Mission Experiences, Chapters 21 & 22

Chapter Twenty-One
Magic Fingers

After Elder Eldridge went home I was sent a new companion named Elder Cooper. Now when I was with Eldridge the members called me the quiet one, but it was not because I had nothing to say but that Eldridge had a very outgoing personality and it was often hard to get in a word edgewise.

On the other hand, Cooper was truly a quiet one. I tried to give him plenty of opportunity to speak but he never had much to say. The members of the branch thought that I had undergone a personality transformation as now I had to be the main person to interact and Elder Cooper was happy to let me dominate.

Elder Cooper had majored in chemistry back home and one of the first things he communicated to me was that his grade average was a perfect 4.0. I remember the first time we were to teach a lesson together. The way it worked was that one missionary taught one half and the other the second half. I told Cooper that we had to teach a lesson that evening, I believe it was number three. I noticed a short time later that he was intensely involved in studying. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was studying the lesson that we were going to give that evening.

This surprised me as I was only about an average student and he had a perfect 4.0. I thought to myself that with my average scholarly ability I never had to review the lessons because I had them memorized but Cooper here was the perfect student and a year into his mission he had to review his lessons.

As we worked together I noticed that he could never give a lesson without first spending about an hour in preparation and review first, and I never had to review them and could give them very close to word for word.

This started me thinking about what true intelligence was. Elder Cooper was the perfect student yet his emotional growth seemed to be stunted and he seemed to lack the ability to apply intelligence in a practical way.

Later on a book was to become popular called “Emotional Intelligence” where the idea was presented that there are a number of levels and layers of intelligence and for making a success of yourself one has to have emotional intelligence which aids in human interaction.

Something else occurred to me and which was that Elder Cooper had a good short term memory but not so good on the long term. After reviewing a lesson he then had it pretty good in his head, but he would lose it and have to review again if he had to give it a few days later.

My memory seemed to work differently than his. My short term memory was not so great which explained why cramming for tests in school wasn’t a lot of help for me. On the other hand, when I did actually learn a thing I usually retain it for a long period or for life.

For instance, I am writing this account from memory as I did not keep a journal. I do have the letters I mailed to my mom but they contained very little to help recall the story.

I guess if I had to choose between having a good long term or short term memory I would chose long term, even though that puts one at a disadvantage in taking standardized tests.

Now my wife has a good short term memory and had a good grade point in school but her long term is not so great. This kind of works well because between the two of us we have a petty good composite mind. She’ll see a movie listed and ask if we have seen it. If we have I’ll say yes and tell her what it was about. Then she may ask me if she liked it. I will then clearly recall how she felt about the movie and relate that to her.

Then I will often make use of her excellent short term memory. If we both meet a new person and are introduced I will often forget the name within a few seconds. I’ll then ask her, “What was that guy’s name?” She’ll just about always remember and tell me. Then sometimes I’ll come up with an idea and explain it to her and then forget what it was five minutes later. I’ll ask her what it was and she will recall and remind me.

So, as it works out between the two of us we have a fairly good brain.

So Elder Cooper got me started thinking about intelligence, but I didn’t stop at examining memory or even emotional intelligence. Later on I did a lot of thinking about how intelligence works out on many different levels. I could probably write a book on the subject, but that’s for another day.

I could see why they were keeping Elder Cooper in a junior position because he was not a leader and seemed happy to let others take charge. At least he was supportive

Now I was in charge we set out the best way possible to establish a good pool of people to teach. It was difficult because of the age of the residents in Scarborough and the other duties foisted upon me as the District Leader. Even so, we did make some progress, but nothing like happened in Peterlee.

Most of the work with Elder Cooper and the other missionaries at that time was pretty routine but still several interesting things happened.

Shortly before my mission I had taken several hard knocks on the head. I noticed that the pupils in my eyes were different sizes and I had heard this was a bad sign. Throughout my mission I sensed that something was not quite right with my computer brain. Then one day we were working in an area of mobile homes and as we approached one I hit my head on a metal open window pane that I didn’t see. I struck it so hard that it made the whole mobile home shake.

During the next few days I really seemed to be out of it and let Elder Cooper teach as much as he was willing. I looked in the mirror and saw that my pupils, which had been returning to normal, now really looked off size. I figured that if I didn’t start feeling better soon I’d have to see a doctor about taking some tests.

Then one evening we had one lesson to teach and I told Elder Cooper to just teach it as long as he wanted. I sat in a comfortable chair and just about went to sleep. I felt surprisingly peaceful and at ease.

Shortly after Elder Cooper began teaching I felt a presence. I sensed that the were at least two invisible beings near me and I felt a message entering my mind which said:

“Do not be alarmed. We are here to help you. Just relax and sit perfectly still.”

Because of the peaceful feeling I thought I could trust whoever this was and complied. Then a most amazing thing happened. I felt their hands on my head and sensed they were spiritual physicians from the other side. They spent the first couple minutes in some type of preparation as I felt their fingers moving around on my scalp. Then after this process was finished I felt an actual instrument enter right through my scull into the center of my brain. I was surprised but not alarmed as the feeling of peace continued and again was reminded mentally to remain perfectly still.

The instrument was not made of physical matter and produced no pain, but made a tingling sensation. On hindsight I would guess I was sensing it through my etheric instead of my physical body.

This instrument did some probing for around five minutes or so and then another instrument was introduced. This seemed to be some kind of etheric laser and I sensed the real work of repair was now happening. Again, this produced no pain, but a rather pleasant tingling sensation right in the physical brain itself. This process took another ten or fifteen minutes and finally I sensed they were finished as the instruments were withdrawn.

Shortly after this the entities left. Their presence felt so good I would have been happy to have them hang around indefinitely.

After we left the home I took note of how I felt and my sense of well being was much better. Later, when I looked in a mirror, I was delighted to see that both my pupils were the same size. I took this to be a good sign.

My head felt much better the rest of my mission but it seemed I did need a final repair. Right after I got home I had to head up to college at the University of Idaho, 300 miles north. During the drive I felt their presence again. Again I felt their fingers on my scalp and received the impression that that I needed a final touch up. Then for about 20 minutes I drove onward keeping my head as still as possible while they repeated a similar process to the earlier one. After they were finished they left just as they did before.

After this my head felt great and the ole brain has served me very well ever since. As it turns out some people are happy with what my mind turns out and some are not but hopefully I can leave a legacy of an overall good effect.

I know that I personally will always feel indebted to those spiritual servants.

.

Chapter Twenty-Two
Miracles

Somewhere around this time period we had a couple more interesting, or what some might call “faith promoting,” experiences.

One evening we received a call that a sister in the branch had been in a serious car accident and we were requested to give her a healing blessing.

We went to the hospital and were allowed into her room. She was in bad shape indeed for her face was so bruised we would not have recognized her if he hadn’t known it was her.

She was conscious though and looked our direction and I knew she recognized us. She could not speak though for her jaw was broken badly in several locations and we were told that she was going to require some major surgery to reconstruct it.

We did our best to speak consoling words to her and then laid our hands gently on her head and gave her a blessing promising her a quick healing.

Several days later when we attended church we were surprised to see her there, a little beaten up, but well on the path of recovery. This quite surprised us as everyone was expecting a long hospital stay following several major surgeries. As we approached her she recognized us and we also discovered that she could now speak.

She pointed her finger at me and said, “It was you!”

“Me what?” I said curiously.

“You healed me.”

I, of course, replied that none of us has any power to heal on our own but any healing is done through the power of God and the person’s faith. We then asked her for more details and here is what she said:

“Shortly before you visited me they took X-rays of my jaw and they saw it was severely broken in several locations and would require major surgery. Then after the blessing I began healing very quickly and after a couple days they did another X-ray just before they were going to do the first surgery.

“I was in the room when the doctor pulled the second X-ray and looked at it. He then pulled the first X-ray and look at that. He then kept looking at one X-ray and then the other and saying over and over, ‘This cannot be. There must be some mistake. These cannot belong to the same person.’

“I asked him what the problem was and he said apparently there is no problem for if the second set of X-rays are accurate the bones in my jaw have moved perfectly into place and no surgery will be required.

“Then they released me to go home and now here I am almost as good as new.”

We were thrilled with her story but that was not all. When visiting with her a month or so later she related one more thing. She said the dentist had taken an X-ray and after examining it asked her if she had ever broken her jaw. She then related the recent accident.

He then said that he could barely tell that her jaw had ever been broken for the pieces were knitted back together with more exactness and precision than he had ever seen before. There was only a very slight hairline witness that her jaw had ever been broken.

Another lady in the branch was having major problems with pernicious anemia and was at the end of her rope and confined to her bed. She had received several blessings from several elders but was no better. She asked us for another.

When we laid our hands on her head I did my best to tune in to the Spirit and discern as to whether she could be healed. I didn’t sense any go-ahead so I just gave as encouraging of a blessing as I could.

We saw her a few days later and were not surprised that she was no better. She then requested another blessing. We gave her one but again felt no go-ahead.

A while later we visited her again and she was worse than ever. She requested still another blessing. This time I felt a different direction was in order.

I took her hand and told her that even though she had not been healed that I did receive the reason for this. I told her hat her faith was at a low ebb.

She then insisted she had lots of faith.

“You do have lots of faith in the normal sense,” I said, “but I picked up that you are very depressed and feel you are at the end of your rope. This depression you feel is interfering with your faith and is causing you to not be able to use it. If you want to be healed you must let the negative thoughts and depression go and tune into the joy that comes from God. If you can do this then you will be healed.”

“You are right about the depression,” she said. “Maybe it has caused me to expect the worst. What can I do to rid myself of it so I can be healed?”

“Over the next couple days we will fast and pray for you,” I said. “During this time you must pray and tune into the spirit of God and sense the joy and fullness that is there. Then when we reach the end of our fast we will come back and give you another blessing.”

She agreed and as we left, for the first time I saw real hope in her eyes.

I do not recall whether we fasted for two or three days but I do remember that my own personal faith also had an increase because of it. When we visited her again she said that she had been thinking of what I said and that she now saw that her depressed state was indeed getting in the way of healing and that she felt that her state of mind was much better.

I told her that was encouraging and we laid our hands on her head ad gave her another blessing. This time the feeling I had was different and I felt permission from the Spirit to give her a positive healing blessing.

I didn’t sense a powerful spiritual feeling as we left and was hoping I had said the right thing. That evening though something strange happened. As I laid down to go to sleep I felt a powerful spiritual presence and suddenly as clear as a bell I saw the inside of her body. I saw that there was a great sore or wound near her stomach and this was draining her body of energy and its ability to heal. Then I saw that this sore was being closed up and would be as if it never was. I then went to sleep and slept sound as a baby.

I never saw her for a while after that but then one day at church there she was. I saw her cheerfully talking to friend and approached her, telling her she looked pretty good and asked her about her recovery.

She said she started feeling better right after the blessing that the doctor had given her a clean bill of health and the pernicious anemia was healed wad no longer a problem.

As an ending thought let me add that spiritual healing is not an exact science. It would be nice if we could do a ceremony or speak certain words and always get a result, but it doesn’t work that way. There are many factors involved and sometimes no matter what you do the person may not be healed. That can be troubling for all involved. Even so, I have seen enough miraculous healing in my life to know beyond any doubt that when higher will gives approval that there is nothing impossible for us. May we always be open to all possibilities.

Copyright 2010 by J J Dewey