MIRACLES AMONG BELIEVERS TODAY

THIS ARTICLE GOT ME GOING ON IOHANI WOLFGRAMM AND CAUSED A SERIES OF EVENTS IN MY LIFE THAT HELPED ME GET THE "RUBBER TO THE ROAD" - SO TO SPEAK. GOTTA LOVE DALLIN OAKES - ENOUGH TO NAME A KID AFTER HIM:

Dallin H. Oaks, “Miracles,” Ensign, Jun 2001, 6

From a talk given at a Church Educational System fireside in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on 7 May 2000.

Miracles happen every day in the work of the Church and in the lives of its members.
Image

When I was a college student, almost 50 years ago, Elder Matthew Cowley (1897–1953) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to a BYU audience about miracles. That devotional message had a great impact on me, and I have felt to revisit its subject. Like Elder Cowley, I will seek to provide an answer to the prophet Mormon’s question “Has the day of miracles ceased?” (Moro. 7:35). In fact, many miracles happen every day in the work of our Church and in the lives of our members. Many of you have witnessed miracles, perhaps more than you realize.

A miracle has been defined as “a beneficial event brought about through divine power that mortals do not understand and of themselves cannot duplicate.” 1 The idea that events are brought about through divine power is rejected by most irreligious people and even by some who are religious. All of us have known people who have what Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once called “the anti-miracle mind-set.” 2 This rejection of miracles in the last days was prophesied. The prophet Nephi foretold that the Gentiles would “put down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get gain” (2 Ne. 26:20). He also prophesied that churches would be built up in which persons would teach with their learning, deny the power of God, and tell the people that if someone should “say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of miracles” (2 Ne. 28:6).

Some people reject the possibility of miracles because they have not experienced them or cannot understand them. In contrast, President Howard W. Hunter declared, “To deny the reality of miracles on the ground that the results and manifestations must be fictitious simply because we cannot comprehend the means by which they have happened is arrogant on the face of it.” 3
Types of Miracles

The word miracle is used in different ways. We sometimes say that any happening we cannot explain is a “miracle.” To me, a computer is a miracle. So are cell phones and space travel. But these wonders are explainable by physical laws understood by some mortals. I call them miracles because I do not personally understand them and therefore cannot duplicate them at will.

Another category of miracles, so-called, are the tricks that some magicians and religious practitioners stage in order to produce astonishing events in aid of their professions or ministries. You will remember that the magicians in Pharaoh’s court duplicated some of the miracles Moses produced through the power of God (see Ex. 7–8). Perhaps these magicians were servants of the devil, using his power, but I think it more likely that they were simply skilled practitioners of magic tricks that they used to reinforce their position in Pharaoh’s court.

Religious practitioners have employed similar deceptions in our own day. About 40 years ago a professional dramatic production planned for a midwestern city had to be postponed because the producers could not find enough professional actors to perform the required roles. A great religious revival was under way in that city, and I was told the revivalists had hired all of the available professional actors to portray miraculous healings and conversions to enhance their position and goals with their audiences. Before we are too critical of such techniques, we should remember that we engage in similar deceptions whenever we exaggerate a happening in order to dazzle an audience into thinking we have experienced a miracle or to enhance our stature in other ways. Warning!

We know from the scriptures that persons without authority will use the name of Jesus Christ to work what seem to be miracles. The Savior taught that as part of the Final Judgment many would say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matt. 7:22). You will remember that these pretenders were rejected by the Lord (see Matt. 7:23).

Not every manifestation or miracle comes from God or from mortal deception. The adversary has great powers to deceive, and he will use these to give his corrupted copy of the genuine miracles worked by the power of God. I will say no more of this, since I believe it is not desirable to say much about the powers of the evil one. It is sufficient for us to know that his power exists and that we have been warned against it (see Rev. 13:11–14; D&C 28:11; D&C 50:1–3). 4

I will now describe two types of genuine miracles. These two fit all of the elements of the definition: they are brought about by divine power, mortals do not understand them, and mortals cannot duplicate them of themselves.

First, miracles worked by the power of the priesthood are always present in the true Church of Jesus Christ. 5 The Book of Mormon teaches that “God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles” (Mosiah 8:18). The “means” provided is priesthood power (see James 5:14–15; D&C 42:43–48), and that power works miracles through faith (see Ether 12:12; Moro. 7:37). The scriptures contain many accounts of such miracles. Elijah’s raising the widow’s son and Peter’s healing of the lame man are two familiar examples from the Bible (see 1 Kgs. 17:8–24; Acts 3), and there are many others. I will describe some modern examples later.

A second type of genuine miracle is the miracle worked through the power of faith, without specifically invoking the power of the priesthood. Many of these miracles occur in our Church, such as by the prayers of faithful women, and many occur outside it. As Nephi taught, God “manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith” (2 Ne. 26:13; see also 1 Ne. 7:12; James 5:15).
Macro-Miracles

Some miracles affect many people. The ultimate such miracle is the Atonement of Jesus Christ—His triumph over physical and spiritual death for all mankind. No miracle is more far-reaching or more magnificent.

Other far-reaching miracles—impossible to explain by rational means—occur as a result of obedience to the commandments of God. Thus, there is something miraculous about the way the members of our Church pay their tithing so faithfully and are blessed for doing so.

To cite another far-reaching miracle, there is no rational way to explain why young men and women give a year and a half to two years of their lives in the middle of their education and marriage eligibility to suffer the hardships incident to an inconvenient and highly disciplined pattern of missionary service to their fellowmen. Other miracles occur in funding missions by missionaries or families too poor to do so but who do so anyway.

Still another miracle is the way missionaries are protected during their labors. Of course we have fatalities among our young missionaries—about three to six per year over the last decade—all of them tragic. But the official death rates for comparable-age young men and women in the United States are eight times higher than the death rates of our missionaries. In other words, our young men and women are eight times safer in the mission field than the general population of their peers at home. In view of the hazards of missionary labor, this mortality record is nothing less than a miracle.

Other large-scale miracles are occurring in the Church’s family history work. The effect of our FamilySearch™ Internet Genealogy Service in the time it has been available is truly miraculous. After one year our Internet site averaged eight million hits per day, representing daily visits by about 130,000 persons. In this same one-year period, the site registered users from 117 countries who downloaded over 410,000 copies of our Personal Ancestral File. This was an eight-fold increase in usage over the prior technology. Family history work is exploding in a miraculous way.
Micro-Miracles

In contrast to these far-reaching miracles are the more familiar categories of miracles that impact only a few individuals. The scriptures abound with such miracles, and miracles as great as these still occur. I have seen them, and so have you. Elder Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985), then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said:

“We do have miracles today—beyond imagination! …

“What kinds of miracles do we have? All kinds—revelations, visions, tongues, healings, special guidance and direction, evil spirits cast out. Where are they recorded? In the records of the Church, in journals, in news and magazine articles and in the minds and memories of many people.” 6

Most of us are acquainted with miracles that have occurred in our personal lives and the lives of those we love, such as miracles involving births and deaths and miraculous healings. All of these are fulfillments of the Lord’s modern promise to “show miracles, signs, and wonders, unto all those who believe on my name” (D&C 35:8).
When Miracles Don’t Happen

I have been speaking of miracles that happen. What about miracles that don’t happen? Most of us have offered prayers that were not answered with the miracle we requested at the time we desired. Miracles are not available for the asking. We know this from the Lord’s revelation directing that the elders should be called to lay hands on and bless the sick: “It shall come to pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed” (D&C 42:48). The will of the Lord is always paramount. The priesthood of the Lord cannot be used to work a miracle contrary to the will of the Lord. We must also remember that even when a miracle is to occur, it will not occur on our desired schedule. The revelations teach that miraculous experiences occur “in his own time, and in his own way” (D&C 88:68).
Why Don’t We Hear More about Miracles?

Why don’t our talks in general conference and local meetings say more about the miracles we have seen? Most of the miracles we experience are not to be shared. Consistent with the teachings of the scriptures, we hold them sacred and share them only when the Spirit prompts us to do so.

The revelation on priesthood affirms the biblical teaching in Mark 16:17 that “signs,” including miraculous healings and other wonderful works, “follow them that believe” (see also D&C 84:65). Similarly, modern revelation directs that “they shall not boast themselves of these things, neither speak them before the world; for these things are given unto you for your profit and for salvation” (D&C 84:73). Another revelation declares, “Remember that that which cometh from above is sacred, and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit” (D&C 63:64). President Brigham Young explained, “Miracles, or these extraordinary manifestations of the power of God, are not for the unbeliever; they are to console the Saints, and to strengthen and confirm the faith of those who love, fear, and serve God, and not for outsiders.” 7

Latter-day Saints generally follow these directions. In bearing testimonies and in our public addresses we rarely mention our most miraculous experiences, and we rarely rely on signs that the gospel is true. We usually just affirm our testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and give few details on how we obtained it. Why is this? Signs follow those that believe. Seeking a miracle to convert someone is improper sign seeking. By the same token, it is usually inappropriate to recite miraculous circumstances to a general audience that includes people with very different levels of spiritual maturity. To a general audience, miracles will be faith-reinforcing for some but an inappropriate sign for others.

There are good reasons why we do not seek conversions by exhibiting signs. “The viewing of signs or miracles is not a secure foundation for conversion. Scriptural history attests that people converted by signs and wonders soon forget them and again become susceptible to the lies and distortions of Satan and his servants (Hel. 16:23; 3 Ne. 1:22, 3 Ne. 2:1, 3 Ne. 8:4.). …

“In contrast to the witness of the Spirit, which can be renewed from time to time as needed by a worthy recipient, the viewing of a sign or the experiencing of a miracle is a one-time event that will fade in the memory of its witness and can dim in its impact upon him or her.” 8

President George Q. Cannon (1827–1901), who served for more than a quarter century in the First Presidency, observed: “It has been a matter of remark among those who have had experience in this Church that where men have been brought into the Church by such manifestations, it has required a constant succession of them to keep them in the Church; their faith has had to be constantly strengthened by witnessing some such manifestations; but where they have been convinced by the outpouring of the spirit of God, … they have been more likely to stand, more likely to endure persecution and trial than those who have been convinced through some supernatural manifestation.” 9
Sharing Miracles

Although we are generally counseled not to speak of sacred things like the miracles we have witnessed, there are times when the Spirit prompts us to share these experiences, sometimes even in a setting where our account will be published. The miracles written in the scriptures were obviously intended to be shared, usually to strengthen the faith of those who already believed. Modern servants of the Lord have also felt impressed to describe miraculous events to strengthen the faith of believers. Many of these have been published. I have chosen to share some of these here.

A few years after the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, a young man took an ox team up Millcreek Canyon on a cold winter day to get logs to build a house. It was extremely cold, and the snow was deep. His sled held five large logs. After he loaded the first one, he turned around to load another. In that instant, the log already on the sled—22 feet long and about 10 inches in diameter—slipped off the sled and rolled down on him, striking him in the hollow of his legs. He was thrown face-forward across the four logs still on the ground and pinned there, alone, with no way to extract himself. He knew he would freeze to death and die alone in the mountains.

The next thing this young pioneer remembered was waking up, sitting on a load of five logs nicely bound on his sled with his oxen pulling the load down the canyon. In his personal history he wrote, “Who it was that extricated me from under the log, loaded my sled, hitched my oxen to it, and placed me on it, I cannot say.” 10 Thirty-three years later, that young pioneer, Marriner Wood Merrill, was ordained an Apostle.

Many miracles happen to aid individuals in pursuing their personal family histories. In an issue of the Church News, a woman told how she returned to her ancestral home in Japan to seek information about her ancestors. After finding nothing in official records, local libraries, and cemeteries, she gave up and was driving away empty-handed when she became lost and somehow drove past a cemetery she did not know existed. From the car window she saw a familiar name on a tombstone, stopped, and found many markers with the information she sought.” 11

Miraculous healings through priesthood blessings and the prayer of faith are familiar to most of us. An experience related in the Friend magazine is typical. During his early childhood, Elder John M. Madsen was afflicted with double pneumonia. After examining the little boy, a doctor told his parents he could do nothing for him and offered no hope that he would live through the night. Soon the child sank into unconsciousness. When his mother felt for his pulse and could find none, she prayed fervently, and the father gave the dying child a priesthood blessing. Immediately he recovered consciousness and began to feel better. 12

In his great talk on miracles, Elder Matthew Cowley tells of several miraculous healings, including this one that occurred while he was serving as a mission president among the Maori people of New Zealand.

One Sunday a father brought a nine-month-old baby forward to Brother Cowley, requesting that he give him a name and a blessing. Here I quote Brother Cowley:

“I said, ‘All right, what’s the name?’ So he told me the name, and I was just going to start when he said, ‘By the way, give him his vision when you give him a name. He was born blind.’ It shocked me, but then I said to myself, why not? Christ said to his disciples when he left them, ‘Greater things than I have done shall you do.’ (See John 14:12.) I had faith in that father’s faith. After I gave that child its name, I finally got around to giving it its vision. That boy is about twelve years old now. The last time I was back there I was afraid to inquire about him. I was sure he had gone blind again. That’s the way my faith works sometimes. So I asked the branch president about him. And he said, ‘Brother Cowley, the worst thing you ever did was to bless that child to receive his vision. He’s the meanest kid in the neighborhood; always getting into mischief.’ Boy, I was thrilled about that kid getting into mischief!” 13

President Gordon B. Hinckley shared another miracle in the restoration of sight: “I recall once when I arrived in Hong Kong I was asked if I would visit a woman in the hospital whose doctors had told her she was going blind and would lose her sight within a week. She asked if we would administer to her and we did so, and she states that she was miraculously healed. I have a painting in my home that she gave me which says on the back of it, ‘To Gordon B. Hinckley in grateful appreciation for the miracle of saving my sight.’ I said to her, ‘I didn’t save your sight. Of course, the Lord saved your sight. Thank Him and be grateful to Him.’ ” 14

As I said earlier, the Lord works miracles in response to the faith of His children. No denomination—not even the restored Church—has a monopoly on the blessings of the Lord. He loves and blesses all of His children.

In an airport one day I picked up a copy of the Dallas Morning News. My eyes were drawn to a columnist’s report of a letter detailing a remarkable miracle. The writer’s five-year-old granddaughter, Heather, suddenly became feverish and lethargic. She breathed with difficulty, and her lips turned blue. By the time she arrived at the hospital, her kidneys and lungs had shut down, her fever was 107 degrees, and her body was bright red and covered with purple lesions. The doctors said she was dying of toxic shock syndrome, cause unknown. As word spread to family and friends, God-fearing people from Florida to California began praying for little Heather. At the grandfather’s request, a special prayer service was held in their Church of Christ congregation in Waco, Texas. Miraculously, Heather suddenly came back from the brink of death and was released from the hospital in a little over a week. The columnist concluded that Heather “is living proof that God does answer prayers and work miracles.” 15

We do not usually speak of spiritual gifts as a miracle, but sometimes the effect of a spiritual gift is miraculous. For example, many missionaries who must learn a new language are blessed with the gift of tongues. Most often this gift merely accelerates the normal process of learning, but sometimes its effect is so immediate that it can only be called a miracle. A young mission president experienced this in the South Pacific in 1913. John Alexander Nelson Jr. spoke Samoan but not Tongan. When he arrived for an assignment in Tonga, he found that he had been scheduled to speak to a congregation of 300 Wesleyan Methodists. He began in faith by speaking a few sentences of greeting he knew in the Tongan language, and then suddenly found himself continuing to speak in Tongan. He spoke without hesitation for nearly an hour “as fluently as any native.” 16

Eric B. Shumway’s book Tongan Saints: Legacy of Faith describes many other miracles experienced in those islands of faith. For example, in the midst of the furious hurricane that devastated Vava’u in 1961, a Tongan father reasoned that he had priesthood power to heal a body and saw no reason why he could not also “heal” the raging storm. Brother Shumway writes, “His dramatic blessing at the peak of the hurricane saved his home and the people who took refuge there.” 17

In another experience, heavy ocean waves were crashing onto a beach at a time when the missionaries had scheduled some baptisms. An elder “stepped out and blessed the ocean, commanding it to be still so these sacred ordinances could be accomplished.” Almost instantly the ocean calmed down and five people were baptized. Then as the party started up the path from the ocean, “the waves came crashing in again over the very spot the sacred ordinances were held.” 18

One of the greatest miracles we can imagine is for someone to be brought back to life after being dead for a time. So it was with Lazarus, whom Jesus raised (see John 11:17, 39–44). So it has been with others in our day.

The miracle of raising someone from the dead is so exceptional and so sacred that those who have been privileged to see it should never speak of it publicly unless the Spirit specifically induces them to do so. Our published literature contains two such examples I can share. The first is from the Matthew Cowley talk that impressed me so deeply when I was a student at BYU. I quote:

“I was called to a home in a little village in New Zealand one day. There the Relief Society sisters were preparing the body of one of our saints. They had placed his body in front of the big house, as they call it, the house where the people come to wail and weep and mourn over the dead, when in rushed the dead man’s brother. He said, ‘Administer to him.’ And the young natives said, ‘Why, you shouldn’t do that; he’s dead.’ ‘You do it!’ …

“The younger native got down on his knees and he anointed this man. Then this great old sage got down and blessed him and commanded him to rise. You should have seen the Relief Society sisters scatter. He sat up and said, ‘Send for the elders; I don’t feel very well.’ … We told him he had just been administered to, and he said, ‘Oh, that was it.’ He said, ‘I was dead. I could feel life coming back into me just like a blanket unrolling.’ He outlived the brother that came in and told us to administer to him.” 19

Another sacred experience is related in the book Tongan Saints. It happened while Elder ‘Iohani Wolfgramm and his wife were serving a mission in their native Tonga, presiding over a branch on an outlying island. Their three-year-old daughter was accidentally run over by a loaded taxi. Four of the occupants of the taxi sorrowfully carried her lifeless body to her parents. “Her head was crushed and her face was terribly disfigured.” 20 The sorrowing helpers offered to take the little girl’s body to the hospital so the doctors could repair her severely damaged head and face for the funeral. I now quote the words of her father, Elder Wolfgramm: “I told them I did not want them to take her but that I would ask God what I should do and, if it was possible, to give her life back.” 21

The helpers took the little girl’s body into the chapel. Elder Wolfgramm continued: “I asked them to hold her while I gave her a priesthood blessing. By then the curious people of the village were flocking in to see our stricken little daughter. As I was about to proceed with the administration, I felt tongue-tied. Struggling to speak, I got the distinct impression that I should not continue with the ordinance. It was as if a voice were speaking to me saying: ‘This is not the right time, for the place is full of mockers and unbelievers. Wait for a more private moment.’

“My speech returned at that moment and I addressed the group: ‘The Lord has restrained me from blessing this little girl, because there are unbelievers among you who doubt this sacred ordinance. Please help me by leaving so I can bless my child.’ ” 22

The people left without taking offense. The grieving parents carried the little girl to their home, put her body on her own bed, and covered her with a sheet. Three hours passed, and her body began to show the effects of death. The mother pleaded with the father to bless her, but he insisted that he still felt restrained. Finally, the impression came that he should now proceed. I return to his words:

“All present in the home at that moment were people with faith in priesthood blessings. The feeling of what I should do and say was so strong within me that I knew Tisina would recover completely after the blessing. Thus, I anointed her head and blessed her in the name of Jesus Christ to be well and normal. I blessed her head and all her wounds to heal perfectly, thanking God for his goodness to me in allowing me to hold his priesthood and bring life back to my daughter. I asked him to open the doors of Paradise, so I could tell her to come back and receive her body again and live. The Lord then spoke to my heart and said, ‘She will return to you tomorrow. You will be reunited then.’ ” 23

The parents spent an anxious night beside the body of the little girl, who appeared to be lifeless. Then, suddenly, the little girl awoke, alive and well. Her father’s account concludes: “I grabbed her and examined her, her head and face. They were perfectly normal. All her wounds were healed; and from that day to this, she has experienced no complications from the accident. Her life was the miraculous gift from Heavenly Father during our missionary labors in Fo’ui.” 24
Miracles I Have Experienced

I have seen quite a few miracles during my Church service. I feel I can share two of them at this time.

I had an experience with the gift of tongues in the newly opened country of Bulgaria. In November 1990 we sent missionaries into Bulgaria. A handful of elders entered from Serbia, without any contacts or training in the Bulgarian language. Through their labors and the blessings of the Lord, we soon had 45 Bulgarian members.

In April 1991 I went to Bulgaria with Area President Hans B. Ringger and mission president Dennis B. Neuenschwander. There, most of our members and about 150 investigators assembled in an attractive civic building in Sofia for a fireside at which I was to speak. My interpreter was Mirella Lazarov, a newly baptized member in her 20s. The audience included many professional people and some government officials. I had prayed fervently for guidance in this talk but had little time for preparation.

I began by telling the audience about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how we differed from other Christian churches. I then felt impressed to speak about the Apostasy, which I did in some detail. In doing so, I completely forgot that I was speaking through an interpreter who had been a member only five months and had almost no background in the subject of the Apostasy. Forgetful of this, I made no attempt to speak in simple terms but made extensive use of the unfamiliar English words involved in a detailed explanation of the Apostasy and the Restoration.

After the crowd had departed, Sister Lazarov tearfully told me of her unique experience in translating my talk. Despite her fluency in English, she sometimes heard me speak words or express thoughts she did not understand in English. She said that whenever this happened, “another voice” spoke through her so she found herself using words or explaining concepts in Bulgarian that she did not understand in English. I told her to cherish this experience and testify of it to others. She had experienced the gift of tongues in a classic circumstance in which the Lord gives a spiritual gift to one person so that others of His children can be edified and His work can be forwarded (see D&C 46:9).

I experienced another miracle during an attempted military coup to overthrow the government of Philippine president Corazon Aquino in December 1989. 25 Many persons were killed in nearly a week of heavy fighting between rebel and loyal government troops. A principal site of this fighting was Camp Aguinaldo, which adjoins our temple in Manila.

During the first day of the attempted coup, gunfire and bombing could be heard from our temple. That night the road in front of the temple was occupied by rebel armored vehicles, trucks, and many soldiers. With the coming of daylight on Saturday, these rebel forces exchanged gunfire with the loyal government troops in Camp Aguinaldo. Opposing aircraft fired rockets and dropped bombs.

At about 3:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon, the rebel soldiers breached the gate of the temple and occupied our temple grounds. At this time we had five Philippine employees there: three security men and two custodians. Our temple president, Floyd H. Hogan, instructed them by phone not to resist the soldiers entering the temple grounds or the temple annex, which housed auxiliary facilities like name processing, but to secure the temple and take cover there. The man in charge, Brother Espi, later wrote that he worked to develop a good relationship with the rebel soldiers to convince them that even though they wanted to get access to the temple, “because of the sacred nature of the temple, they should not try to enter.”

