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I Have Seen My Savior Part 2 Transcript
Hi, this is Glenn Rawson. One of the most powerful ways to share history and heritage is by the telling of stories. We began sharing inspiring stories nearly 30 years ago. Each of those stories is true and was intended to inspire and strengthen faith. Over the years, those stories have reached millions around the world. This podcast is for you to listen, learn and enjoy.
First Story: I Saw Three Strangers
The Lord said that He would go before our face when we are on His errand. I love this story so much that I sent it to my son in the mission field.
Marie Madaline Cardon, was born July 6, 1834, at St. Bartholomew, Italy. She was a descendant of the Vaudois or Waldensians, a mountain people who had existed and suffered for centuries high up in the Alps for the sake of their religious beliefs.
When Marie was about six years-old, she received a very remarkable manifestation that would change not only her life, but also that of her family for generations. These are the words she shared.
“I was upstairs in bed. A strange feeling came over me. It appeared that I was a young woman instead of a mere child. I thought I was on a small strip of meadow close to our vineyard, keeping my father’s milk cows from the vineyard. It seemed that I was sitting on the grass, reading a Sunday School book. I looked up and saw three strangers in front of me. As I looked into their faces, I dropped my eyes instantly, being very much frightened. Suddenly the thought came to me that I must look at them, that I might remember them in the future. I raised my eyes and looked them straight in the face. One of them, seeing that I was afraid, said: “Fear not for we are servants of God and have come from afar to preach unto the world the everlasting Gospel, which has been restored to the earth in these last days, for the redemption of mankind.”
Marie continues:
“They told me that God had spoken from the heavens and had revealed His everlasting Gospel to the young boy Joseph Smith. That it should never more be taken away again; but that His kingdom would be set up and that all the honest in heart would be gathered together. They told me that I would be the means of bringing my parents and family into this great gathering. Moreover,” she continued, “the day was not far off when we would leave our homes and cross the great ocean. We would travel across the wilderness and go to Zion where we could serve God according to the dictates of our conscience. When they had finished their message to me they said they would return soon and visit us. They took some small books from their pockets and gave them to me, saying: “Read these and learn”. They then disappeared, instantly.”
Marie shared the dream with her family who believed her. Then in 1850, sometime later, word reached the family that three Latter-day Saint Elders were preaching in a neighboring town. Greatly excited, her father dressed in his Sunday best and went to find them. He listened to the elders preaching (one of them is Lorenzo Snow) and then asked them to come home with him. On the way, he told them of Marie’s dream.
When they entered the house, Marie was not there. She said, “When the Elders reached our home that Sunday evening they inquired for me, being interested in what my father had told them concerning me. I was not at the house at the time, but I was out on a small strip of meadow land. It seemed to be the identical spot I had seen in that vision of childhood so many years before. I was sitting on the grass, she said, reading a Sunday School book. I did not hear them until my father said to the Elders, “This is my daughter who had the vision or dream concerning the strangers, who told me to “Fear not for they were the servants of God.” Upon being introduced I shook hands with each of them.” Then she adds, “They took some tracts or small books from their pockets and spoke the very same words I heard in the dream or vision.”
It reminds me of what the Lord said, I will go before your face.
Not long after, Marie and the members of her family were baptized, notwithstanding the fierce opposition and persecution by mobbers, ministers and friends. One Sabbath as they gathered for worship a mob surrounded the house “yelling and shrieking most hideously.” They demanded the Elders and the girl who was helping them. How was she helping them? Working as a translator.
They demanded that they all be turned over. Marie, with Bible in hand, walked out, faced the mob and said:
“It became evident that they were on the verge of pouncing upon the Elders. I raised my right hand in which I held my bible and commanded them to depart. I told them that the Elders were under my protection and that they could not harm one hair of their heads. As you can imagine, All, she said, stood aghast…. God was with me. He placed those words in my mouth, or I could not have spoken them. All was instantly calm. That strong ferocious body of men stood helpless before a weak, trembling, yet fearless girl. The ministers turned and asked the mob to leave and they dispersed with sullen faces, in fear and in shame, broken in pride and remorse in spirit…. Soon, she said, all was quiet, we had met and vanquished the enemy and were permitted to finish our meeting in peace.”
