(Elder Larry W. Gibbons, New Era February 2003)

"I once read a story about a man named Mr. Bogar and his experience with a giant wild turkey in 1925.

Mr. Bogar lived on a small farm in the Missouri foothills, and one year he decided to go turkey hunting on the day before Christmas. Now, it wasn’t any ordinary turkey he was after. He went looking for Foots, a legendary wild turkey who left enormous tracks and who was so wary that no one had ever gotten close enough to shoot him.
Setting out on the hunt, Mr. Bogar hadn’t gone far when he spotted gigantic turkey tracks in the freshly fallen snow. Only Foots could have left tracks that large, and Mr. Bogar began to follow them, higher and higher into the hills. There was no sign of Foots himself until Mr. Bogar was high up on a mountainside. Then he caught a glimpse of the giant bird.Slowly, carefully, Mr. Bogar stalked Foots until he was about 60 yards away. At that range, this marksman could hit anything with his single-shot .22 rifle. He fired, and Foots dropped and lay still. There was Christmas dinner, just waiting to be carried home.But, as Mr. Bogar approached the bird, it suddenly leaped up. The air was full of feathers and wings and squawks, and Foots soared out over the valley below. Mr. Bogar never saw the big turkey again.
The next summer, Mr. Bogar happened to be talking to a man who lived down in the valley and who was trying to raise a large family on a struggling farm with a few scrawny cattle. It was not an easy life, and the family didn’t have much. The man wore a coat with so many patches you couldn’t tell the original color.“Do believe in miracles?” the man asked Mr. Bogar.He then went on to tell Mr. Bogar about what happened the previous Christmas. Money was scarce, and it looked like Christmas dinner would consist of hominy corn and huckleberries. But as the man rode his old mare down to feed the cattle, a huge turkey crashed dead right in front of him. The man said he hadn’t been praying for a turkey, but maybe his wife had.Mr. Bogar never told the man about Foots, and the man never knew why a giant turkey had fallen out of the sky right at his feet.

Do you believe in miracles?  

Of course you do. You are familiar with this scripture: “And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles” (Morm. 9:19).

But do you believe in miracles in your own life? You should. There is no reason not to believe"

Stress makes you believe that
everything has to happen right now!

"You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the Europe Area.  Your primary assignment is to labor as an area mental health adviser.  It is anticipated that you will serve for  a period of 23 months."
These were the first words that I read when I opened the large envelope from Salt Lake City.  I then looked at the bottom of the letter and saw the signature:  Sincerely, Thomas S. Monson, President

I immediately went into stress mode - - believing that everything had to happen right away and that I needed to know every detail of - - EVERYTHING! Thus began three weeks of high anxiety because there is so much to know and so much to do and I don't know what I need to know and very little of what I need to do!  And the words "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date...no time to say hello/good-bye - I'm late, I'm late, I'm late"  kept going round and round in my mind.  I talked to family.  I talked to friends.  I talked to my counselor.  I e-mailed an office in Salt Lake.  I said prayers but forgot to listen because I fretted, I worried, I made lists and threw them away.   At some point last weekend  the words going round and round changed and I began hearing these instead:  "If by a still, small voice He calls me to paths that I do not know I'll answer dear Lord with my hand in thine I'll go where you want me to go.... I'll say what you want me to say... I'll be what you want me to be..."  Whew!  A sigh of relief and a change of attitude.