President Russell M. Nelson shares the experience of his grandfather seeing his dead departed father.

 

President Russell M. Nelson

When my grandfather A. C. Nelson was a young husband and father, just 27 years old, he saw and conversed with his father who died on January 27, 1891.  About three months after his death. His deceased father, my great-grandfather, came to visit him. My grandfather kept a journal but it is not more than a half a dozen pages long. This is the main entry in the journal.   The date of that visit was the night of April 6, 1891. Grandfather Nelson was so impressed by his father’s visit that he wrote the experience in his journal for his family and friends.

“I was in bed when Father entered the room,” Grandfather Nelson wrote. “He came and sat on the side of the bed. He said, ‘Well, my son, as I had a few spare minutes, I received permission to come and see you for a few minutes. I am glad to see you father how do you do? I am feeling well, my son.  How are you and mother and the boys getting along.  I am well father.  Can you see us at all times? Do you know what we are doing? No, my son I cannot. I have something else to do.  I have been assigned work that must be performed. What have you been doing since you died father? He looked at me and smiled. Son, I have received my commission to preach the gospel. I have been traveling together with Erastus Snow ever since I died.  

“You cannot imagine, my son, how many spirits there are in the spirit world who have not yet received the gospel,” he said.  “But many are receiving it, and a great work is being accomplished. Many are anxiously looking forth to their friends who are still living to administer for them in the temples. I have been very busy preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. ”

Grandfather Nelson told his father, “We intend to go to the temple and get sealed to you, Father, as soon as we can.”

My great-grandfather responded: “That, my son, is partly what I came to see you about. We will yet make a family and live throughout eternity.”

Then Grandfather Nelson asked, “Father, is the gospel as taught by this Church true?”

His father pointed to a picture of the First Presidency hanging on the wall of the bedroom.

“My son, just as sure as you see that picture, just as sure is the gospel true. The gospel of Jesus Christ has within it the power of saving every man and woman who will obey it, and in no other way can they ever obtain salvation in the kingdom of God. My son, always cling to the gospel. My son, be humble, be prayerful, be submissive to the priesthood, be true, be faithful to the covenants you have made with God. Never do anything that would displease God. Oh, what a blessing is the gospel. My son, be a good boy.”

 I write it for the benefit of my family and friends.

 

[A.C. Nelson received this private vision 27 years before President Joseph F. Smith received D&C 138, the Vision of the Redemption of the Dead. Both experiences testify of God’s plan of salvation and encourage us to perform temple ordinances for those beyond the veil.]

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2017/10/open-the-heavens-through-temple-and-family-history-work?lang=eng

Also video attached to Come Follow Me, Sunday school lessons for D&C 125-128 November 1-7

 

 

Halo Tracing: How to Be an Angel By Anne Hinton Pratt

 

Halo Tracing: How to Be an Angel

By Anne Hinton Pratt · November 3, 2021

 

I’ve written a lot about angels and the help we receive from them. What I haven’t yet mentioned is the joy and wonder that can also be ours by seeking this errand of angels; to be a miracle in someone’s life…

Poignant Awareness

Years ago, I was concerned about a special friend.  I prayed a lot for her and asked the Lord to send angels to help her through a difficult time she was having.  That day, I went to the temple, and while there, I again offered a fervent prayer for angels to help her.  This time as I was praying, I heard the surprising words in my mind, “YOU are one of the angels helping her!”

I was stunned! What a beautiful awareness!  I was taught that when we sincerely and fervently pray for others, we become their “angels,” and often through us they receive blessings they wouldn’t otherwise receive.

Merging with Angels

In a similar account, I had a dear friend share a very sacred dream. She had a daughter that had estranged herself from their family and God.  One night my friend had a dream where she saw an angel in white bending over and kissing her wayward sleeping daughter.  Suddenly, the picture changed, and that angel transformed into my friend.  Now it was she that was bending over her daughter in the loving gesture, and then she woke up being filled with the glory of the spirit.  It became clear to her that she was in a partnership with angels to help her daughter.”[1]

Adding Substance to our Souls

I love Annie Henrie Nader’s inspiring painting (above) of “an angel tracing a halo around a woman in thought as a gesture of gratitude for the woman’s kindness and thoughtfulness…”[2]  

Spencer W. Kimball echoes this concept when he said,

“The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls.”[3] 

“Angel work” is JOYFUL and literally adds to our essence!  How wonderful is that?

