Hymn 125: How gentle God’s commands! How kind his precepts are! Come, cast your burdens on the Lord and trust his constant care.
I was asked by the stake history committee to recount a story I told in stake conference on May 3, 2015 when I was serving as 2nd counselor in the stake presidency. The central message of my talk was that the power of Jesus Christ and His atonement is available to all, in this life, today, and the Savior Jesus Christ provides us a real and tangible spiritual and physical power to assist us in enduring whatever burdens we may face. In April 2014 general conference, Elder David R. Bednar taught that the scriptures do not suggest that every burden will be suddenly and permanently taken away. He also said that the Lord desires, through his Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost to enliven us – not only to guide, but to strengthen and heal us.
I offered 3 examples of this principle; one historical, one scriptural, and one personal. The historical example was the story of Harold Poole in World War II who was taken by the Japanese as a prisoner of war and survived the Bataan death march in 1942. He prayed for deliverance from his enemies, for freedom, survival and a return to home. He was a prisoner for 3 and ½ years and went from 180 pounds to 97 pounds by the time he was delivered. There were many miracles that made his burden bearable including the miraculous finding of a Bible in the jungle and the opportunity to trade Red Cross cigarettes for rice. I also told the story of the persecution of the people of Alma by Amulon. I then told the following personal story.
This is a personal example of heavenly help. It is an account of a temporary and somewhat trivial event. Most if not all have or are experiencing far worse and longer lasting burdens. I had the opportunity to accompany the young men in the Rochester 4th ward on a high adventure trip in the summer of 2014. The plan was to spend a week canoeing in the Boundary Waters. The Boundary Waters is a wilderness area in northern Minnesota comprised of numerous small lakes surrounded by forest extending to the Canadian border. It is a beautiful wilderness, far from civilization. It can be harsh and unforgiving as the weather and conditions can change rapidly and there are no hospitals, no clinics, no cell phones, no 911. If you get hurt or injured, you are pretty much on your own. We had been worried about the trip as there were originally only 2 adults. This led to the circumstance where I was able to go as the third adult as my son Jordan was going on the trip. I did not know that I would become the liability.
At the time, the 4th ward young men leader’s philosophy was to push the boys to the edge of their ability and help turn them into men with the high adventure trip. The trip was designed to push them to the point of exhaustion. By the middle of the week, we were deep in the wilderness. We headed out one morning on a 95 rod portage to Pillsbury Lake. Although we were double portaging, I decided to save some time and carry my pack and the canoe in one trip. This was probably a mistake.The trail was steep, wet, and rocky and there were numerous tree roots. I slipped on a tree root and fell with my left foot caught underneath my body with the weight of the backpack and canoe crashing down on top. I felt immediate pain and knew something was wrong, but thought I had just sprained my foot. I didn’t know then that I had fractured the left lateral 5th metatarsal bone in my foot. My son Jordan took the canoe the rest of the way on the portage and I limped along thinking that this would make the rest of the week somewhat unpleasant. And I felt better when I got in the boat and we paddled across the lake to the next portage. And that is when the real trouble began.
On the next portage as I crossed the trail with my backpack the pain in my foot magnified and each step became more painful than the last. I didn’t know what to do. We were about 10 portages away from civilization in either direction. I didn’t feel like I could keep going. When I got to the end of the portage, and everyone had gone back for the second load, I sat down on a rock in the mud with mosquitos biting me and felt despair. I couldn’t think a way out of this problem – wasn’t sure I could make it out of the wilderness. So I did the only thing I could think of to do – I said a prayer. I would like to have prayed for time to go back so I could have a do-over on the fateful portage, or for immediate healing from the injury but that is not how things work and not what I signed up for when I came to earth. So I prayed for help to endure the pain and make it back home.
My prayer was almost immediately answered. I had not told anyone how much I was suffering but God sent two angels to assist me. They were the living breathing type of angels. First, Matt Gardner came up to me on the rock and gave me some ibuprofen. Then Bob Conard came up with an Ace bandage and offered to wrap my foot. I hadn’t asked either of them for help. When we got to the next portage the miracle was realized. My wrapped foot still hurt with every step. It hurt a lot but the despair was completely gone and it was replaced with a feeling of, “you can do this.” I made it out of the wilderness with my black and blue and swollen foot, eventually figured out the bone was broken and wore a boot for the rest of the summer to recover.
In the April 2014, conference Elder Bednar said we should pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances according to our will. He said that we would then become agents who act rather than objects who are acted upon. I know from this and other experiences that the power of Christ to make our burdens bearable is real and accessible by prayer and faith.