Miracles, Personal Revelations, A Thankful Heart

"The more I was willing to help anyone who needed help, the more the Spirit would prompt missionaries to call on me."

Author Visker, a devout adherent to the tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, fulfilled a long-held wish at age sixty, returning to college to become a registered nurse. This enabled her to join the LDS missionary movement overseas, in islands and nations of the Central Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. Earlier, she had helped to start a children's choir in Utah, affording young people the adventure of touring in the U.S., Mexico, and England. In her ensuing missionary and nursing role, Visker witnessed and experienced many miraculous and vividly depicted occurrences. For example, a woman with blurred vision received donated glasses giving her back her sight. Children were saved from drowning, literally in some cases, and also through Visker's CPR training and instruction. Outbreaks of the dreaded dengue fever were managed and lives saved among missionaries and indigenous people. Also, hundreds heard and accepted the gospel message she shared.

Visker, writing with notable skill, has organized her adventures into a chronology that begins with earliest inklings that the Spirit of the Lord was guiding her path and keeping her from harm. In recounting her work in poor and disadvantaged cultures, she evinces sensitivity and a generous nature. Too, her descriptions of medical emergencies, ad hoc surgeries, and quickly taken measures to save lives are gripping. These include the remarkable tale of a fellow worker's need for a blood transfusion. Many missionaries donated, and when the "missionary blood" began to flow into the patient's veins, "there was a warm, glowing sensation," and the healing began. Visker's book radiates her convictions and her dynamic, determined character. Her recollections should interest anyone who has lived or visited the places she recalls, and who, like her, has observed the power of religious conviction in serving others.

- The US Review of Books

Miracles, Personal Revelation, A Thankful Heart by Mary Visker is both a memoir of biographical experiences and a recording of the author's lifetime spiritual journey; from unsure youth to mature, and slightly more sure, adult. Visker does not propose to have all the answers to life. Indeed, she is pretty emphatic about not having any answers. Instead, she directs the audience to listen to the Lord’s voice for answers to all life's decisions, both those which are momentous as well as those that are seemingly more trivial.

At the age of 60, Visker became a registered nurse so that she might serve medical missions in the Central Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. It was through these experiences she decided to write a book, a teaching tool, which could help people understand how to have a more personal relationship and understanding with the Lord. The author insists on the necessity of personal revelation; be open and listening for God’s intervention in your daily life. Those interventions are commandments from the Lord. The commandments aren't always easy to hear, to obey, or even to understand.Visker gives examples throughout her life of how the gift of prayer, given to her from her mother, saved her from emotional and physical disasters. As an example, Visker uses an early divorce. Although she knew it was the right decision to marry because she felt the movement of the Lord in that respect, she was troubled by the divorce. Why would the Lord give her such a disappointment after she obeyed his personal commandment? The author continued to trust in the Lord's guidance in all she did, even risking financial ruin and danger. And, Visker learned that the Lord does indeed travel in mysterious ways. As she relied on the intervention of strangers, she saw that God was acting through various means to get her just where she needed to be. She also learned those interventions brought her into contact with others who needed her, showing the interconnectedness of God's plan.

Visker's unique experiences in Miracles, Personal Revelation, A Thankful Heart will be an inspiration for those who seek to understand how to develop a closer relationship with their Lord. This book isn't solely a plea for readers to develop a personal relationship with their Creator, it also contains sweet and bittersweet stories of miracles, and reminders to be thankful for every blessing, and every challenge, we are given. Thank you for the reminders, Mary Visker, to use each day as an opportunity to seek out the quiet moments, heed the calls we are given, and be grateful to be of service to others. This book is easy to read, packed full of truths written in a way that is easy to understand. Seekers will be satisfied and believers will be challenged. I highly recommend putting into practice the principles and concepts taught in this book. I would recommend this book to everyone needing encouragement and enhancing their spiritual journey.

- Pacific Book Review