Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, Come, Follow Me this week, we’re in sections 121, 122, and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants. These are very important, very critical big sections. The story I thought of goes with what the Lord tells Joseph in the very beginning of Section 121. He says, my son, peace be to thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions, so they are real, shall be but a small moment. But the time it seems huge and awful, which it really is. Later, the Lord is saying, you’ll look back and it will be a small moment. In fact, he says later it will be for thy good. It will give you experience. The story comes from General Conference, October, 1999. Now, I know you’ll remember this story, John, and a lot of our listeners will, but there’s gotta be a few out there who have never heard it.

                                           01:03                   This is Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who at the end of a talk called the High Priest of Good Things to Come says, forgive me for a personal conclusion, which does not represent the terrible burden so many of you carry, but it is meant to be encouraging. 30 years ago, last month, so John, we’re now talking.

John Bytheway:               01:24                   We’re talking even earlier than 1999.

Hank Smith:                      01:26                   Yeah, I guess this would be 1969. He said, a little family got in a car across the United States to go to graduate school. No money, a really old car and everything they own in the smallest U-Haul trailer available. Bidding their apprehensive parents farewell, they drove exactly 34 miles up the highway and their car erupted. Pulling off the freeway onto a frontage road, the young father surveyed the steam, matched it with some of his own.

John Bytheway:               02:02                   That’s good writing.

Hank Smith:                      02:08                   Left his wife and two children, the youngest just three months old to wait in the car while he walked three miles or so to the southern Utah metropolis of Kanarraville, population, I think 65. Some water was secured at the edge of town. A very kind citizen offered to drive back to the stranded car. The car was attended to and very slowly driven back the 34 miles to St. George. After two hours of checking and rechecking, no problem could really be detected. So once again, the journey began. This is the best part, in exactly the same amount of elapsed time and exactly the same location on the highway with exactly the same pyrotechnics from under the hood, the car exploded again. It could not have been 15 feet from the earlier collapse, not even five feet from it. Can you imagine? You’re just like, are you kidding? Elder Holland says, obviously the most precise laws of automotive physics were at work. Now feeling more foolish than angry, the young father once more left his wife and two children and walked to the same guy’s house.

John Bytheway:               03:35                   I’m back.

Hank Smith:                      03:35                   This time the man providing the water said either you or that fellow who looks like you ought to get a new radiator for that car. For the second time, a kind neighbor offered a lift back to the same automobile with the same little occupant. He did not know whether to laugh or cry at the plight of this young family. How far have you come? He asked. 34 miles, I answered. How much farther do you have to go? 2,600 miles. And then this man says, well, son, you might make that trip and your wife and those two little kids might make that trip, but none of you are gonna make it in that car. He proved to be prophetic on all counts.

                                           04:33                   Now we’re in 1999. Elder Holland speaking, just two weeks ago this weekend, I drove by that exact spot where the freeway turnoff leads to a frontage road just three miles or so west of Kanarraville. That same beautiful and loyal wife, my dearest friend and greatest supporter for all these years curled up asleep in the seat beside me. The automobile we were driving this time was modest, but pleasant and safe. In fact, except for me and my lovely Pat situated peacefully at my side, nothing of that moment two weeks ago was even remotely like that distressing circumstance three decades earlier. And then John, this is beautiful. Yet in my mind’s eye, just for an instant, I thought perhaps I saw on that side road an old car with a devoted young wife and two little children making the best of a bad situation.

                                           05:25                   Just ahead of them I saw a young fellow walking toward Kanarraville with plenty of distance still ahead of him. His shoulders were slumping. The weight of a young father’s fear evident in his pace. His hands did seem to hang down. I couldn’t help calling out to him. Isn’t this beautiful John here? Elder Holland is 30 years later calling out to his younger self. This is something we can all do in our life. Here’s what he calls out. Don’t give up boy, don’t quit. You keep walking, you keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. A lot of it. 30 years of it now and still counting. Keep your chin up. It’ll be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. Don’t you wonder, John, if that Elder Holland from the late sixties kind of, do you hear that? Right? You just wonder, did he hear that?

                                           06:30                   The Lord is maybe saying that to Joseph here a little bit. I know it’s hard right now. Endure it well, God will exalt thee on high. Good things are coming. Great things are coming. Our guest for this week is actually mentioned in this story. Here is a quote from the story. Elder Holland says, this is later on when he’s in the car grown up, he said, the two children in the story and the little brother who later joined them have long since grown up and served missions, married perfectly, are now raising children of their own. Well, John, that little brother who later joined them is our guest on followHIM. His name is Dr. David Holland. Come on over wherever you get your podcast and listen to Dr. Holland walk through these sections. It is incredible the things he shows us and the tenderness he brings out of these sections is really touching. Really touching. Then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.