Are angels metaphorically “tracing” halos around you? I bet they are.

An “Angel” Who Learned from Angels

As we seek to be angels in this sphere, we can be used in countless ways.  The following is unusual but shows the variety of our angelic possibilities.

Barbara Lee spent her entire life giving service.  When she was 85, her body limited her to be in bed most of the time, and she felt it was time to die and return to God.  

Her daughter Carolyn Allen shared how one day, her mom began to look very pale and still.  Carolyn thought her mother was dying, but several hours later, her mother suddenly opened her eyes and began to speak saying, “It’s not time for me to die!” 

Barbara explained that she had experienced something truly wonderful.  She described heaven and how beautiful it was. Over the next few years, she was allowed to visit the other side several times. Each time she would come back from heaven with more information.  She said, “Angels are all around us;” and “The veil is very thin.”  She described many new insights and understandings to her family.

When grandchildren came to visit, she told them things she had learned that were specifically for them.  Talk about service!  Barbara served as an “angel” who had been taught by angels.[4]

We most likely won’t have the experience of going to the other side before our time, but we CAN bring the spirit of Elijah to our family, by telling the spiritual stories of the family and bearing our own testimonies…

We can share our angelic substance with others…

BRING PEACE

Many years ago, I made what I thought was a big effort to go to the temple.  I was feeling harried and jangled because of the time it took to get there and the many projects I had left behind. 

While there, I remember looking into the eyes of a temple worker.  Her eyes were pools of peace.  She didn’t say anything to me, but I could feel the peace radiate from her, and it entered into my soul, calming all my fears and worries.  I could feel the Lord through her.  At that moment she was my “angel.”

Can others feel peace through us?

Becoming Ministering Angels

Elder Carlos A. Godoy stated,

“Brothers and sisters, I believe in angels…I promise that if we are willing to serve, the Lord will give us opportunities to be ministering angels. He knows who needs angelic help, and He will put them in our path.” [5]

Be Someone Else’s Miracle- Taking Initiative

Jim Raines became an “angel” one day and was “put on the right path.”

It was 1970 and Jim was waiting for his mission call.  He lived in Los Angeles, California and his grandmother wanted him to drive her to visit Thatcher, Arizona to visit family.  Since he had nothing pressing to do, he drove her there.

After he dropped his grandmother off, he set off to do a couple of errands.  At some point Jim needed directions to get to his destination.  He saw an elderly man with the hood up on his truck and stopped to ask directions.  In chatting with this man Jim noticed that the man was working on his transmission but was quite clueless how to fix it.  Jim knew how he could help, because he had just put a transmission in his car back home.  As Jim left he said, “I’ll be back and help you do this.” 

After returning hours later, Jim found the old man still working on his truck, without making any progress. Jim rolled up his sleeves and after an hour or so, got the transmission installed and working. 

After they cleaned up, the man’s wife invited him to dinner.  As Jim was leaving, the man’s wife privately told him,                                                                                                      “Last night when I prayed the family prayer, I prayed to the Lord to have someone come help my husband with his truck.  He needs that truck and he had no one to help him.  YOU coming along was a direct answer to prayer!” [6] 

Jim was their angel that night and through this act added to his essence as well as theirs.

Be Illuminated and Enlarged

Lorenzo Snow taught,

“When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to   remove it with the wisdom the Lord bestows upon you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel the light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated.” [7]

When we look for ways to become someone’s miracle, as Jim was, the Lord illuminates and enlarges our spiritual core.

So, BE the “angel” that opens doors for others, listens intently, redirects toxic conversations to positive, visits the lonely, shares testimony, prays and fasts for others, and your goodness will be “traced” into your countenance by adding substance to your soul!  

How can you be an “angel” today?

You Can CONTACT me directly at annehpratt@hotmail.com.

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[1] Friends experience, name withheld.  Used with permission.

