Description

It Was Absolutely Real

Steven Crofts was called to serve in the Sweden, Stockholm mission in 1973. While he was in training at then, Ricks College in Rexburg, he received word that his grandfather had passed away. This was extremely hard on him. He describes the relationship he had with “Papa.”

“For almost all of my life before my mission, I had lived two blocks away from my Papa and Grandma Crofts. I was their first grandson. Papa was a lumberman and worked in the timber industry in southern Utah. He was not the kind of man who liked to sit behind a desk. He did a lot of traveling around and often took me with him, especially in the summer. We did a lot of hunting and fishing and all kinds of exploring, mostly in southern Utah. Twice during the summertime, he took me to Canada to his lumber operations in British Columbia. I loved him beyond what words can describe. He was absolutely a hero to me. I was extremely close to him. I actually wrote a book about all the life lessons I learned from him.”

Elder Crofts chose not to attend the funeral, but stay on his mission and work even harder.

Later, after he had been in Sweden a few months, he attended his first Zone Conference in Stockholm. That night, after the first day of meetings, they went back to where they were staying with a member family. They were exhausted and went to bed. Elder Crofts tells of a most sacred dream he received that night:

“In the middle of the night, I sat up in bed, and to this day I can remember, like it was yesterday, the dream that just occurred. In the dream, Papa and I were sitting in big comfortable chairs in a beautiful room, seated across from each other. He told me to not be worried about my mission and my family at home and to just work hard and be a great missionary. He told me he was proud of me and was excited that I’d been called to Europe. As a footnote, he had served in Germany and my father served in the Netherlands. He then stood up, walked over to me, and put his hands on my head. He blessed me to work hard and that if I did, I would be a successful missionary and that great opportunities to serve would open up to me. He blessed me with a command of the language. He then blessed me that my health would be good and that it would not be an issue for me at all during my mission. And then, all of a sudden, it was over, and I woke up sitting up in my sleeping bag. It was absolutely real. I sat there amazed for a long time and decided I would write the story in my journal later in the day and send the story to my grandmother.”

There is greater significance to the blessing of health than is readily apparent. Steven had suffered with severe ulcers since the age of 13. At one point, it had even bled considerably, a fact he did not reveal to his family or doctor in preparing for his mission. He went into the mission field still in misery, wondering if he would be able to get through two years. He continues:

“After his blessing, I did not have any more ulcer issues during my entire mission—not a single bit of pain or other side effects. To me, it was a miracle.”

Steven completed his mission and enjoyed many wonderful experiences. Shortly after he returned home, the ulcers returned, perforated the lining of his stomach, and at the tender age of 22, Steven was rushed into emergency surgery. That surgery was successful and Steven’s ulcers never returned.

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Contributed by Steven Crofts