Spiritual Helping Hands

Spiritual Helping Hands and Spiritual Moments and More:

There were numerous time when my hand would shoot out and pull Sister McQueen back from a car speeding out of an archway or a car making a turn or her going to step on or in something or hitting her head on an object sticking out of a kiosk or stand along the sidewalk. I want you to think of the number of times you may have saved your companions life by reaching out a hand or saying some thing that stopped an event from occurring. I’m convinced that these spiritual moments happened every day in our mission we just don’t recognize them as spiritual helping hands. I was walking home from the office one wintry night and was just starting up the hill by the lake. There was a manhole near the sidewalk in that area and as I approached the manhole I heard a voice yell “stop” - being a good military guy I stopped and then, feeling rather stupid, started looking around. If I had gone a few feet further in the direction I was traveling I would have gone right down the manhole because the cover was off. I wonder who yelled? Many of you might remember our two office rats George and Natasha. They were brother and sister and had some connection with President Yudin. He was always taking care of them. He had George put in kind of a day care orphanage. The people watched him during the day and President Yudin would pick him up at night. One night about 630 or 700 PM Elder Lopez received a call from the orphanage. President Yudin had not picked up George and they were getting ready to close. Could some one come and get George? He told the caller we would be right over. When he told me about the call I said OK, where is the orphanage? He didn’t know. OK, let’s call them back and find out. We don’t have the phone number was his reply. Great, the orphanage ladies and George were waiting for us and we had no idea where to go. So the Elders and Sister McQueen and I got in the car and started to drive by the spirit. We drove on some back roads down by the Prague Hotel. We finally came to an apartment complex and I stopped the car and told Elder Lopez to ask the guy walking by the car if there was an orphanage near by. When he asked the man, the man pointed to a building in the apartment complex. We went to the building and walked into the hallway. Sitting on a chair was George. When he saw us, he ran to us and gave us a hug oblivious to the small miracle that had just taken place. We took him back to the chapel. I wonder who led us to George? Christmas eve 1999, door buzzer buzzed, opened the door and the sisters from Gorlavka came into the apartment. Pretty frightened. A guy in their apartment building had roughed them up and they were afraid to stay in the apartment so they came to Donetsk. The next day we made a pilgrimage to Gorlavka in President Yudin’s Ford van. We went to the police station and explained our problem. The police listened and decided that they needed to talk to the man involved. So we all piled into the van and went to the sister’s apartment building. The police with the flack vests and machine guns got out and went into the building to confront the culprit while we waited in the car with the detective. I told the detective that I was a little concerned that the man might retaliate against the sisters because we got the police involved. He basically said don’t worry. He went on to explain that the police were scaring this man to death. He assured me that from now on the man will be nothing but nice to the sisters. He said if he wasn’t then they would put him in jail. The two armed police came back and we drove them back to the police station and thanked them for their help. The man was very nice to the sisters. Now for the spiritual event that happened at the police station - Sister McQueen is writing now - While waiting in the police station, we saw an older women talking to the police. The police seemed very angry, impatient, and rude to her. They were yelling at her and telling her to get out. Someone told us they thought she was old and crazy. She kept telling them she needed help, but they made her leave. She walked past us using a cane and went outside where it was very cold. She didn’t leave; she stood outside the door. As she stood there I noticed her hands on her cane and she didn’t have any gloves on. At that time a got a thought in my head “Give her your gloves”. I mentally replied, “No, these are my new gloves and I just got them.” Then I remembered that I had some gloves that I had been using, that I really didn’t like, and they were in the van. I went out to get inside the van to get the gloves but realized that President Yudin was the only one with keys to the van, and he was inside in an enclosed room of the police station. Again the thought came to me “Give her YOUR gloves.” I sat there for a while. I looked outside and the woman was still there. I kind of hoped she would leave but she didn’t. Finally, I said to my husband “President, I think I’m suppose to give that little old lady outside, my gloves. He replied “Well, go give them to her and put this 10 griven bill in them.” So I went outside and using my terrible Russian, I handed her the gloves and the money and said these are for you. She starred at me with the most amazing look on her face. As if to say “Why would a complete stranger who can’t even speak my language give me anything? Why are you being nice? All these people treat me awful. Why are you giving me these gloves and this money? There were no further words between us, but there was a beautiful feeling. I felt wonderful and so did she. I felt total, complete joy. And I almost missed that opportunity by my selfishness. Here is another Gorlavka story. One Christmas Eve, a woman was sitting in her dark, apartment feeling cold and hungry because she had no money for lights, food or heat.. Things had gotten so bad that she sat there a prayed to die. As she sat there she heard a knock at the door. When she opened the door, two young men dressed in dark suits and white shirts were standing at the door. They are here if she wanted to hear about their church. She had nothing better to do, so she said yes. They sat down and had a wonderful first discussion with her. One Elder told her that she would be alright until they met with her again. She said that as she talked with them, she could see the truth of what they were saying in their eyes and she knew it was true. She said she was alright until they returned. She continued the lessons and soon became baptized. When we left the mission, she was the Young Women’s President and was making plans to attend the temple.