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning there were almost continuous exchanges of gunfire between the government troops in Camp Aguinaldo and the rebels around the camp, including those occupying our temple grounds. Brother Espi later wrote: “We all thought that we are on our own but still asked our Heavenly Father to strengthen each one of us and to spare the temple from being desecrated.”

Others were praying too. In his later report, Area President George I. Cannon wrote: “The Sunday when the rebellion was going on was fast Sunday. Throughout the Philippines the members were praying and fasting for the temple, for the members, and for the missionaries.”

Sunday morning a government helicopter gunship appeared and strafed the vicinity of the temple, but retreated because of stiff resistance from the rebels’ 50-caliber machine guns. About noon that day an air force plane dropped several bombs that hit the residence house near the temple. Bomb fragments broke windows in the temple annex.

Sunday evening Manila radio reported that the Mormon temple was in rebel hands but that a government force was moving in to drive them out. At that report, President Hogan, the temple president and a retired colonel in the U.S. military, went into action himself. He made the dangerous walk from the temple president’s home to the assembling government troops. There he found that their commander had given the rebels one hour to surrender and planned to attack them at 11:00 p.m. His force included armored personnel carriers, heavy mortars, and at least 150 soldiers, who believed they outnumbered and could easily defeat the rebel force in the temple annex. But their attack would obviously employ extensive heavy weapons and rifle fire and would cause great damage to the temple facilities. President Hogan argued with the commanding officer that if he would only wait until daylight, the rebels might abandon the temple grounds and no attack would be necessary. The commander insisted that he had to follow his orders, and President Hogan was not able to contact the general who had given the order to see if he would rescind it.

During this time I was the member of the Quorum of the Twelve whom the Philippines Area President contacted for help at headquarters. Thirty minutes before the 11:00 p.m. Manila deadline, Area President George I. Cannon phoned me to report that our temple annex and grounds were the last remaining rebel stronghold in Manila and the army had massed artillery and troops for an assault at any moment. He said he had done all he could through the Philippine government and the American ambassador to discourage the attack, but without success. It was then 7:30 a.m. Sunday in Salt Lake City.

By a remarkable coincidence—one of those happenings that cannot be coincidental—the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had scheduled an unusual meeting that Sunday morning. At 8:00 a.m., 3 December, just 30 minutes after I received that alarming report from Manila, the assembled First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve bowed in prayer and pleaded with the Lord to intervene to protect His house. Elder Marvin J. Ashton led our prayer. As we prayed, it was 11:00 p.m. Sunday evening in Manila, the exact hour appointed for the assault.

The attack never came. Twenty minutes after our prayer, President Cannon phoned Church headquarters to report that the military commander had unexpectedly decided against a night assault. Early the next morning, Philippine time, President Hogan phoned to say that the rebels had melted away during the night. I recorded in my journal, “I consider this a miracle of divine intervention no less impressive than many recorded in holy writ.”

On Monday morning President Hogan inspected the temple annex. It had shrapnel marks and many broken windows on the north side, but inside, none of its locked rooms had been entered. The temple itself had not been entered and was not damaged. A total of six mortar or rocket shells had exploded inside the temple grounds. From their trajectory, President Hogan concluded that some of these shells had to have passed between the spires of the temple. The patron housing building under construction nearby had been hit by four or five rockets and had sustained extensive damage. The Manila temple opened for normal sessions the next day.

A week later I received a letter from the Philippine ambassador to the United States, Emmanuel Pelaez, whom I had recently hosted at Church headquarters. His letter explained how he had worked behind the scenes, as soon as he learned that our temple was threatened, to urge the Philippine military to “do everything possible” to spare this sacred building from damage. After the fighting was over, they had reported to him that “they were careful in their counter-shelling, so as not to cause damage” to the temple. 26 I concluded that the Lord had worked behind the scenes through these government servants to save His house.

When I was in the Philippines a few months later, I personally inspected the temple and grounds and found that despite all of the shelling and exchanges of gunfire within a few feet of this sacred edifice, it was completely unmarked by any shell fire except for one bullet hole, apparently a single stray rifle shot, at the top of the highest steeple. As President and Sister Donald L. Hilton of the Philippines Manila Mission wrote in a letter sent to their missionaries, “an unseen army of angels assisted faithful temple guards that the temple was not desecrated.”
The Greatest Miracle of All

I have spoken about miracles. I have given illustrations of miracles in the Church as a whole and in many different circumstances involving a few individuals or a crisis of weather or war. But the greatest miracle is not in such things as restoring sight to the blind, healing an illness, or even raising the dead, since all of these restorations will happen, in any event, in the Resurrection.

Changing bodies or protecting temples are miracles, but an even greater miracle is a mighty change of heart by a son or daughter of God (see Mosiah 5:2). A change of heart, including new attitudes, priorities, and desires, is greater and more important than any miracle involving the body. I repeat, the body will be resurrected in any event, but a change affecting what the scripture calls the “heart” of a spirit son or daughter of God is a change whose effect is eternal. If of the right kind, this change opens the door to the process of repentance that cleanses us to dwell in the presence of God. It introduces the perspective and priorities that lead us to make the choices that qualify us for eternal life, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7).

My dear brothers and sisters, I pray that each one of us may experience and persist in that miracle of the mighty change of heart, that we may realize the destiny God has prescribed for all of His children and the purpose of this Church to bring to pass the eternal lives of men and women. This is the Church of Jesus Christ, and He is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Resurrector. We are His spiritual children, spiritually begotten by His sacrifice in Gethsemane and on Calvary and possessing the opportunity to qualify for eternal life. May God bless us to do so.
Let’s Talk about It

Most Ensign articles can be used for family home evening discussions. The following questions are for that purpose or for personal reflection:

1. What is the purpose of miracles?

2. Why is it unwise to base our testimonies upon miracles?

3. When is it appropriate or inappropriate to discuss miracles we have witnessed?

4. Why is a “mighty change of heart” a great miracle?

[illustration] Jesus Healing the Blind, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, det Nationalhistoriske på Fredericksborg, Hillerød

[illustration] “Such As I Have, I Give Thee” by Walter Rane

[illustrations] Paintings by Amy Davis
Notes

1. In Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. (1992), 2:908.

2. See “Not My Will, But Thine” (1988), 25.

3. Ensign, May 1989, 16.

4. See also Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 202–15.

5. See George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth (1987), sel. Jerreld L. Newquist, 151–52.

6. “The Significance of Miracles in the Church Today,” Instructor, Dec. 1959, 396.

7. Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe (1998), 341.

8. Dallin H. Oaks, The Lord’s Way (1991), 87.

9. In Deseret News Semi-Weekly, 15 Feb. 1882, 1.

10. Marriner Wood Merrill, in Jeaneen Merrill Anderson, “Pinned to the Ground,” Church News, 6 Sept. 1997, 16.

11. See Keiko Teshima Fuller, “Treasure in Tombstones,” Church News, 18 Mar. 2000, 16.

12. See Rebecca Todd Archibald, “Friend to Friend,” Friend, Mar. 2000, 6.

13. Miracles, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year (5 Apr. 1966, rebroadcast from a speech delivered 18 Feb. 1953), 9.

14. Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley (1997), 343.

15. “Sometimes, ‘Miracles’ Are Just That,” Dallas Morning News, 30 Jan. 2000, p. 31A.