[2] Annie Henrie Nader, https://altusfineart.com/products/annie-henrie-nader-angels-gratitude-woman-finishing-halo

[3] The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball (1982), 254.

[4] Carolyn Allen, personal correspondence. Used with permission.

[5] Carlos A. Godoy, “I Believe in Angels,” October Conference 2020

[6] Jim Raines, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[7] Lorenzo Snow, Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 2–3.Italics added.

 

President Kimball once had a powerful dream about his deceased father By Dennis B. Horne

 

President Kimball once had a powerful dream about his deceased father. Here’s how it shaped his testimony

byDennis B. Horne, Contributor | Jul. 14, 2021

Editor’s note: The following excerpt comes from a book about special witnesses of Jesus Christ. You can read this chapter in its entirety at truthwillprevail.xyz as well as other chapters as they are posted. This excerpt is republished here with permission.

In a quarterly meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles held in 1957, while speaking to his beloved apostolic associates, Elder Spencer W. Kimball “recounted to them a dream of a visit from [his] deceased father.”¹  The dream came while he dealt with deeply concerning health problems, while he pondered his life and possible death. “I tried to piece together my bits of knowledge to anticipate what the life beyond the grave was like,” he said. “There came back to me vividly a hallowed experience when about a year ago my own father, Andrew Kimball, came to me.”²  Speaking of this to his brethren, he said,

It seemed I stood in the room with other people around me. Then I saw him, my father. My father was a handsome man, tall, straight, young, in his sixties, with dark, piercing eyes and a commanding appearance, and there he was, not a vague apparition, but so real and so lifelike, so much like himself. I called to him, “Oh, Father, Father, it is so good to see you.” He had a radiant smile such as he had had in his life. It warmed me and inspired me. I was pulsating with gladness. I could not understand why others could not see him, he was so clear and distinct and pleasing. “Oh, my beloved father!” He said no word, and now he seemed to be moving away gradually. He had been only an arm’s length from me. Now he faded out of the picture and was gone.

I awakened and lay hours, reliving the beautiful dream and the satisfying vision again and again. I did not want it to pass from my memory. I went to my desk and wrote it in my journal and went back to bed, lying quietly in the darkness musing and reliving this hallowed experience.

So vivid it was that I felt sure it had some meaning. I was not sure for what purpose it had been given to me. . . .

And so I have been grateful through the years for that sweet moment. If it did nothing more for me than to more completely connect mortality with immortality, it served a good purpose. As I have contemplated these months the exquisite joy which came to me in this reunion with my earthly father, I came to anticipate the infinitely greater happiness the possible meeting of my Lord and Savior and our Eternal Father. . . .

Somehow after this, the future, whatever it was, did not look so bleak and nebulous. There settled down over me a comfort and a peace which, except in a few weak moments, has never left me.³

During another period of deep introspection, as he again thought about his mortality and his throat problems, he wrote to a son: “I leave with my children and others my testimony. I know. How more completely could I know anything? I know that it is true and divine. And as I face the end of my days I say it again and again without fear and in total honesty.”⁴  But Elder Kimball’s days were not yet ended.

In late 1973, with the unexpected death of President Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball became the President of the Church. Of this change in leadership, Elder Bruce R. McConkie said:

When President Lee passed he was attended by President Marion G. Romney, his second counselor, and President Spencer W. Kimball, the President of the Council of the Twelve. President N. Eldon Tanner was in Arizona at the time. Brother Romney, as the representative of and counselor to President Lee, was in complete and total charge at the hospital. He gave President Lee a blessing. He felt the spirit of peace and satisfaction, the calm assurance that whatever eventuated would be right. He did not promise President Lee that he would be healed. The President had become ill very rapidly, just in a matter of hours or moments. Shortly after this blessing, he passed away. At the moment he passed, Brother Romney, in harmony with the system and the established tradition and custom of the Church, stepped aside, and President Spencer W. Kimball was then in complete charge and had total direction. President Kimball was at that moment the senior apostle of God on earth. And as the last heartbeat of President Lee ceased, the mantle of leadership passed to President Kimball, whose next heartbeat was that of the living oracle and presiding authority of God on earth. From that moment the Church continued under the direction of President Kimball.⁵

