I have a faith demoting story to share.

One day I was on the Amtrak going to an exmo social in Sacramento. Two black ladies were sitting close together wailing. I couldn't help but hear their laments, prayers, etc. It seems the mother's daughter had been locked in a mental institution and they wouldn't let her out. The grandmother was trying to help the mother cope, but she was crying her heart out.

"My baby doesn't understand why she can't come home with me," she cried. "It's true she has an illness but she ain't never bothered anybody before and if that boy hadn't been teasing her she would never have hit him!" And so on, with lots of praising God and asking for help and for angels to surround the daughter, who had been deemed dangerous.

It just so happens that I had to figure out a scheme to get my own son released, so I tapped one of them on the shoulder and said,

"Hello, I was just sitting over there and I know how you can get your daughter out of the institution." She was amazed and said,

"How--I will do anything--they've had her in there for three months. She's only 22 and she's not right in the head, you know."

"I know," I said, "I have a son and went through it myself. Here's what you do. You go to the office and tell the people that you are moving out of state and you want to take your daughter with you. Tell them you will assume the responsibility for her and sign any papers they want. They will give you paperwork and any money from her account and you will be able to take her out. Then you go home. You don't have to actually move anywhere. They just didn't want the responsibility of letting a person go that somebody said was dangerous."

You would think that would be the end of story. A couple of months later, I was in the train station again and ran into the same woman in the rest room. She screamed when she saw me and ran out. She brought in her three friends and they were all excited. The mother said, "This here's the lady that helped me get my baby out of that hospital! Look!"

Seeing my baffled look, the friend said, "Our whole church thinks you must have been an angel sent by god!"

LOL - A three Nephite story!

Anagrammy

You are an angel Anagrammy! So glad that you share your wisdom on RFM.

This incident reminded me of the (embarrassing) number of times I shared my "touched by an angel" moment in which one of the three Nephites helped me....

I was driving over the Riverside mountains in the middle of the night and had a flat tire. Out of nowhere came a man with a glowing white T-shirt driving a huge double semi filled with oranges. He fixed my flat and gave me a box of oranges. Even though I was wearing short shorts, he did not flirt with me. (this last sentence was actually part of my story like it was miraculous...arghhhh)

When I stopped for breakfast later, the newspaper said there was a serial killer in the mountains that had been preying on people pulled over at the side of the road.

This proves the church is true. In the name of.....


Ana

OMG~~~~~

LOOOOOOOVE the story....

"Our whole church thinks you must have been an angel sent by god!"

Maybe you were.

That is a really great story!!!

You're my angel too...

What a sweet story! Thanks for sharing!

That's a super story! It's so awesome you could help the ladies and to think you've been praised as an angel!! Doncha luv it!

Keep a watch on your upper back...you've probably got the nubs for wings starting to grow!!
Love it!!

Awwww. You are our resident angel, anagrammy.

We are all "instruments of the Lord," right? My daughter got into a minor car accident, but it was an awful experience. I accidentally ran into a former ward member at the scene, and she invited us to come into her house and use her phone to call the tow truck. (The days before cell phones.) she happened to tell me that her mother was completely bedridden with mysterious physical symptoms, and none of their doctors had been able to help her. I told her that her mother might have IC, which can be manageable to the extent of patients living normal lives. I gave her the name and phone number of the best urologist in the city, and brought her a book on living with IC, later that day.

This is Mormonism for you: She called a few weeks later and said her mother was traveling to St. George with her father. She said that my daughter's car accident happened for a reason--so that I would be there to diagnose the disease and instigate her mother's cure with the great doctor. My daughter was just an "instrument." (Who cared about my daughter's accident. God caused it?) This lady was extremely snobby, and was a terrible gossip. I felt like saying that if she had been friendly to me and had that conversation with me before, her mother would have been cured years sooner.

It was almost 9:00 pm and we were headed for home, when we saw a woman being mugged (and who knows what else) by two guys. They had her pinned to the ground. She saw us coming and screamed, "Elders!" The two guys looked and saw us, and ran away.

The lady was a member from another ward, so we didn't know her. But she said we were her "angels".

That unwitting act of service was one of the best moments of my mission. Who knows what would have become of her?

I am sure it was a great feeling to "actually" be helping someone while you were there selling memberships.

Thank goodness you were - did she know you? Or did she know you were elders based on your getups?

Ana

I believe that angels exist in real life. I've met all kinds of sweet wonderful people and to be honest, they are a lot more interesting and engaging that the ones described in the "books"

I saw the Three Nephites in person. One of them looked just like John Banta. Just like him, I tell ya.

I met an angel on Amtrak. I was going up to Kelso, WA, from Bakersfield, and was in the dining car. They seated a big bald guy at my table directly across from me. He was smoking a cigar. He looked at the way I ate, pushing my food with my knife and piling it onto my fork. "You eat like a goddamn Canuck!," he said.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2013 01:45AM by cludgie.

No mistake. We all have the angel gene. Some use it better than others. You're one of those obvious angels.