16. Eric B. Shumway, trans. and ed., Tongan Saints: Legacy of Faith (1991), 45.

17. Tongan Saints, 14.

18. Tongan Saints, 84.

19. Miracles, 9.

20. Tongan Saints, 88.

21. Tongan Saints, 88.

22. Tongan Saints, 88.

23. Tongan Saints, 89.

24. Tongan Saints, 89.

25. The facts recited here are based on written reports in the Historical Department Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in the personal journal of Dallin H. Oaks.

26. Letter dated 11 Dec. 1989.

EDWARD J WOOD - MAN OF FAITH, VISION AND PRIESTHOOD POWER

This man is among the greats of the latter-day kingdom and I commend the reading of his life in order that yours will be enriched by it:

SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES OF EDWARD J WOOD - CARDSTON TEMPLE PRESIDENT

One can count on just a few hands, the number of people who have this kind of faith.  Iohanni Wolfgramm is another whom I have blogged about; who had similar faith.

ALLOW GOD TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLES

I have come up against some formidable enemies in my life (and one of the greatest, at times, can be me....), but I have always asked God to fight them for me and I have had an interesting track record at it. When God is allowed to fight them - and my life is consecrated to serving Him and His purposes - I always come out the victor. Its not one of those faith without works kind of situations where I sit back and do nothing. I have to fight the good fight - mostly in keeping myself worthy of His choicest blessings and so that when I ask Him to weigh me and my "enemy" in the balance, I will come out justified in having my petition heard while the other petition (or justification) does not balance out.

God simply supports those who support Him. Those who are indifferent, He will not justify and support in their times of need. Being perfectly just, he cannot do it.

Here is a scripture that illustrates the point:

10 That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands.

11 And this cannot be brought to pass until mine elders are endowed with power from on high.

12 For behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them, inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me.

13 Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season, for the redemption of Zion.

14 For behold, I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfil—I will fight your battles.

15 Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage, and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints.

PROSELYTING WITHOUT PURSE OR SCRIP - JUST LIKE IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS

I am a big believer in sending the missionaries out two by two, to reprove and bear witness to the world of the truth and to call them repentance and prepare the way of the Lord.

Here is a quote by George Q. Cannon regarding this practice that I really think sums up how I feel on the matter:

Undoubtedly preaching "without purse or scrip" has a purpose. George Q. Cannon explained the reasons the Lord has sent out missionaries in this fashion:

There are two objects to be accomplished by the Elders going out without purse or scrip upon the apostolic plan. In the first place, they learn for themselves that God lives and that He hears and answers prayer; in the second place, they test the world. The Savior says: "Whoso receiveth you receiveth me, and the same will feed you, and give you money. And he who feeds you, or clothes you, or gives you money, shall in now wise lose his reward; and he that doeth not these things is not my disciple; by this you may know my disciples."

We test the world in this manner and prove whether they will receive the servants of God and supply their simple wants when they travel preaching the Gospel without salary or pay of a pecuniary character; but looking unto the Lord for the reward that He has promised to bestow. (JD 26:282.)


However, as should be obvious, it is very possible for missionaries to "learn for themselves that God lives" and to also "test the world" without specifically preaching "without purse or scrip." This understanding helps us to comprehend how the Lord is able to change such directives.

Here [D&C 84:86] the Lord lays forth His law. All who are called to preach the "gospel of the kingdom" must "from this hour"; [Sept. 22, 1832], not take purse or scrip that goes forth to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom... This is an eternal law. Its repeal has never been made public by revelation."

A REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE ON OUR MONTANA RANCH - REVISITED

Well, I am way too slammed with our Montana move to be able to type this in - and I am desperate enough to take any help I can get if you would like to print these three pages out and type them up for me. Use the comments section to get a hold of me. I would love to see this experience widely distributed (a kind reader was able to complete this for me and it is electronically added below for copying and sharing with others - and I believe the jpg images below of the original type-written letter can be copied/printed, as well!). This has been almost 10 years in the making - since I first laid eyes on it and thought it was worthy of some attention.

So far, we have had many little miracles as we have made the effort to go over there that lets us know this is right. My wife, in talking to the Bishop's wife - over there (mentioned in previous blog post about Kalispell as a gathering spot), said there are 13 families who have suddenly and for no apparent reason other than a feeling to get out of their existing locations, have moved into the ward. That is just one ward in the Stake - and there are a total of nine wards in that general area. Makes me wonder what the other adjacent wards are experiencing. It was this good woman who was pivotal in getting my wife 100% on board with this whole thing. I have always felt God's hand in this plan - my wife just moves more cautiously, I guess. Not a bad combination - me more impulsive and she more cautious. Just sometimes a little unnerving when you have to be yoked together and you feel the urgency to move quickly....

CLICK ON THE PICTURE AND THEN, ONCE IT OPENS, HOVER AGAIN WITH THE LITTLE MAGNIFYING GLASS AND THEN CLICK ONCE MORE TO MAGNIFY IT. CLICK AGAIN TO REDUCE IT. HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AS MUCH AS I DID.








I really feel this is one of the crown jewels of the blog because of its sincerity and simplicity in bearing principle of the basics of life and how God wants us to operate here on this earth - well above our means and striving to our full God-centered potential. God doesn't care what kind of car we drove, the size of the house we lived in, or even the positions we held in the church. He just wants us to recognize Him, our dependence on Him and to show our gratitude to Him by serving our fellow man. Here is that experience typed out (thank you again for doing that kind act of service!):

We were trailing 600 head of cattle from the upper Little Bighorn valley
to our Wolf Mountain ranch, a distance of 65 miles. The drive lasted
four days.

At the outset, I became very despondent. A gloom settled over me like I
had never known before. Try as I would, I could not get relief from it
nor could I determine it's cause. There was no known reason for it. It
seemed that prayer was of little consequence. On the fourth day, we
were neraing our South range where the cattle would enter the ranch. I
was not too well acquainted with the country so I went on ahead of the
herd to scout out the best route. I pondered my feelings all the way
and without hardly knowing it I came to the gate where we would enter
the ranch with the herd. Not feeling inclined to dismount, and to open
the gate, I sat thinking over the situation. I had prayed earnestly
while riding along to get an answer to this problem, when to my
astonishment a voice said to me, "What are you doing with your
Priesthood? Why don't you use your Priesthood and bless your ranch?" I,
therefore, dismounted and obedient to the voice, I blessed by the
authority I held, the grass, the vegetation of all varieties, the air
and sky above, the water resources, the springs, the wells, the
reservoirs; I blessed the cattle and all else pertaining to our
property. Then I rebuked each and every agency of destruction that
would in any way harm the property. Having done this, I mounted and
headed back to the herd.

As I rode along, a peace came over me of such a heavenly nature, and a
happiness that I had scarecely ever felt, causing the tears to run down
my face, and a serge of gratitude to the Lord for his Goodness.

During the subequent days and years things happened on the ranch that
one could scarecely believe. The previous year had been a very dry one.
The neighboring ranchers drilled new wells and deepened existing wells,
and since the years following were very dry, this practice continued,
while my springs increased their flow, likewise my wells. The neighbor
on the North and West lost his springs and his well dried up, leaving
his cattle solid against my line fence bawling their heads off while my
well a hundred yards away pumped large volumes of water, keeping two one
thousand gallon tanks running over into the canyon below. I was getting
ready to build a corridor into my tanks for his cattle when he moved
them.

My neighbor on the Southwest lost his water and watered his stock from
my spring surplus runoff. Rain fell on my property from clouds which
seemed to form without any incoming clouds. For an example, I was in
the meadow one day and a little black cloud began to form just over my
head. It grew blacker until the rain fell in torrents, the cloud not
extending beyond my fence line. I was on my South range one day and the
same thing took place. A neighbor said to me one day, "Jim, we are
going to burn up!" "No, Oscar," I said, "it is going to rain." In a
day or two a long beautiful rain came. I was riding with a neighbor on
our North range one day, I was pasturing some of his cattle, his range
had dried up, when he said to me, "This is a cow heaven." My grain
cut-produced that of my neighbor year after year, even though I believe
he was the best farmer.

