Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. John and I are telling a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, I have a story for you. Mosiah seven, eight, nine, ten. it’s the story of Limhi and he has tried for so long to get out of bondage to the Lamanites. He’s tried to fight his way out. He sent a search party to go find Zarahemla. He’s tried everything possible and I think he thinks that’s it. It’s over. We have no other options. It’s not going to happen, and I wonder if the people of Limhi were thinking “There are no miracles. God does not answer prayers.” So I had a story. This is from Elder Bruce Hafen.

John Bytheway: 00:44 We’ve had him on the podcast.

Hank Smith: 00:45 Well, back in 1979, Elder Hafen was at BYU and he told this story. He said when he was younger, he was on his mission in Germany, and he had a bit of a hardened heart because he wasn’t teaching very many people. “It was rare,” he said, “to see anybody join the church and not a whole family.” He got a new companion, and this guy was a brand new missionary. He was not just fresh in the mission. He was fresh in the church. He was ready to convert people. “He thought he had converted,” Elder Hafen says, “all the flight attendants on the plane from New York to Germany.”

  01:23 He said, within a couple of days of his arrival, “I was called into a meeting in another city, so I had to leave him with another inexperienced missionary. And I went with that missionary’s companion to the city for this meeting.” He said, “I got back late. So the next morning I asked him how the day was. He broke into a big smile and said that he had found a family that would surely join the church.” And like I told you before, he said it was rare to see anybody join the church, let alone an entire family.

  01:53 He says, “I asked him for more details, but he had forgotten to write down the name or the address. All he could remember was that the family lived on the top floor of a big apartment house.” “Great,” he said as he contemplated all those flights of stairs. He explained that he knew so little German that he had just exchanged a few words with the woman who answered the door, but he did say she wanted us to come back and he wanted us to go find her that day.

  02:27 I explained to him that the people who do not slam the door in our face are not necessarily planning to join the church. He says, “But we went to find her mostly to humor him. He couldn’t remember the right street either, so we picked a likely spot in our area and began climbing up and down the staircases.” After a frustrating morning, I leveled with him. “Elder, based on my many months of experience, it is not simply worth our time to try to find that woman. I have developed a tolerance for the reality of missionary work. I know more about this than you do.” His eyes filled with tears. His lower lip began to tremble.

  03:17 I remember it so well. He said to me through his tear-filled eyes, “Elder Hafen, I came on my mission to find the honest in heart. The Spirit told me that that woman is going to join the church, and you can’t stop me from finding her.”

John Bytheway: 03:33 Wow.

Hank Smith: 03:33 I decided to teach him a lesson. I raced him up one staircase after another until he was ready to drop, and so was I. I turned to him, “Elder had enough?” “No, we’re going to find her.” I began to smolder. I decided I would work him to death until he pleaded for me to stop. Then maybe he would get the message. Then at the top of a long flight of stairs, we found the apartment. She came to the door. He thrashed my ribs with his elbow, “That’s her Elder, talk to her. Talk to her.”

  04:13 And then Elder Hafen says, “Brothers and sisters, not long ago, up on Maple Lane, just a few blocks from here at BYU, that woman’s husband was sitting in our living room. He was here for General Conference because he is the bishop of a ward in Germany. His two boys are preparing to serve missions. His wife and daughters are pillars in the church.” “I hope,” he says, “I will never be so aware of reality that I become unresponsive to the whisper of heaven.”

  04:48 Isn’t it great? His missionary companion was Elder Keeler. I just love that story that you might think, “There’s no way. There’s no way. We have tried every single thing,” and then the people of Limhi, who shows up, John? Who shows up around the corner?

John Bytheway: 05:04 Ammon the Explorer, Ammon the Scout. What do we call him? Yeah.

Hank Smith: 05:08 Yeah, Ammon from Zarahemla saying, “I think you prayed me here.”

John Bytheway: 05:14 Now what do you want with me?

Hank Smith: 05:14 Yeah. What do you want with me? So thank you Elder Hafen for sharing that story so long ago.

John Bytheway: 05:21 Absolutely.

Hank Smith: 05:22 We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. Come back next week. We’re going to tell another story for followHIM Favorites.