President Kimball, because of many health problems, had not expected to outlive President Lee, but in the Lord’s providences, and after experiencing open heart surgery under the skilled hands of Dr. Russell M. Nelson in 1972, he did. Dr. Nelson, who later became an Apostle and then President of the Church, received a powerful spiritual experience while operating: “I shall never forget the feeling I had as his heart resumed beating, leaping with power and vigor. At that very moment, the Spirit made known to me that this special patient would live to become the prophet of God on earth.”⁶

At President Lee’s funeral, President Kimball said: “President Lee has gone. I never thought it could happen. I sincerely wanted it never to happen. I doubt if anyone in the Church has prayed harder and more consistently for a long life and the general welfare for President Lee than my Camilla and myself. I have not been ambitious. I am four years older than Brother Lee (to the exact day, March 28). I have expected that I would go long before he would go. My heart cries out to him and for him. How we loved him!”⁷

President Kimball had only been president for a short time when his heart began giving him further problems. Dr. Russell M. Nelson again told the story: “He had been president of the Church at the time about seven months. His heart was acting up that Saturday afternoon. (I had done heart surgery on him in April 1972.) I went out there and found his heartbeat to be grossly irregular—really out of time.” Dr. Nelson decided to take him to the hospital for further tests. “He was obedient as he usually is. On the way to the hospital he said, ‘Now, Brother Nelson, it would be a great disservice to the Church if I were to die this soon after being ordained as President of the Church. You have got to see that I stay alive a long time yet.’”⁸

At the April 1974 general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball was reported to have said the following:

“The Lord has revealed to men by dreams something more than I ever understood or felt before.” I heard this more than once in quorum meetings of the Council of the Twelve when George F. Richards was president. He was the venerable father of Brother LeGrand Richards who has just spoken to us. He said, “I believe in dreams, brethren. The Lord has given me dreams which to me are just as real and as much from God as was the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, which was the means of saving a nation from starvation, or the dream of Lehi who through a dream led his colony out of the old country across the mighty deep to this promised land, or any other dreams that we might read in the scriptures.”⁹

President Kimball then finished quoting from President Richards and also President George Q. Cannon using the former words of both men to establish and convey further meaning to those with ears to hear and hearts to understand:

“It is not out of place for us to have important dreams,” [President Richards] said. “And then more than 40 years ago I had a dream which I am sure was from the Lord. In this dream I was in the presence of my Savior as he stood mid-air. He spoke no word to me, but my love for him was such that I have not words to explain. I know that no mortal man can love the Lord as I experienced that love for the Savior unless God reveals it to him. I would have remained in his presence, but there was a power drawing me away from him.

“As a result of that dream, I had this feeling that no matter what might be required of my hands, what the gospel might entail unto me, I would do what I should be asked to do even to the laying down of my life.

“And so when we read in the scriptures what the Savior said to his disciples, ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions: … I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am, there ye may be also.’ (John 14:2–3.) I think that is where I want to be.

“If only I can be with my Savior and have that same sense of love that I had in that dream, it will be the goal of my existence, the desire of my life.”

Elder George Q. Cannon, who was in the presidency of the Church at one time, said this:

“I know that God lives. I know that Jesus lives; for I have seen Him. I know that this is the Church of God, and that it is founded on Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. I testify to you of these things as one who knows—as one of the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ that can bear witness to you today in the presence of the Lord that He lives. . . .” 

Brethren and sisters, we come now to the close of this great conference. You have heard from most of the Brethren, as I have said, and their testimonies have been inspiring. What they have told you is true. . . .

Brethren and sisters, I want to add to these testimonies of these prophets my testimony that I know that He lives. And I know that we may see him, and that we may be with him, and that we may enjoy his presence always if we will live the commandments of the Lord and do the things which we have been commanded by him to do and reminded by the Brethren to do.¹⁰ 

Then several years later, in the April 1978 general conference, President Kimball again adopted the words of another to express his own similar special witness: “‘I know that God lives. I know that Jesus Christ lives,’ said John Taylor, my predecessor, ‘for I have seen him.’ I bear this testimony to you brethren in the name of Jesus Christ.”¹¹

Read this chapter in its entirety at truthwillprevail.xyz. 

https://www.ldsliving.com/President-Kimball-once-had-a-powerful-dream-about-his-deceased-father-Here-s-how-it-shaped-his-testimony/s/94519?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email

Angels that Aid and Sustain Children by Anne Hinton Pratt

 

Angels that Aid and Sustain Children

By Anne Hinton Pratt · June 16, 2021

 

Children are our most priceless treasures, and we want to protect them at all costs.  Sometimes children get in a situation where they are in harm’s way.  When we can’t be there, or can’t help them, angels are often sent to succor and assist our little ones.