The neighbors were constantly telling me that they could see the hand of
Providence in my affairs. I met a neighbor on the road one day and he
startled me with this request, "We want you to go home and do whatever
you have to do to get US some rain." This from a man whom we always
thought to be far from anything Heavenly.

This Saturday night I was coming off the the Bighorn Mountains with a
cattle truck loaded with horses. The Aaronic Priesthood and I had been
on an outing. As we broke out of the mountains into the valley we were
startled with a sight which frightened us. Off to the Northwest
extending for many miles was this ominous black cloud. It was showing a
furry seldom seen in a cloud. We just got into Hardin, a town where we
had a home in town as the storm broke. The hail came in torrents. Over
in the Yellowstone Valley, 32 miles away, the hail piled up until the
cars were pushing it with their bumpers like a bulldozer. Billings had
a hail damage of six million dollars. Everything growing for fifty
miles North and South and one hundred miles East and West was beaten to
a pulp, not a living thing left. Roofs in our vicinity were beaten off
the houses. The hail stones were as large as hen eggs. We went to our
Sunday meetings and then headed for the ranch 40 miles away. We were
only able to get within ten miles of the ranch as Sarpy Creek was out of
it's banks and the bridge flooded. I asked a rancher at this place how
extensive the total destruction was. He said it was many miles in all
directions.

Sister Ferrell and I returned to Haqrdin and waited until Monday morning
when we set out again. We scarcely said a word as we rode the forty
miles, each possessed of the same thoughts and Oh! that question! As we
topped the rise to where we could see our grain fields, we hardly dared
breathe, bubt imagine our feelings when we viewed with tears in our eyes
those precious heads of grain standing erect, waving a welcome to us in
the gentle breeze. Our grass was not damanged, the vegetation on our
ranch was scarcely touched.

We drove down the driveway and I was still with the truck when the
neighbor came roaring in with his jeep. He leaped to the ground and
began to wave his arms in the direction of our grain fields, exlaiming,
"I have seen a miracle! If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would
never have believed it, and seeing it I scarcely believe." He then
said, "There is no question but that your Maker is watching over you."

It was in the spring the last week in April, My son Dick and I had just
finished getting ready for Priesthood meeting. I opened the front door
to leave when a feeling came over me. I turned to Dick and said to him
that I felt impressed that we should leave at once for the ranch. He
said, "Well, Dad, if you feel that way that's what we had better do."
We turned around, told my wife of my feeling in which she concured. I
gave the books and records to my daughter to take to the chapel, and
Dick and I left for the ranch.

By the time we arrived there a fierce northern blizzard was blowing in
with already four inches of snow. We were in the midst of calving out a
large herd of cows. We quickly saddled our horses and began to press
the cattle toward the barns and correls. They were scattered in all
directions within a mile or two of the home place. As is always the
case, a storm will start the calves coming thick and fast, and this was
the case. The blizzard increased in intensity until the cattle could
hardly be seen. Dick and I carried new born calves on the horses,
wrapping our sheepskin coats around them to keep them from instantly
freezing, until after midnight until we had all the stragglers houses.
Dick and I nearly perished from exposure ourselves. The storm raged for
three days and nights until we had thirty six inches of snow on the
level. All gullies and canyons up to 60 to 70 feet deep were filled to
the level. We lost just one calf and that one we bedded down in some
willows with a bale of straw. He was smothered but his mother got out.

Our neighbor, the Scott Land and Livestock, lost 80 head of big fine
heifers smothered in a canyon. One neighbor to the South and East who
could not get to his cattle for a week came back by our ranch and said
almost still in shock, "I'm not going back. I can't stand what I saw up
there."

How wonderfully blessed we have been. How good the Lord has been to us.

Stalk through the land, and if so who may abide the evil day? I think
the challenge is crying in our ears as the people of the Lord. How can
we stand as an ensign to the people, to our neighbors, when the ravages
of an earth in rebellion because of the wickedness upon her face,
ravages the people of the Lord, even as it does the wicked of the earth,
or those that know not the Lord. I am deeply convinced that the Lord of
the harvest would love us more, and smile ever so approvingly upon us if
we would arise from our lethergy, and move and have our being in the
realm in which we are called and to which we are ordained.

I have been show that in these perilous times, now that we have had the
Priesthood in our midst for about a hundred and forty years, in the
which time it ought to have been made such a part of our lives, and so
familiar with it's power and blessing, ought we to have become, that it
now, in this hour of great need the Priesthood could stay the hand of
the destroyer, calm the winds, dispell the frost, provide a spirit of
peace, gladden the earth over which we preside, make our fields blossom
as the rose, and make of our dominion a garden of Eden, and I say I have
seen that this power given us long ago, if by it's use we cannot save
ourselves, because God will not do for us what we have the power to do
for ourselves, or could have had, or ought to have.

I would pray therefore, that while it is called today, we arise with a
mighty will and put into motion these glorious forces, so that Zion may
disperse desolation so that all things over which we have jurisdiction
and control may be a holy place where we may stand and not be moved out
of this place, so that our neighbors and those not of us may be
constrained to acknowledge that the God of the Latter Day Saints is not
dead neither doth he sleep.

There will come a time that our farmers will have to unite as we have
never hitherto done. This ought to be done now, that those less
skilled, and with less machinery may get help from those endowed with
both, so that there may not be a lonliness and discouragement in the
hearts of our brethern who are toiling under heavy loads and cannot help
themselves. Would it not be a glorious thing for those thus afflicted
to know that they do not stand alone but their more able and more
fortunate brethern are instantly at hand to sustain and support them?
This I know will come, for upon this principle will Latter Day Zion be
built.

Said the Lord, this thing will be established in Zion even if it must
needs be by the things which my people suffer. It would be ever so much
better if the brethren would come into their own voluntarily.

President Baker, I have made this too long, but how could I say it
shorter. May the Lord bless and sustain you and your brethern in
happiness and peace.

Kindest personal regards.

Sincerely your brother,

Jas. A. Ferrell

YOUR TESTIMONY - BY YOUR WORKS YE SHALL KNOW IT

Alot of people wonder how you go about developing a testimony of the truth. I have a favorite scripture that I quoted liberally while a missionary and trying to get people to catch the vision of God's work and the need to keep the commandments; "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine; whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." So in order to obtain the knowledge of the truth of a doctrine (a testimony), you simply have to start by keeping the commandments - and then see what buds over time. But it takes prolonged diligence.....

I have my story and here it is - and it follows some very basic principles:

I have always had a simple faith. I have always just had a resonation within me when something was right. It felt comfortable - error and bad principle grates me which is why I will often blow some steam by way of my writings. There is MUCH error and bad principle out there.

That simple faith led to a belief when I read the works of our Savior and the greats like Moses and Joseph Smith. I just knew they were true and that these were good, just and holy men. I also came to the realization that the things they did (their works and miracles) were not out of reach of the average man/woman - otherwise, why publish them? It would be torturous - not much unlike sharing intimate details of married life to someone who is single - it would only do harm for them to know of that which they could not enjoy or achieve. The experiences were recorded because we could achieve them!! We do not have the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon and it is held back until after the purge as there NO WAY we could achieve those great principles of harmonious and Zion living in this telestial world. Not without the people conceiving of living like that - and then doing all in their power to bring it about.

So, as I examined myself, I knew that I could do the same things, so long as I maintained a humble attitude and as long as I would repent of my shortcomings - which are legion - and began to have the desire to exercise my priesthood in righteousness (women - this is your heritage, as well; I have stories from my mission). At one point around the age of twelve after listening to Conference and a talk by Neal A. Maxwell, I was wrought upon by the Holy Ghost to the point that I had no strength in my frame - just as Lehi did which propelled me further along this path. So the belief in Priesthood power was bolstered by some statements in my Patriarchal Blessing that I would be given opportunities to grow with experiences in the Priesthood - so I moved from a faith, to an assurance, to a burning desire to have the same assurances that all the greats had. This led to an attitude in a state of humility (God owes me nothing) that I could request and then expect miracles and blessings in my life. I could "argue the case" so to speak - and God would have to grant my desires in righteousness - much as the Brother of Jared was given them as his faith increased beyond a certain threshold. I began to have those experiences, line upon line, here a little, there a little until I would arrive at a fullness - or a sure knowledge of all things. This is how you obtain the great gift of the Second Comforter. I am not there yet - but I do desire that sweet communion - and I know I am far off from that pinnacle from what I understand of others' experiences.

Backing up a step, though - and to the point of this piece. I have not read a piece of scripture and said to myself "This could never happen to me.", except for one thing; which is commanding a mountain to "Be thou moved" - and having it done. Maybe that is a function of not seeing a need for it. I can conceive of everything else including having the power of resurrection - which all righteous Patriarchs from their respective lines on down from Adam will exercise on the Morning of the First Resurrection. I can conceive of (me doing it at some point in the future in a terrestrial state) moving from place to place at the speed of thought. I can conceive of raising a loved one from the dead (such as Lazarus was) and if you read a previous blog entry will know why that was a difficult reality for me. I can and have been an instrument in the Lord's hand to command a friend of mine through the instrumentality and power of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood to be made whole and free from cancer as the Spirit dictated. I have prophesied in the name of Jesus Christ. I can and have cast out devils in the name of Jesus Christ - which brings me to my point on the principle of a testimony. After a while, the reality of what is read about in scripture begins to become a reality in the life of those who have exercised faith from point to point until they begin to do the works that Jesus did. It then moves from faith to a working knowledge - and now my story which started this whole topic and ties it all together.

I was reading earlier tonight how Martin Harris could not witness the plates until he had repented of something that the Lord was not pleased with. After having secured forgiveness, he was able to then move forward with his righteous desire.

How do I know that is a true experience - and why do I ferociously rebuff my colleagues who attempt to paint that kind of stuff as the vain imaginations of a deluded mind? Because I have experienced it - or an identical experience that drove the exact principle home - which causes that experience by Martin Harris to resonate with me. I have never (to my knowledge) seen an angel - yet I know that Martin Harris did - because I experienced the same principle/event in my own life. I have the same kind of assurance that Martin Harris did as I do that the sun exists as I walk down the sidewalk on a glorious spring day and feel the sun radiating on my face and know its there.

While on my mission, I had the privilege of casting an evil spirit out of a woman of about 30 years of age. While engaged in that endeavor (there were six Elders there who each were given a shot at doing it as we could not clear the house of the influence due to pornography, alcohol and some other stuff). One Elder (a "Utah Mormon" who the previous week had confessed to me had binged alcohol and who knows what else at a party before embarking to Brazil in an unrepentant state), could not cast the evil spirit out of the woman due to that hanging over him. I had the privilege of commanding that evil entity to depart a second time. And it responded to the righteous and authorized command just as a car lurches forward as you press the accelerator. Simple faith - simple cause and effect. Moving from desire and hope to belief to plain and simple action then to sure knowledge.
The point being, you begin to have these experiences and you then read scripture or other non-canonical stories and begin to realize that your life begins to imitate art so to speak. Your life begins to become what you are reading. That is when you can begin to do great things and the Lord can no longer hold back the veil. This is not said in boasting - this is said pragmatically and factually and it follows a distinct pattern set forth in scripture.

So that is my testimony. Live your life with the desire to have those experiences and do not give ear to the faithless (in and out of the Church) who pervade your existence who say that those things were from a different time and for a different people, or who say, "it is different now". Those are the lies of the adversary who hates all that is good and right and virtuous.

Press forward until you have a sure knowledge from whatever point it is that you reside at right now and you will have fantastic experiences. One day you will meet your Savior - possibly while in the flesh if you live for it. I promise you that in the holy name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

THE THREE NEPHITES FROM A CATHOLIC'S PERSPECTIVE

VERY interesting stuff here. I have a co-worker that I had know for quite some time as a very good man (has the love of Christ about him and loves to serve others) who one day just opened up to me and shared the following story with me and even showed me the scars on his abdomen that are a testament to the hell he had been through.

After I learned of his vision of heaven and of the apocalyptic future that he had while on the hoary edge of life, I then posed the question, "Why did God choose to save you over all the other people that have expired under far less exigent circumstances??", his response was, "I have been saved to fight (physically) the final battle between good and evil". That pretty much floored me as he claims to be a pretty good shot at 1000 yards. He also is in his 50's and not getting any younger. Like my Jewish (wannabe) survivalist co-worker, these people are being prompted to lay up for difficult times ahead without any of the cultural baggage that someone who is LDS may have propelling them to do the same.

We may be in for some interesting times ahead....very interesting indeed!

His experience in his own words:

I always believed in a higher spirit and discovered that many people had unknowing to me at the time come into my life and were gently nudging me towards our lord.

It all started with a bad car accident back in approx 1983 where the Lord spoke to me in a black void. He stated to me that I was living my life in a very bad manor and that I needed to straighten my life up as I had a purpose to complete. He never stated what that purpose was and to this day I still do not know. But this event started to open the understanding there was much more out there and it also scared me and I had night mares for a year.

It left me with visions of our time here on earth. The lord left a mental vision of how our life was to be. Before we are born into the womb and while we are in the womb we know who our parents are going to be and what our life is to be like. We have the choice to accept this or go back into this long line. It was like walking up to a podium and the man there had a large book and you could see what your life would be like. The he explained this life in the vision of a huge oak tree and how we lived our life depended which branch we go down when we die and there are thousands of branches and we are at the base of the tree when we enter this life. All knowledge of this is severed when we are born from the womb.

In 1998 I was confirmed and baptized in the Catholic faith at ST Hubert’s church in Langley, WA.

Shortly after Baptism I had to travel for a job assignment to Mobile Alabama. During this job assignment I became deathly ill and it came upon me within moments. I drove myself home with terrible pain in my abdomen and waited for my wife to take me to the hospital.

When we reached the hospital emergency room of the University of South Alabama Mobile branch they examined me. The wanted to send me home with pain medicine but my wife would not let them and requested more tests.

When the received the results of the tests they discovered I had pancreatitis and admitted me to the hospital. They assumed I was a drunk even though I did not drink alcohol very often and put me in the drunk ward and medicated me for the pain where they assumed the pancreatitis would abate.

I laid there for three weeks continually getting worse and they were at a loss for an explanation. The head hospital surgeon came into my room the day before Valentines day 1999 and stated that if she did not operate the next day I would be dead. So on Valentines Day I went in for the first of 3 major operations.

I was awake mentally for the first surgery as the medication did not put me all the way under but they had no way of telling that. I listen to them operate on me and how bad of shape I was in. The doctors were consulting what they should do to save me.

After 12 hours of surgery they returned me to ICU where I could hear my wife and family carrying on and crying. I was so mad inside with what was happening but could not communicate to them as I was on paralytic drugs. I wanted to tell them I was alive in there. The priest anointed me with oil but I could only hear him do this.

I was on a ventilator for 7 days. I was fighting to stay alive and also trying to let my family know I was listening by trying to move my body. Finally after 4 days I could flutter my eye lids when my wife would speak to me and she knew at that point I was alive and she could communicate with me. I could feel her despair and I think that helped her know I was still there.

After a week they removed the ventilator and I could speak again. She said she had some bad news to tell me and I stated I already knew as I could hear every word that was spoken during surgery and also in the room.

I had open abdominal irrigation for a month due to all the toxins in my body the necrotic pancreatitis caused due to blockage from gal stones. Much of my inside had to be cut away and I had no skin covering over my belly only plastic with tubes in and out both sides of me.

This was a huge struggle for me and being a man of mild faith I was weak. After several more major surgeries they took skin grafts from my leg and fashioned a cover for my belly.

This became infected with MRSA and my health continued to fail. I remember one day I was having a conversation with my wife and also with the other side at the same instance. She could not see the people but I could. She couldn’t understand even though I explained it to her. I did not recognize any of the people.

I continued to get worse with the infections and complications. During the first surgery they took 90% of my pancreas and I was supposed to never lead a normal life again per the doctor’s.

I finally reached my breaking point and wanted to be taken home to die there. I could no longer take the pain and anguish I felt. It broke me to the lowest point a man can be at. I gave myself over to the lord at this point. It was a peaceful time after that. I had a dream that 3 angles would visit me in the morning to heal me. The next morning I saw them as they came into my room. They stood at the foot of my bed but never spoke to me just smiled. I told them I knew why they were there and found it funny they couldn’t even work the stethoscope they carried. They laid their hands on my legs and looked upward and spoke but I could not fully hear them or understand the words. They left just as they appeared. They appeared to be normal men with beards neatly trimmed and appeared to be Caucasian but darker complex. Not 3 minutes later a nurse came into my room. I asked her who those interns that were in my room a few minutes ago. She stated no one had been in the room all morning.

After this event I started to heal, regenerate my pancreas and left the hospital with in 2 weeks. I had follow up closure surgeries and some minor surgeries and later went back to work after several months.

Since this experience I have shared my story with those who wanted to listen. The hospital staff never thought I would ever leave or even if I did my life would not be normal. I was their miracle!

Today I live a completely normal life with some minor discomfort at times and have come back to ST Hubert’s parish where I joined the Knights of Columbus to try and give back for the grace I received from the Lord that day. I do not know what he saw in me to save my life but it changed me forever.

I still to this day do not know my purpose is but I take every day as they come now and try to listen to the Lord when he speaks to me. I speak with him daily and hope he hears my worries for humanity as we are close to destroying ourselves. This was another vision I was left with but keep mostly private.


Robert M
Langley, WA.

Written December 13th 2010

POWER IN THE PRIESTHOOD - PROPER WEARING OF THE PRIESTHOOD GARMET

As I have read the Mosiah Hancock diary, I have grown to have quite an affinity for the man. I cannot wait to meet him along with quite a list of others. I liked this story from his diary about pure and abiding faith that his father had. Pure faith and simple faith. That is what will help usher us into God's kingdom:

Father had a great deal of opposition in Nauvoo. One day as father and I were walking down Water Street, and we came within twenty feet of the Mansion, an east window raised up, and Francis M. Higbee took deliberate aim with a rifle, and shot father in the left breast. I was walking on father's right side, and I saw the shot fired, and heard the thud as the bullet struck, but father stopped and picked up the bullet from the ground, and reaching it toward heaven with his right hand, said, "I thank thee, O God the Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, that thou didst destroy the power of this bullet". As soon as the shot was fired, the window was shut down. I suppose Higbee thought father was gone this time for sure, but father had been shot at many times by the mobbers and apostates. Father had had the temple in his care for sometime, and some were jealous of the honors conferred upon him.

Here is the link for those that liked this snippet from Mosiah's life history:

http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/MHancock.html

CALL FROM TISINA WOLFGRAMM

If you have read the Iohanni Wolfgramm family history (previous blog topic) and liked what you read, there is possibly more - a second edition - to come from Iohani's daughter, Tisina. Tisina was the one who was run over during WWII and who was brought back through faith and Priesthood power.

If you liked the first book, the next one should be excellent, as well. You can help by pre-ordering a copy so that Tisina knows how much support there is out there. We sent our check to her and added $10 extra for the privilege of reading the online version. Tisina was surprised to learn that there was an online version and called for more information on that.

I will add her address here so anyone else can order the book:



I thought my letter might be of interest and decided to post it. We have a long history in our family of interacting with the children of Manasseh as they blossom and assume their role of greatness in the House of Israel.



SECOND EDITION WOLFGRAMM HISTORY BOOK ON ORDER

Inbox X


Reply

|
Wood, Eric
to tisinagerber, shawnasuemagoo, me, sjpinson

show details Nov 21 (9 days ago)

Tisina,

I just got the news from my wife Shawna who said that you had called.

That is very exciting for us. You have a kind of celebrity status in our family because you went to the other side and came back and then used your talents to provide such a great book showing the true faith that your father (and mother) had in this life. As we struggle through our lives, sometimes it is just refreshing to have a great example of someone who is able to make things happen in spite of all the earthly problems we are subject to.

I wanted to share some of the things that came from my blog about your family and your father:

http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com/search/label/IOHANI%20WOLFGRAMM

Please read all three posts on the blog - I hope I have been accurate. Also, there is a link in the middle blog entry that will take you to the BYU Archives that has the electronic copy of the first book. I hope that you are not upset that someone thought enough of that work to post that work at BYU. I know that the book is a sacred FAMILY treasure - but I highly doubt that people looking specifically for it will not trample it under their feet as pearls cast before swine. The hard copy of the book, if you can find it, is scarce and expensive (up to $250 for one copy). I was very disappointed for months knowing that I would probably never get my hands on a copy of it after scouring the internet for one. When I finally found the link to the e-book, I could not put my laptop down for the 5 hours until I was finished reading it.

I have always had great faith in the power of the Priesthood and have been given the gift of healing (in my Patriarchal Blessing), but have not had any outright miraculous manifestations of that gift until recently - after reading of your father's experiences. There is enough great information in your father's words that I have been able to "figure out" how to proceed with faith in the exercising of that gift. The only thing that keeps the more full exercise of Priesthood power is the blessing donee's faith/personal righteousness and the proper implementation (words and faith) of the one acting on the Lord's behalf. One blog entry, in the link above, talks about how we lost our little 9 month old Dallin. My first impulse was to call the home teacher over to bring him back. It clearly was not the Lord's will - but that was my first call before calling 911. To know that your life is the product of righteous priesthood power (and the Lord's will) thrills me to the core. What joy your father must have had that morning when you rose with the sun as he was prompted to bless you! My wife and I know the flip side of that joy.

The other thing Shawna mentioned is your question about the Wood's from Cardston. We are not part of that family (they are the "northern Utah" Wood's) but you may have heard of my Dad - Grant Wood (Cedar City Wood family) through Polynesian reunions that he may have been involved in? He served his first mission in Hawaii in 1949. He and my mother (Woodward, from Cardston, AB) served a Church service (teaching) mission from 1958-1961 to the Maori people at the Church college next to the New Zealand temple. I am not sure if they ever spent time in Tonga on their way home from the mission with their small family. We have a strong love for our distant brothers and sisters through our common ancestor, Joseph of Egypt.

As far as the check goes, I am fine if you cash it now, or hold it for several years until the next book is completed. I am posting this correspondence in the blog along with your address so that others can forward money as they see fit to help with the cause. If you happen to need any help on the editing portion of the publishing process, I would love to provide my services if it will ease some of your burden in completing the book.

If you are interesting in setting up a blog of your own for the purposes of printing or getting news out of the book, just let me know and I would be more than happy to help in any way.

Again, it has been a pleasure to correspond with you and look forward to possibly meeting you in person.

Love,

Brother Wood.