A FATHER’S CHANGE OF HEART

While serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Lethbridge, Alberts, Canada during the latter part of 1969, my companion and I became acquainted with a young woman who expressed an interest in learning about our beliefs.  We taught her about the Church and it’s beliefs and she soon came to believe that what we taught was true.  She had a strong desire to be baptized and become a member of the Church.  There was just one problem.  She was not old enough to make the baptismal decision without parental approval.  To make matters worse, she had grown up in a small town and over the years her father had developed a strong hatred for all members of the Church she was now wanting to join.   Persuading her father to give his approval to be baptized as a member of the very group he despised was incredibly unlikely.  We discussed the options with her.  None of the options we mentioned satisfied her.  She wanted to be baptized.  Collectively, we finally  concluded that we would unite in fasting and prayer and at the end of the fast, she would courageously approach her father and ask for his permission.  He would have to sign a permission form in order for the baptism to occur.  We opened our fast with prayer, explaining the purpose for our fast and asking for divine assistance so she could receive the needed permission.  As the 24 hours of our fast concluded, we knelt in prayer again, asking for the desire of her heart.  She took the form and left.  I felt this request had a far better chance of ending poorly than ending well.  We just left it in the hands of the Lord.  We had no other choice.  She wasn’t gone very long.  When she returned we could hardly believe the elation we saw in her facial expression.  Astoundingly, when she handed the form to her father and asked his permission, he looked at it quizzically and then signed it without saying a word to her.  She brought it back to us and was baptized as soon as arrangements could be made.  When she went home after the baptism, it was as if he came out of a trance and was very angry.  He wouldn’t even speak to her for a long time.  When she was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, she also was given a blessing.  In that blessing was an amazing promise.  She was informed that she would lead her entire family to join the Church and be baptized as she had been.  She was told that she would be the catalyst, under the Lord’s direction, to bring about drastic and positive changes in the lives of all her family members, including her father.  It seemed so unlikely at the time.  She was facing ostracism within her own family.  She was the only member and the only one who did not hold some measure of antagonism toward the Church.  I have lost track of her, but the last time I spoke to her, she informed me that her mother and all of her siblings had been baptized and were active members of their ward.  As for her father, he was not yet baptized, but he did attend church with them each week and his antagonistic attitudes had mellowed considerably.  Surely the Lord’s ways are marvelous.  What a young woman’s spiritual sensitivity, faith, and courage against all odds was able to accomplish when blessed by the God of Heaven astounded me then, and astounds me still.  Oh me of little faith.