Just as she had dreamed, Marie and her family came into the church, came to Zion in 1854. She married Charles Guild in 1855 and lived out her days in Piedmont, Wyoming—a mighty woman in Zion with a noble posterity.
Marie wrote the following in her biography:
“This account is written for the benefit of you, my children, in order to show you that our Heavenly Father has had great love for His children upon the whole earth, in revealing the fullness of the Gospel to the prophet Joseph Smith…. I bear my testimony unto you and unto the whole world that God has spoken to His prophet Joseph Smith and has revealed unto him the fullness of the Gospel.”
Wow! What a woman, just makes you that kind of courage born of the spirit just makes you want to just, salute.
Second Story: Lessons on the Black’s Fork
Okay now, how important is a general conference? Yeah, I know, to some people, it doesn’t mean any more than a weekend off so we can go camping; to other people it means more. To some people it means everything.
How important is it though that we humble ourselves and not just listen but receive council? This story is titled “Lessons on the Blacks Fork.”
Mary Branigan came from Ireland, from a lovely home on the river Liffey and from a loving family of fifteen. Against all odds, and that’s another story for another time, and all opposition, Mary joined the church and came to America. She was part of the Daniel D. McArthur Handcart Company of early 1856.
She had many struggles coming across the plains as a single girl of only 21 years. She tells of an incident that occurred just before her company reached Fort Bridger, Wyoming.
As they had started out that morning, Captain McArthur promised the company that they would not cross any streams that day; that they would not cross the river that night. Well, that night as they came to the river and stood on its edge, Mary was tired and weary, she said, and suddenly came the captain’s voice, “All prepare to cross the next river!”
Mary stood there on the bank, hesitating. Just then, Captain McArthur came along and asked, “Well, What are you waiting for?”
Mary replied, “I won’t wade that river tonight.”
Captain McArthur said, “What are you going to do?”
Mary said, “I dropped the handle of my cart and said, “camp here of course.”
I love it. Captain McArthur didn’t say a word. He walked over and picked up Mary’s handcart and told her to sit tight, stay there and then pulled her handcart across the river.
Once on the other side, he picked up a covered handcart and went back across the river and told Mary to crawl in at the back. She did and he pulled her across the river. Once they were across the river, Captain McArthur upended the handcart and dumped her out on the bank.
She said, “He then walked on without saying one word.”
Mary was embarrassed. She knew that if others in the camp learned what had happened, they would think the captain was favoring her. So she said nothing. However, some had seen it and one said to her “If you were not a girl, you’d have to wade tonight as well as I did.”
Mary knew that was true and it bothered her. Why was the captain helping her? She went to Captain McArthur some time later and asked him about it and this is the account.
“He asked me if I knew the reason he crossed the river that night. I said, “I did not, only I remembered I didn’t want to wait that cold deep stream.
“Do you remember the big rain and snow storm we had and had to remain in camp all the next day and make up great fires to keep the people from freezing? He asked.
“I meant women as well as men when I said people and if we had not crossed the river that night we could not have got any wood for there was a large grove of trees on the other side and not a stick of wood on the side we left.”
Mary concluded with this simple little statement. She said, “…So that was another lesson to me, to obey those that are placed to lead us.”
Third Story: It is a Serious Thing
My dear friends, I guess, in a way, I apologize in advance for this next story. It’s a little out of the norm for me but for some reason, this story has attached itself to my mind and won’t let go.
I believe that most people are pretty fragile, I mean by that they can be hurt, offended or emotionally damaged quite easily, hence, the great care we need to exercise in dealing with each other. Let me share an example.
Many years ago, there was a young man, not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was painfully shy and socially awkward to the extreme and wanted nothing more in high school than to belong and have friends. What added more to his difficulty was that he was new to the community and the school where he attended and he knew virtually no one.
Then, one day, he was approached by some boys from the local Latter-day Saint ward, in the boundaries where he lived. They asked him if he would like to go with them on an overnight scout outing. He was so excited for the opportunity. He went home, packed carefully that night everything they told him to bring and could hardly sleep. They had told him that they would pick him up well before dawn, like three or four o’clock in the morning, so got his gear ready, was up early at the appointed hour with all of his gear sitting on the living room floor and waiting.
