Burns in Nauvoo: We witnessed a miracle!

Elder Burns walking on the frozen Mississippi

at the bottom of Parleys Street

Hello dear friends and family!

I was going to title this letter Sunshine, blue skies and a package from friends, but as you can see, I didn't. Tuesday, we had sunshine and blue skies for the first time in quite a while and it was beautiful! I've missed that! We also received a package from friends that was full of fun, food and love! Thanks Wade and Lesa! We sure appreciate it and we love you! It was fun to get a package that wasn't from Amazon!

We had a larger miracle waiting for us this week and one that we had prayed hard for. Let me go back a week -

A week ago Wednesday, Elder Burns and Elder Elia went to Burlington to play racquetball, something they do every Wednesday. Elder Burns had his wallet then, but when he went to purchase some things on Thursday, he noticed that it was gone. We searched everywhere - we tore the condo apart looking for it - we looked in shoes, in coat packets, under the couch, between couch cushions, through the dirty clothes - you get it, we looked everywhere! We looked in the vehicles that he drives at work and nothing. We checked the shop, the place they play racquetball, called the police in both Burlington and Nauvoo and it hadn't been turned in. We checked with the DMV in Utah to see about getting a duplicate drivers license for him but they said they can only do that in person, so if we didn't find it, we'd have to make a trip to Utah. We prayed fervently that we would find the wallet. About the only place we hadn't looked was the huge snow piles that Elder Burns had piled up. We were thinking that maybe the wallet fell out of his pocket when he was climbing up into the front loader to push snow. We've had a lot of snow lately. I kept asking him if we could find it in the snow piles - these piles are like 20 feet tall by 50-60 feet long. They are huge, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack - almost impossible.

Now, let me backtrack a bit - Doug's grandpa Carpenter has told us many times of an experience he had when he was a child. His mom had given him some coins and asked him to walk to the store and buy some groceries for her. As he was walking down the dirt roads that had thick silt from the wagons that drove on it, he was swinging his arms and the coins flew out of his hands. He dug through the silt trying to find them but couldn't. He knelt down and prayed, asking Heavenly Father to help him find the coins. When he opened his eyes, the coins were in a neat stack in front of him.

That story came to our minds many times as we were searching for the wallet, so on Thursday afternoon, with the faith of a mustard seed, we went to the snow pile in a last ditch effort to look for the wallet before we made reservations to fly home to renew his driver's license. I went one way and Doug went the other. I was looking for any signs of the wallet but couldn't see anything. I looked, took a few pictures of the beautiful snow crystals from the snow fall the night before that had also added snow to the piles. After looking for a while, I saw Doug come around the corner holding his wallet, with tears in his eyes. He had knelt down, prayed to Heavenly Father that he knew He had helped his Grandpa find those coins, and He could help us find the wallet. After the prayer, Doug looked up the snow pile and saw what he thought looked like a twig but decided to check it out. He climbed the pile and the twig turned out to be the edge of his wallet! He dug it out and brought it around to me. We were both amazed and full of gratitude for answered prayers and the miracle that we needed. Heavenly Father does answer prayers! I don't know why sometimes those answers are no or not now, but I do know that He knows better than I do, He sees the whole picture and I see a little puzzle piece.

We came home after finding the wallet, humbled and full of gratitude. We then attended, virtually, the funeral of a wonderful man who was taken too soon from this earth. This is a man who had many praying for a miracle that he would be healed but it was not to be. We mourn with the Wadley family and pray that they feel the peace and comfort of knowing that they will see their dad, grandpa and husband again. He is a great man and I know he is doing a great work on the other side of the veil. We love you Maryjane.

I know that Heavenly Father knows each one of us, we are His children and He loves us. I am so grateful for the time we have here in Nauvoo to serve Him and his son, Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for each little thing that I can do, be it washing flower pots or transplanting little plants or cleaning greasy mechanic shop items. I know each little thing helps in keeping Nauvoo beautiful and running.

I love you all!

Sister Burns

Elder Doug and Sister Jill Burns

975 Young Street

Nauvoo, IL 62354