[No date provided] between May 9 and May 17, 1974

Using the Book of Mormon as a model I am recording thoughts, events, letters and incidents of spiritual significance to me and that I believe will strengthen the spiritual posture of my family.

            I wish to record an incident of great importance to me and the man whose picture appears on the proceeding page – Dr. Helaman Pratt Ferguson. He opened my understanding to new dimensions pertaining to administering to the sick through the power of the Priesthood.

            Br. & Sister Ferguson asked Norma and I to come to their home one Sunday evening after church. After a pleasant visit they informed us that their son was to have another surgery performed on his eyes. The youngster had had a prior operation and there was little medical hope because the boy was not able to “fuse” his visual objects in the brain. I was then asked to administer to young Helaman the next evening. I was grateful to be asked but fearful because of the responsibility and concern.

            After fasting and prayer the next evening I appeared at the Ferguson home to find 2 other close friends there. Again, we visited for some time, perhaps two hours. I must admit that I was becoming restless and irritated because I had arose at 5 AM to teach seminary the next morning and the time was now 10 PM. Br. Ferguson then asked us all to kneel in a prayer circle and each of us prayed individually, fervently, calling upon the Lord in “mighty prayer” to guide us in this administration, that His will be done.

            Br. Ferguson then brought his son from the bedroom to be administered to. He was asleep. In an administration that drained my physical strength a promise was pronounced upon this boy that he would be made “whole” again. A miracle was wrought and the boy was able to see normally. I will never forget in church one morning subsequently that young Helaman Ferguson looked at me and I knew that we knew one another by the Spirit in spite of our age difference.

            I learned that if it is possible that we should estrange ourselves from the world and enter into the Lord’s atmosphere of peace and with a broken and contrite heart and gentleness of soul when we understand to do great things in the Lord’s kingdom then we are ready to really know the Lord’s will. Also, the combined faith of faithful and virtuous saints creates a power of unbelievable dimensions.