The time came when they were to pick him up and no one came. He figured they were just late and would come along shortly. They didn’t come. As the night’s hours drew along, his heart sank. Had they accidentally forgotten him? Was it just a cruel joke that boys will play?
He stayed there on the sofa all night long. Finally drifting off to a sad slumber, just as the sun rose, no one ever came, no one ever apologized or even acknowledged the broken promise with an explanation. The lad was deeply hurt and never forgot it.
Later, when local members came and asked him to be baptized, he was angry and rejected their invitation outright. It would take several more years, moving away to college and finding friends who were true and patient before that boy’s heart was softened and he was taught and eventually baptized.
I was that angry lad. In the years since that broken promise, I have forgiven those who hurt me. I’ve told myself that they just forgot and meant no hurt nor harm but that experience was one of many that taught me to be careful with people’s feelings for we never know what eternal consequences may be invoked by our words and actions.
I remember President Packer saying that “One of the most painful things in his life was to learn that he had hurt another person.”
Perhaps, this thought by C.S Lewis is relevant. As I was writing this story for the first time yesterday, this thought from Lewis pressed itself upon me. He said:
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw it now you would be strongly tempted to worship. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities; it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another – all relationships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal, nations, cultures, arts, civilizations. These are mortals and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat but it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit.”
My dear friends, it is burned into my brain what President Nelson said at the end of the last session when he said, “Make time for the Lord every day.”
That was my take away from this conference. I hope my friends, that as we draw close to the Lord and make time for Him, we will be careful of the time and how we use it with others. I hope that story doesn’t offend you and I know that it has a negative slant but I felt strongly it needed to be shared, I’ve never told that story.
Fourth Story: Mary’s Kindness
Just days before the Savior’s atoning death. Jesus came to Bethany where he was hosted for supper by Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
As Martha served the meal, there was an interruption. Mary suddenly came into the room, came to the table, broke open an alabaster box of ointment and began to anoint the Savior’s head and feet and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the sweet smelling lotion.
Some of the disciples began to murmur, namely Judas: “Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?”
Now, that ointment was oil of spikenard. It comes from India. That vial that she broke over the Savior and poured it on him was worth a year’s wages to a working man.
Well, their unkind words had to have stung Mary’s tender soul. Jesus immediately came to her defense.
“Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me, verily, she has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying” and then he added these solemn words “she has done what she could and this which she has done unto me shall be had in remembrance in generations to come, wheresoever my gospel shall be preached.”
What a promise! Jesus wanted this woman and what she had just done to be remembered for all time by every disciple who ever remembered him. Why? What was it in that simple deed that was so important to him?
First, that ointment was not your ordinary lotion you get from Walmart, it was spikenard, it came from India, it was very, very valuable. This was an uncommon sacrificial offering to the Lord. Next, to anoint one’s head and feet as she did him was an act of reverential homage rarely rendered even to kings. She was in effect saying, “You are my king, the son of God.”
Further, she had saved the ointment for his burial. He said, thus indicating that so many of his disciples did not believe his ominous predictions of death. She did sacrifice love, faith and lastly kindness, love and devotion even and perhaps especially the perfect son of God was so affected by her timely kindness that he memorialized her for all time.
I want to love the Lord like that; to believe everything he says; to be that devoted to his service, promising covenanting and pledging that I will be there, every time he needs me and I think I speak for you.
Now, in regards to kindness, I’m paraphrasing Elder Maxwell:
“Please remember that every measure of cruelty and unkindness we give to another will be remembered and returned to us when the Lord comes again. If we do not repent, we will have to face and then feel all the hurt we have brought on others. But those who have practiced the godly art of compassion and kindness will bask in the warmth of the Savior’s loving kindness on that day. To be kind to others is to be kind to Him.”
Thank you for listening. Many of the stories you heard today have been published and are archived at glennrawsonstories.com. If you would like more information you can communicate with us there. We will be back again with another podcast next week.