Angel Saves Toddler from Oncoming Traffic                                                                  

When my son Gary was about 18-months-old, he somehow finagled a way to open our locked and bolted back door and started toddling away from our home without me knowing.  We lived one street over from a very busy highway. 

I was occupied in a back room when I got a knock at the door.  When I opened the door, I saw an unfamiliar woman standing there holding Gary’s hand. She was tall and stately. I was astounded because I hadn’t even noticed that he was gone.

She simply said, “Your son was out walking on the highway.”  I took his hand while my mouth was hanging open.  I quickly thanked her and then took him inside embarrassed and horrified for what could have happened. I began to wonder, “Who was that woman?”  How did she know Gary was my son?  How had she found me?  She was dressed differently from people where I lived.  I looked out the window to get a better view of her, and she was gone.  I was suddenly struck with the awareness that she had been an angel…    

Angels That Are Assigned to Children

I love the scripture that talks specifically about children’s angels:

 “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”[1]

I have collected several first hand accounts of children who, even during abuse or trauma, see and feel angels helping them.  Here is one that is truly inspiring.

Children Being Sustained from Evil

A woman told me about an experience she had as a young child where an angel sustained her through a very traumatic event.  She wrote,

“When I was very young, between the ages of 5 and 6 years old, I was in a situation that would be described as very unfortunate. A few years ago, as I reflected on that memory one day, I had what I believe was revelation regarding this incident. I could see myself and another little fellow who was also present, and we were suffering and scared, along with other people not far from us. Suddenly, I recognized that there were several angels ministering specifically to the two of us. They were very near, right next to us, and I knew that they were nursing us, so to speak, in the midst of these circumstances.

“As I saw this revelation, I instantly also perceived that the angels’ time—God’s time—was not the same as our earthly time. With the activities going on around me, the angels were in a space unlike ours here on earth, yet they were very close to us, busily protecting us and guarding our spirits. From that point on, I have known that the spirit world is right here among us, even though we cannot see it. There are angels and spirits engaged in our lives to various degrees. I now often pray specifically for their assistance in my life and those around me and know they are here for us. It is such a comfort to me, and I’m positively sure they are helping God’s children all over the world to endure their trials and struggles. Heavenly Father does not leave us alone—ever.”[2]

Her insights are inspiring.  Angels are given assignments to help children through many storms; sometimes these storms are literal, as in the following account.

Protected During Tornado

Elder Rasband taught: “While in Oklahoma, I had the opportunity to meet with a few of the families devastated by the mighty twisters. As I visited with the Sorrels family, I was particularly touched by the experience of their daughter, Tori, then a fifth grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School.

“Tori and a handful of her friends huddled in a restroom for shelter as the tornado roared through the school. Listen as I read, in Tori’s own words, the account of that day:

‘I heard something hit the roof. I thought it was just hailing. The sound got louder and louder. I said a prayer that Heavenly Father would protect us all and keep us safe. All of a sudden we heard a loud vacuum sound, and the roof disappeared right above our heads. There was lots of wind and debris flying around and hitting every part of my body. It was darker outside and it looked like the sky was black, but it wasn’t—it was the inside of the tornado. I just closed my eyes, hoping and praying that it would be over soon.

‘All of a sudden it got quiet.  When I opened my eyes, I saw a stop sign right in       front of my eyes! It was almost touching my nose.’

“Tori, her mother, three of her siblings, and numerous friends who were also in the school with her miraculously survived that tornado; seven of their schoolmates did not.

“…That weekend the priesthood brethren gave many blessings to members who had suffered in the storm. I was humbled to give Tori a blessing. As I laid my hands on her head, a favorite scripture came to mind: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”[3]

“I counseled Tori to remember the day when a servant of the Lord laid his hands on her head and pronounced that she had been protected by angels in the storm”[4]

Angels can safeguard children from danger as well as to aid in their healing.  In Psalms it states that, “…he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”[5]

Sometimes it’s the mothers of sustained children that see or feel the angels.

Her Son’s Angel Doctor 

Sherry Bonneau shared a very touching story where an angel was sent to save her baby.  Since birth her 2-year old son Richard, had battled severe health problems and nearly died on several occasions. One day, on a holiday weekend, when no doctors were scheduled at the facility, Richard had a very bad reaction to the sedation he just received for a biopsy, and all the alarms were going off.  She writes,

“His fever was 105 and he barely had a pulse. I knew he was dying. I pleaded with Heavenly Father that surely he hadn’t allowed Richard to survive all the other near deaths, only to take him now!

 “As I looked up with tears running down my face an unfamiliar doctor was in the doorway.  He asked me a couple of questions and then turned to the nurse and told her to open his IV wide open and run two bags of this medication through. Once the first bag went through, his temperature started to come down and his blood pressure started coming up. The alarms stopped ringing. By the time the second bag went through my son was fully awake.

“I looked up to thank the doctor, but he wasn’t there. I asked the nurses to tell me who he was.  When they checked, they discovered that he didn’t sign the logbook and no one saw him pass the desk on his way in or out. The only nurses who actually saw him were the ones in our room that had been instructed to save my baby’s life.”

“I know Heavenly Father sent the angel doctor that day, and I will be forever grateful.”[6]

Beautiful Authority

Angels are given the beautiful authority to oversee children and shield them from the worst things in life, or if they must go through the trial, angels are often allowed to support them through it. 

Children’s angels are in the Presence of the face of God, and are especially equipped to protect little ones.  Someday we’ll have the full report of how we were protected and sustained as children by our angels.  What a revelation of God’s grace that will be.

You Can CONTACT ME at annehpratt@hotmail.com

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[1] Matt. 18:10, italics added.

[2] Name withheld, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[3] Doctrine & Covenants 84:88.

[4] Ronald A. Rasband, “The Joyful Burden of Discipleship” April Conference, 2014.

[5] Psalm 91:11 (Italics added)

[6] Sherry Bonneau, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/angels-that-aid-and-sustain-children/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=scot-maurine-proctor&utm_content=Thursday+June+17%2C+2021

A Mother's Prayer and Attending Angels By Tanya Neider

 

A Mother’s Prayer and Attending Angels

By Tanya Neider · May 11, 2021

 

Motherhood with all of its complexities can encompass a wide berth of experiences. How and when we relate events to our children can be enlightening to them and to us. Spiritual experiences that remind us who we really are, and what our missions are, are something we should never refrain from sharing. In fact, experiences which our children are the principal focus, should be recounted as a reminder of our Heavenly parents’ love for them.

Spring of 1994

The anticipation for the spring soccer season was now at an end. April was here, and I would play in my first game Saturday morning. When Saturday arrived as I was getting ready, I felt the presence of a spirit standing in front of me. This spirit asked me, “If your children needed you, would you stay home?” “Yes,” I replied, but immediately the thought, “they wouldn’t need me”, entered my mind. I knew they would be safely at home while I played.

Then suddenly, I felt the presence of another spirit. This spirit was clearly different from the first, negative in nature, and pounced on the thought with encouragement that my children didn’t need me. Why I heeded this negative spirit still troubles me at times. My desire to play soccer and feeling my children would be fine helped me justify why I didn’t follow the spirit that simply asked me a question, leaving me my agency and reasoning, with no prolonged badgering. What is even more alarming is that during my soccer years, I asked the Lord not just to protect me from injury, but to warn me of injury. When He did, I did not heed the counsel.

Well, I played for about 5 minutes that spring season. Touching the ball for the first time in the game, I sprinted down the left sideline of the field, cutting around the last defender toward the goal. As I turned to shoot, my knee buckled tearing my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). I would not play soccer again for a year.

Summer of 1994

With my leg still in a brace in July, I took my three children to upstate New York, to vacation at Keuka Lake and to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra. My parents, a few other family members, and my best friend, Rita, would meet us at the lake house.

On a beautiful sunny day, Rita and I took my three children, Sam age 7, Jake 6, and Stephen 4; two nieces, Sara 11 and Becky 9, and my autistic, older brother Lance and his friend Claudia, to visit with Vera, a family friend.  Vera had a lakefront home with a dock, pedal boat, and floats. The children played in the chilly lake water staying close to shore. Being fairly incapacitated with my leg in a brace and unable to swim or move quickly, I watched from the deck.

Earlier that morning I had prayed for protection for my family as I often do, but it felt different. I could sense a calm feeling as I requested this blessing. I didn’t know quite what it meant, but I “marked it” in my memory.

After a little while, Lance pulled the pedal boat into the water. My niece, Sara, and Stephen clambered aboard as Lance and Claudia took the front seats. Immediately I yelled to Lance, “Stephen can’t swim! He needs a life jacket.” My voice faded into the void as Lance, filled with excitement, continued to pedal out. Rita grabbed a few life vests and ran to the dock calling to Lance. Awakening to her voice, Lance began peddling toward the dock being about 20 feet from it and shore.

As I watched, I could clearly see the small boat with my four-year old, Stephen, was sinking! Lance immediately went into action telling Sara to go to the front of the boat believing it would balance it out. I knew it would flip it and screamed, “NO!”  Rita saw it, too. She dove in the water although she was fully dressed including her sandals and glasses.

As Sara and Claudia leapt off, I could see Stephen falling down from the back of the vertically inclined boat, toward the water as it capsized, certain he would be trapped underneath. Once the boat was upside down, I lost view of Stephen and Lance.

I was praying Lance had Stephen on the other side as I hobbled as fast as I could toward the water. Lance emerged. His head was bloodied, and he didn’t have Stephen. I screamed, “Get Stephen!” Lance quickly dove down in the water, but I knew it was too late. Lance and Rita would never find him under the water. Yet, several seconds later, to my overwhelming joyous astonishment, Lance came from the blind side of the boat with Stephen in his arms.

Soon after, Rita, who had collected Stephen from Lance, brought him to shore. Incredibly, his hair wasn’t even wet. Lance told us he found Stephen clinging to the side of the boat. In an effort to calm Lance and Claudia who were both extremely upset, we just laughed off the incident even though I knew we could have easily had two deaths that day.

Later that evening as we recounted the events of the day to my parents, I described how Stephen had grabbed the side of the boat as he fell. Stephen, who is usually quite quiet, heard me, then corrected me. He said, “No Mommy, I couldn’t reach the boat. Sara pushed my feet so I could reach it.” I answered him by saying I could see Sara who was clearly on the other side of the boat and couldn’t have helped him. He then insisted that Sara had pushed his feet; so he could reach the boat. That is when I knew I had witnessed a miracle; Stephen had been rescued and preserved so he could continue his life’s mission.

I was overcome with gratitude as I had never felt previously. For the next few weeks my humility deepened. Every time I looked upon my children, I felt this penetrating gratitude. I also noticed my children were much calmer. I was much more at peace. Not only that, I could feel two angels around me constantly. They walked with me daily and stood as sentinels on either side of me. 

Then it happened. My precious four-year old did some small thing and I felt irritation. With some annoyance, but not raising my voice, I snipped, “Stephen, stop that.” I felt the angels gasp at my reaction to Stephen! I was surprised since this was not an act of strong discipline. It was then these angels left me.

I am sad to say after that I was left to my own devices; the deep humility I felt left me. Yet, I remember the feelings, and still desire to always have true humility and gratitude as my companions.

I share this tale with Stephen, who is now in his thirties, from time to time, reminding him of this saving miracle. Relating this spiritual event to him, and those I feel impressed to tell, can be a source of light, a reminder, or impact them in ways I cannot see. This spiritual experience not only reminded me of who we really are, but also helped me to see who I am.

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/a-mothers-prayer-and-attending-angels/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=scot-maurine-proctor&utm_content=Wednesday+May+12%2C+2021