A relative, who had been experimenting with black magic, showed up at Rio’s door at about 4:00 one morning he was dishevelled, injured, and very disoriented.
“I called my sister Olive. She dressed, and in moments she was beside me.
Throughout my efforts to help this young relative, he was completely in a daze of indecision and confusion. I motioned for Olive to come with me out of the room while I went for a wash-basin of warm Lysol water. Quickly, we both observed, as if at once, that he was possessed of evil spirits, and both of us agreed that we must get rid of them. We found it very hard to minister to his urgent physical needs because of his fears and uncertainty.
Knowing the true order, Olive had signaled her desire for me to take the lead.
More than once, the young man muttered, “I have sinned. I have sinned, and there is no hope for me. I’ll be damned forever” - and words to this effect.
“That is not so,” I said emphatically. “You have sand, but you have not committed the unpardonable sin. – You have never robbed a maiden of that which is dearer than life - her virtue. You are within the saving mercy of our kind and loving Savior. He made the atonement for sinners, and your sins can be forgiven with repentance and with turning entirely away from all these things that are wrong.” I explained that despondency and hopelessness are of evil - not from God and his holy angels. Their influence is peace and love and joyful hope. Meanwhile he looked appealingly at me, then passed both of us, and then fearfully back to Olive and me.
Calling him sharply by name, I said, “_____! Look at me. Look right into my eyes! Now don’t listen to them or look at them. Listen to me. Do you want us to rebuke those devils and send them away?”
At the words “devils” he started and his eyes wavered.
“Look at me,” I insisted, “Look at me!”
When I had his eye, I repeated the question, “Do you want us to pray for you and rebuke those devils?”
“Y-e-e-e-s,” he uttered with great effort.
Olive and I kept close to him as if by a higher instinct, and we touched him as we talked, - his hands, a shoulder.
Immediately upon his request, faint though it was, we both placed our hands upon his head. Together, we stood in front of him and insisted upon keeping his gaze every moment, warning him not to look at the devils but right into my eyes.
If ever in our lives Olive and I poured out our very souls to God, we did then, realizing full well the awful vindictiveness of the devils who strove for possession of him, mind and body, and who tried to thwart us - to destroy us if possible.
With me as voice, Olive and I rebuked those evil spirits in the name of Jesus Christ and commanded them to be gone from the house and premises and to go back to their own place. We had to constantly remind him to listen to us and not let his eyes wander, or we prevented his wavering by repeating many facts told him just minutes before. The Spirit of God was telling us in our minds what to do step by step. The awful power ceased its hold on him, and the spirit of heavenly peace descended.
We fed him and bathed his face, neck, arms and legs up to the knees and put him to bed. Meanwhile one of us was with him constantly, touching him so he could remain assured that we were mortals and not unembodied spirits, for he understood as we reminded him of the three grand keys of detection or discernment revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith.
Fed and refreshed, but too tired to talk, he soon lapsed into sleep – blessed sleep over which we watched with silent prayers of praise and concern. For more than eight hours he slept profoundly. When he awoke he was refreshed and perfectly sane.
For some cause, Olive had to go way for a few hours while I was alone with our young relative. He narrated the following:
He said that he must have hypnotized himself, and that he started wandering in the hills. He said that he did not know for how long he wandered, but when he awoke he was holding a live rattlesnake, grasping it just behind the head so it couldn’t bite him, and was wandering in an unknown place in the hills. It was late afternoon or evening. He was finally able to get his bearing by the position of the constellations and started homeward. When he reached the Boise River coursing downward, he followed it back to Boise. He said that he had been walking all night but did not know at what point he lost the heel of his shoe. Nor did he know where he was when he found himself at our back door. We believed that surely his ever-merciful guardian angels had caused him to come to us."
Voices Of Women, Volume 2, Rhea Kunz, pgs. 133-135.
This post is part of a series of posts on Women in the Priesthood.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment