SCHOFIELD FAMILY BLOG: The Power of Fasting and Prayer

It sounds like the title of a General Conference address! But I just wanted to recount some of the miracles that happened to our family recently. In March, Frank was offered a job as the head principal of Sunrise Elementary in Sandy, Utah. The Jordan School District had just split, and the new Canyons School District had several openings for principals. Feeling a need to move closer to my parents, Frank applied and got the job. We put our home up for sale by owner the next week, and we had a few showings that week with some potential buyers. A month later, a couple who was extremely interested since that first week wanted to buy and put down earnest money, but wanted us to drop the price significantly. I don't know what happened to them, but I hope they were able to get into the house they wanted for the price they were willing to pay.

In May, we decided to list our home on the MLS system through a listing brokerage. We showed 4-6 times a week in May and June, and then in July, only showed twice the entire month! Frank started commuting to Sandy in July, and after three weeks, we realized that the commuting thing just wasn't going to work long term. We had also needed to purchase a commuter car for Frank, and were able to utilize the Cash for Clunkers federal vehicle trade program, and traded Frank's 1993 GMC Sierra for a brand new Hyundai Elantra, which I must say suits Frank's personality so much better! Anyway, at the end of July we were in a quandry as to what we were going to do. WE WERE MISERABLE!!! Frank hated being gone all week, I hated having him gone all week, something needed to happen, and happen fast. So, we decided to fast about our situation and asked family members to join us in our efforts.

Sunday after we ended our fast, we prayed to know what we needed to do. We decided that we had enough money in our savings accout to rent a cheap townhouse until December, and that would hopefully give us enough time to sell our house. So on Monday, Frank starts looking for townhomes to rent. Tuesday morning I get a call from our broker saying he has received a call from a realtor from CA who is in our area with a client eager to look at our house. When asked how much time I had, he said they'd like to look at it with in the next two hours. Knowing we were going to move, I had already started boxing stuff up, and the house was a mess. However, I quickly shooed the kids to the neighbors, and I went to town on getting the house showable.

At 4:20, the people arrived. They were young guys, and I thought, "Great, another frenzy cleaning for nothing!" They spent over 20 minutes looking at the house, and upon leaving, they said they liked the house a lot and would be calling our broker with an offer. I was so excited! However, their offer came in quite low, and then we counter-offered, and then they counter-offered again. We were a little concerned that it still wasn't at the price we wanted, but with today's market it was still an okay offer, and it had been the ONLY solid offer we had since listing the house, and who knew how much longer it would be before another offer came. This all happened on August 6-8th. Also, they were paying with cash, so they wanted to close on the house August 18th!

Once all the papers were signed, I went to work on the packing, and packed like a mad woman with some much appreciated help from so many neighbors and ward members! I still can't believe how quickly everything happened! Frank finally found a place for us to rent the day before we were to move. We had taken a load of things in my dad's horse trailer the weekend of the 8th, and got a moving van for the next week. Frank could not take time off due to contract disclosures for principals in August, but came home each night to help either take the packed boxes out to the garage or help pack a few things here and there. He was also finishing up teaching two courses for USU and had to have all final projects graded and final grades turned in. It was crazy!

On Friday, August 14th, the nieghborhood threw a little going away party for us, and it was so fun to be in our little Zion for one last get together. We absolutely LOVE Logan, especially our little Henry's Point neighborhood! We will truly miss all of our friends there! However, we do have a greater testimony of the power of fasting, and that Heavenly Father does listen to and answer prayers. I just wish a strong Mormon family would've purchased our home. Instead, I have heard hy house in Logan is now the off campus frat house!