Along the Track

Elder Graham W. Doxey, who once served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy, told me of an experience.
His mother, who was later a counselor in the Primary general presidency, also told me of this experience.

During World War II, he was in the navy posted to China.
He and several others went by train to the city of Tientsin to look around.

Later they boarded a train to return to their base, but after more than an hour, the train turned north.
They were on the wrong train!
They spoke no Chinese.
They pulled the emergency cord and stopped the train.
They were put off somewhere in the countryside with nothing to do but walk back to the city.

After walking for some time, they found a small pump-handle car, the kind that the railroad workers use.
They set it on the rails and began to pump their way along the tracks.
It would coast downhill, but it had to be pushed uphill.

As they came to one steep downhill slope, they scrambled aboard the car and began to coast.
Graham was the last to get aboard.
The only place left for him was in the front of the car.
He ran alongside and finally climbed daboard.
As he did so, he slipped and fell.
He was bouncing on his back with his feet against the car to keep from being run over.
As the car quickly gained speed, he heard his mother's voice say, "Bud, you be careful!"

He wore heavy military boots.
His foot slipped, and the thick sole of his boot caught in a gear of a wheel and stopped the car just one foot from his hand.

His parents who presiding over the East Central States Mission at the time, were sleeping in a hotel room.
His mother sat up at about 2:00 in the morning and awakened her husband: "Bud's in trouble!"
They knelt by the bed and prayed for the safety of their boy.

The next letter he received said, "Bud, what's wrong?
What happened to you?"

He then wrote to tell them what had happened.
When they compared times, at the very time he was bouncing along that track, his parents were on their knees in the hotel room half a world away, praying for his safety.

These experiences of promptings and prayer are not uncommon in the Church.
They are part of the revelation our Heavenly Father has provided for us.

-Boyd K. Packer -Prayer and Promptings -October 2009 General Conference

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi