Our Story: Aaron is Protected

Aaron and Tyler were away at High Adventure with the Teachers and Priests and we were here at home. I was talking with a friend and thought to put his family's names on the temple prayer roll, and since I was there I tossed on Aaron and some other folks as well, primarily because I regularly put family on there. We went to bed like it was an ordinary night, but then I was awakened by what I thought was my watch's alarm at some point in the night. I fell back to sleep, assuming that it was just something from a dream. I woke up in the morning and exercised, but then thought that maybe it was something from the boys, so I grabbed my phone and read a message from Tony Dabling that said, "The degree of immediate forgiveness Aaron offered upon return from the er. Was inspiring. You should be proud." 

I wondered what happened, then saw that I had missed 13 calls and had a stack of text messages. What happened is Henry Bleak had a series of frustrating things happen to him and Aaron's light was on late at night (just a shade after midnight), and he just snapped. He grabbed a 1x4 piece of wood and clocked Aaron upside the head with it. Aaron reacted quick enough to protect his face, but it split open the top of his ear. He was concerned that he might have a concussion or have lost some hearing because he got his bell rung pretty well. One of the leaders there was our neighbor Spencer Darley, who is an ENT, so he checked Aaron out and cleared him of hearing loss and concussion and then stitched up his ear. 

We were grateful for the protection Aaron had - not only that he protected his face and that it wasn't more serious than it was, but also because of the way he handled it. Aaron immediately forgave Henry and set the tone with the rest of the young men, who were all out for blood. It was inspiring to see how mature he was and how he behaved in exactly the right way for the situation!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ancestor story: George Q. Cannon Receives the Gift of Tongues

   George Q. Cannon is Beau's Third-great Grand Uncle The first missionaries to Hawaii assumed they were to preach to the white people. They spoke English. The missionaries spoke English. But the white people in Hawaii were a tiny minority and not interested at all. Soon the missionaries had talked to all of them. They wondered if that was it. Mission done? Do we just go home now? After all they didn't speak Hawaiian and they'd run out of English speakers. They'd done their duty, right? Who could blame them? George Q. Cannon wanted to stay and preach to the Hawaiians. "I did not conceal my feelings; I told them that I could not go home under existing circumstances, without feeling condemned. The Lord, in my opinion, I said, would hold me accountable for not doing my duty to that people. If I were to leave them; and the people might rise up in judgement against me at some future day for not having given them the privilege of hearing the truth." Four other el...
Read more

Manuel and Guillermo are Saved from Shining Path

  Late in the day on June 7, 1990, Manuel Navarro and his mission companion, Guillermo Chuquimango, were walking back to their house in Huaraz, Peru. Manuel had begun his mission in March 1989 at the Missionary Training Center in Lima, one of fourteen MTCs around the world. He enjoyed being a missionary—working hard, visiting different regions of the country, and bringing people to Jesus Christ. His current area could be dangerous at night, though. A revolutionary group called Sendero Luminoso, or the Shining Path, had been warring with the Peruvian government for more than a decade. Lately, their attacks had become more aggressive as rising inflation and economic strife beset the South American nation. Manuel and Guillermo, another native Peruvian, knew the dangers they faced as they left home each morning.  Groups like the Sendero Luminoso sometimes targeted Latter-day Saints because they associated the Church with United States foreign policy. There were now more than...
Read more

John W. Taylor Forsees a Family's Conversion

  John W. Taylor served a mission in the deep south. One night he and his companion were in a hostile town, afoot, hungry and with night coming on. "Every door is closed to us," said his companion bleakly. It was a long walk to the next town. "Wait," said John pointing to a house. "That door will open." They knocked and the door opened just far enough to reveal a suspicious face. "We have a message to you from Heaven," John said. "You got what?" "A message from Heaven," said John. "It shall be made known to you by dreams tonight that we are true servants of the Lord." That got them supper and a bed. "But wasn't it," wondered the companion, "going pretty far out on a limb? Either those people would dream, or they'd be dead set against Mormons for good." "If they didn't have that dream, they'd pass the word that these missionaries would say anything for a free meal." Yet...
Read more