Search, and now they are here on the blog as well, to ensure they won't be forgotten.

When a was a young girl in Murray.....My mother sent my brother Merrill (18 months younger than me) with a dollar bill to get a haircut in downtown Murray--about a mile away. Merrill came back crying, saying he had lost the dollar bill on the way to the barber shop. Mother called me (I was playing with friends) and told me to take Merrill on the back on my bike (our bikes used to have a long narrow seat above the back wheel, where someone could ride) and follow his route and see if we could find the dollar. I didn't want to leave my friends and resented having to do it. So I said a quick prayer that we would find the dollar----before we reached State Street---so I could get back and play with my friends. 

With Merrill on the back, I rode along Boxelder Street, turned up Miller Street, towards State Street. Suddenly I felt my bike tire go flat. I pulled over to the side of the street, next to a big field. I told Merrill to get off so that I could check the flat tire. But I was surprised to see that the tire was not flat. I looked down and there was the dollar bill, blown up against the weeds of the same color. We never would have seen it if we hadn't been right next to it! And yes, we found it before we got to State Street! I have remembered this experience my entire life. I have often thought that if God would answer the selfish prayer of a young girl, how much more likely he would be to answer our heartfelt important prayers.

When I was growing up, we went camping often with our extended family on the Howell side (mom's siblings and their kids). It was so fun to camp and play with my cousins, in the Fairview mountains. On one such trip, we were camped by a stream. My Uncle Demont decided to take all the kids who were old enough on a hike. We walked along the stream for a while and reached a point where the worn path ended and we needed to cross the stream to continue our hike, stepping on rocks to get across. I was a "scaredy-cat" then, as I am now. I was afraid to cross the stream this way, and told Demont and my cousins that I would just follow the path back to camp, which I did. By our camp, there was a bridge across the stream. So I got the bright idea that I would just cross the bridge and then rejoin Demont and my cousins on the other side to continue the hike. 

Well, I got hopelessly lost in the mountains. I was so frightened. I shouted and shouted, over and over, but no answer. I was smart enough to know if I could find the stream again, I could follow it back to camp. But emerging from the trees, I was on kind of a cliff. I could see the stream far down below, but the stream at that point was shaped like horseshoe turn and I didn't know which way to try to reach and follow the stream or if I would just get more lost. Finally, I was so desperate, I knelt down and prayed for help. As I got up from my knees, there was Uncle Demont coming towards me! I was so grateful to see him! It was such a traumatic experience that I was unable to even speak at all for about an hour.

Angel of Lost Keys

 Mom encouraged the siblings to share a "prayer story" and so here is one from Wendy.

The sharing happened Dec 2020. The memory happened in 2019...

I went to bring Jaiden to tumbling after school, but couldn't find my car keys anywhere. Luckily Rick was home and so I was able to use his spare key temporarily, but I knew that I needed to find mine. 

When I returned I said a prayer that I would find them. The whole family joined in the search but with no success. I was getting nervous because the key fob costs about $200.00 to replace. I checked all of the usual places several times. A few hours later I decided to try again and said another prayer mentioning the cost of replacement and even threw in a reminder of how I had paid extra tithing all last year, ha ha! I explained that I would really love to find my keys and we could really use this little tender mercy! 

Anyway, after dinner I thought that maybe I should check the garbage can. Although, why in the world would they be there, right? I took out a garbage bag and started pulling out the garbage piece by piece, putting it in the bag. I had gone through the entire day's garbage and was moving on to the garbage from the day before. I was about to give up when I saw a round black thing. I pulled it out and sure enough, there were my keys near the bottom of the garbage can! I was so grateful!! I gave several "thank you" prayers expressing gratitude at God's tender mercies! If I hadn't received an impression to check there the keys would have been thrown away and lost forever! 

Rick joked that there was probably an angel in heaven whose sole responsibility was to help people find their lost keys -- in fact maybe there was one specifically assigned to the Jensen family, ha ha! He then shared his own miracle experience of when he had lost his keys at Tuacahn. He had been in the costume room getting a costume together for a seminary assignment. He was nervous because he was in a hurry and only had ten minutes before he had to get to his assignment. He knelt down and said a prayer asking for help to find his keys immediately so that he could get to his appointment on time. He then looked over and there was a basket of boots. He reached into one of the boots and there were his keys! 

I am grateful that God is aware of the tiny details of our lives and blesses us with tender mercies even when it is something as inconsequential as missing keys!