Description

Can You Help Us

In 1982, Sister Margaret E. Poole O’Brien was serving as a proselyting senior sister missionary in the Henderson Nevada Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One day, she and her companion came home for lunch and a midday rest. Sister O’Brien was in her room studying, when she heard a quiet voice say, “The Lucier family needs food.” Sister O’Brien said:

“I didn’t pay much attention to it and went on with my studying, thinking this can’t be right. This family lived in a lovely home and seemed to be quite well off. But shortly, the voice came again with the exact same message: ‘the Lucier family needs food.’

This time, I listened and made the comment, ‘I would see what I could do.’ I went out to our little kitchen, just as [my companion], Sister Hess, came out from her bedroom. She went right over to the fridge and looked inside. I asked her what she was doing, and she said, ‘I had the impression that the Lucier family needs food.’ I then told her what I had heard and she said the message had come to her in a dream, but it was so real.

We took what we thought they might use out of our fridge. This filled two big grocery sacks and it pretty well cleaned out the refrigerator. We then took what money we had, went to Albertson’s grocery store, and bought everything we thought they might like–even a big watermelon. We spent all of the money we had. We loaded the food into the car and began to drive to Lucier’s home, when Sister Hess pulled over and stopped the car. She said, ‘What if we got the wrong impression? What if they don’t need this food? What shall we do then?’ After a prayer, we decided to go on to their place, but before we would take the food in, we would go to the door empty-handed, just to check on things.”

That is what they did. Lucier’s nine-year-old son answered the door and seemed especially excited to see them. He called to the rest of the family, “The missionaries are here. The missionaries are here.” Sister O’Brien continued:

“As we walked in, we could see that their table was set nicely for dinner. The mother kept saying, ‘We knew you would come. We have been praying to the Lord for your help.’ We asked her how we could help. Crying, she said, as she led us into the dining room, ‘I have cooked this potato and cut it into 5 pieces for our dinner. This is the last of our food.’

She then went on to explain that they had made an unwise investment that had taken all their money, and on the very day they received this terrible news, Brother Lucier had lost his job. “We don’t know what to do,” Sister Lucier said, ”Can you help us?”

The sisters invited them to come out to the car. Sister O’Brien said, “They couldn’t believe it when they saw all the groceries. They were so happy. They kept asking us, ‘How did you know to bring us food? How did you know we needed you?’ Of course, we told them that our Heavenly Father had answered their prayers and He had told us that they were in need.”

The story would be evidence enough of the “multitude of the Lord’s tender mercies” if it ended right there, but it does not. The two missionaries had barely gotten home when their phone rang. A friend who worked part-time at Albertsons told them that his boss had given him sacks and sacks of food that the store was getting rid of and he wanted to share with them. Sister O’Brien concluded:

“We drove right over to his place and he and his wife loaded our car with sacks full of food. We thanked them with tears in our eyes, drove back home, and began to carry everything into the house. As we put things away in the refrigerator, we could see it was much more than we had taken out of our fridge to take to the Lucier family. With our refrigerator completely full and our hearts full of wonder and gratitude, we knelt to thank our Heavenly Father.”

Source:

Kareen M. Springer, Highland, Utah (daughter of Sister O’Brien)