When I think of this experience my heart always swells and I get tears in my eyes. I couldn't have asked for a clearer lesson of the darkness and power of Satan compared to the Light and Power of our Savior. Light will always overcome darkness, "you shall have power to bruise His heel, but He shall have power to crush thy head".
I was in the first area of my mission, a small town in the NW corner of the province of La Rioja...about 9 hours by bus from the mission home. My companion Elder Terry and I, were living in this town but had been through every home in our area and had starting to proselyte in small villages outside Chilecito. We had found a wonderful young woman, Lydia Arias, in one of these small villages who had fully embraced the gospel and had been baptized a couple of months earlier. Her mother was very much opposed to the church, and her older sister was unmarried with a child, and all had been very resistant to the gospel. But after a few months of slow progress Mirta (Lydia's older sister) had decided to let us teach her the gospel and we were walking the 30 minutes to this village to teach her the first discussion.
It was night time and as we were walking past the last house on the edge of Chilecito there was a very drunk man sitting next to a motorcycle. He called to Elder Terry and I to come over and talk to him, but we could tell he was very drunk as he could hardly stand so we kept walking. He called us four times and Elder Terry turned to go back to talk to him. I told him I thought we should keep going, but he wanted to go back so we went. We tried to talk to this man for about 10 minutes but he was extremely rude and insulting. We turned to go but he said he wanted to know why we were here in Chilecito and why missionaries like us had stopped by his house and talked to his wife and kids. Although he was very drunk I told him that if he would be quiet my companion would tell him why we are here. Elder Terry then taught him a brief summary of the first discussion...teaching him about God the Father, Jesus Christ, Prophets, and then Joseph Smith and the First Vision. I stood quietly watching this man and Elder Terry. As Elder Terry shared the story of the First Vision and Joseph Smith the Holy Ghost came as it usually did when we testified of him, and this man changed...but not for good.
An evil came over this man like I had never seen before. I believe to this day that he was possessed by a devil. A hatred, darkness, and fury came into his eyes that were not of this world and that I hadn't seen before nor have I seen to that extent since. I began to fear and my heart became as cold as ice...and seemed to shrivel up. Elder Terry was thrown back a few feet and immediately started running. I turned and caught up with him and we ran. As soon as we ran this man jumped on his motorcycle and drove off in the opposite direction (with complete control that did not exist minutes earlier as an extremely drunk man). We stopped after awhile, but Elder Terry was unable to catch his breath, not so much from running, but from the experience of feeling the pure evil that had overtaken this man and that we both undeniably felt. Elder Terry turned to me and asked what we should do. I was scared, but all I could think is that we needed to pray and ask for help.
We walked off the road into a field and we knelt down to pray. Elder Terry said the prayer and asked for protection and for help. As we prayed the darkness immediately went away and I felt surrounded by the brightest light and warmth. I can't describe the brightness of the light I felt...but the sweetest love came into my heart and I knew we were surrounded by angels and would be protected...I wanted badly to open my eyes because I was sure there were angels around us, but I didn't. The pure light and love I felt, in sharp contrast to the evil and darkness of Satan, will always be burned into my heart. And as we prayed this scripture came into my mind - D&C 84:88 "...for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up". Elder Terry and I wiped away our tears, then we got up and headed to the appointment to teach this sweet sister.
As we entered this little town (Los Sarmientos), where this man had gone on his motorcycle, the Spirit whispered to both of us at the same time that we needed to run. We didn't speak to each other, we heard the spirit and we listened and we ran all the way to the house where we were having the appointment. We never saw that man again. But we taught Mirta the first discussion that night and then she and her boyfriend (Jose) took all of the discussions, and were later married and baptized. Lydia and Mirta's mom was later baptized as well. Last I heard (about 13 years ago) Lydia was on a mission and Mirta was the Relief Society President in that branch in Chilecito. Truly Satan wanted to stop these special souls who were prepared to become an anchor in that small and struggling branch. Light will always overcome darkness. Good will overcome evil. And as we serve our Heavenly Father, in any capacity, we have the promise that angels will be round about us to bear us up. We just need to ask for that help.
I had two experiences similar to this on my mission, though neither was quite as extreme. The first time was in the MTC, after we were all in bed we would often chat for a while, and that night we started talking about things like skinwalkers and other things like that and whether or not they were real and after we had been talking for a while we all kind of went quiet because a dark spirit had settled on the room, very different than was normally present and we all felt it. We decided the topic at hand was not appropriate and had a group prayer and quickly felt the spirit leave. It was a very tangible reminder that evil was real and that even in the MTC you can choose the influence you will be under by your actions and words.
ReplyDeleteThe second one was in my second area, we were contacting people at an apartment building through the intercom at the gate. I called one apartment and it beeped like someone answered, but there was no response when I talked. When we did the next one, it beeped like there was already someone on the line. Then suddenly my companion turned, said lets go, and ran off around the next building. I followed and once we got around the far side of the building he stopped. While standing there he said he felt like we needed to move and then we heard the gate open where we had been. After a minute it closed again and this time we both felt the impulse to run at the same time. We ran for several blocks before we felt calm enough to stop. We could only hypothesize that the person we called but didn't answer intended harm, and that the impression to pause on the far side of the building made it so he didn't know which way we had gone. I was very thankful for a companion who was in tune that day since I was focused on doing the contacts and didn't feel the initial prompting, only the second one.