a hand propelling me

When I was 17, I made an agreement with my friend José Luis to teach him how to swim. So one morning we dedicated time to practice. When our lesson was over and I was leaving the pool, I heard my friend shouting for help. He was drowning in the deep end of the pool.

I threw myself into the water and swam toward him while praying for help. As I grabbed his hand to pull him to the surface, my desperate friend climbed onto my back and put me in a choke hold. Now we were both drowning. Trying my best to reach the surface, I prayed with all my might for a miracle from God. Then, slowly but steadily, the power of God was manifest as I felt a hand propelling me toward the shallow end of the pool, bringing us to safety.

This experience confirmed a profound lesson President Russell M. Nelson once taught: “When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours.”

Sandino Roman

"Faith: A Bond of Trust and Loyal", General Conference April 2025

turned her loving concerns over to Heavenly Father

Years ago I received a phone call from a distraught mother. She told me that her daughter had moved far from home. She sensed from the little contact she had with her daughter that something was terribly wrong. She pleaded with me to help.

I found out who the daughter’s home teacher was. You can tell by that name that it was a long time ago. I called him. He was young. Yet he told me that he and his companion both had been awakened in the night with not only concern for the daughter but with inspiration that she was about to make choices that would bring sadness and misery. With only that inspiration of the Spirit, they went to see her.

At first she did not want to tell them about her situation. Under inspiration, they pleaded with her to repent and choose the path the Lord had for her. She realized then, I believe by the Spirit, that the only way they could have known what they knew about her life was from God. A mother turned her loving concerns over to Heavenly Father and the Savior. The Holy Ghost had been sent to those home teachers because they were willing to serve the Lord. They had followed the counsel and promise found in the Doctrine and Covenants:

“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”

Henry B. Eyring

"Our Constant Companion" General Conference October 2023

constant influence of the Holy Ghost

Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.

My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. Let this Easter Sunday be a defining moment in your life. Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.

President Russell M. Nelson

"Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives" General Conference April 2018

who have to feed upon miracles

Show me Latter-day Saints who have to feed upon miracles, signs and visions in order to keep them steadfast in the Church, and I will show you members … who are not in good standing before God, and who are walking in slippery paths. It is not by marvelous manifestations unto us that we shall be established in the truth, but it is by humility and faithful obedience to the commandments and laws of God.

President Joseph F. Smith,  Conference Report, Apr. 1900, 40 as quoted in David A. Bednar, "The Spirit of Revelation." April 2011 General Conference.

arise from his bed and walk

A most remarkable manifestation of the healing power of God was given in the early days of Nauvoo. Many of the Saints, driven from Missouri and weakened by the exposures, were taken sick, in the moist, malarial air of the new settlements. On the 22nd of July, 1839, the Prophet arose from a bed of sickness and went forth in the power of God to administer to the sick. Heber C. Kimball describes what followed thus:

“He commenced with the sick in his own house, then visited those who were camping in tents in his own dooryard, commanding the sick in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to arise from their beds and be whole, when they were healed according to his words. He then went from house to house, and from tent to tent, upon the bank of the river, healing the sick by the power of Israel’s God as he went among them. He did not miss a single house, wagon, or tent, and continued this work up to the “upper stone house,” where he crossed the river in a boat, accompanied by Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, John E. Page, John Taylor, and myself, and landed at Montrose. He then walked into the cabin of Brother Brigham Young, who was lying very sick, and commanded him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to arise and be made whole. He arose, healed of his sickness, and thus accompanied Joseph and his brethren of the Twelve, and went into the house of Elijah Fordham, who was insensible, and considered by his family and friends to be in the hands of death. Joseph stepped to his bedside, looked him in the eye for a minute without speaking, then took him by the hand and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from his bed and walk. Brother Fordham immediately leaped out of his bed, threw off all his poultices and bandages, dressed himself, called for a bowl of bread and milk, which he ate, and followed us into the street. We then went into the house of Joseph B. Noble, who was also very sick, and he was healed in the same manner” (Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 273-4).


Doctrine and Covenants Commentary by Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl. Deseret Book. 1965. p.233

revelations and miracles

Revelations and miracles do not keep men from falling.

“I recollect, in the upper room of the Temple in Kirtland, Ohio, when we were assembled there, a very noted man, Sylvester Smith, bore testimony of what he had seen of the Prophet of God, of angels, etc. He said ‘…I have spoken by what you call the Holy Ghost; the eyes of my understanding have been touched, and I have seen convoy after convoy of angels; I have laid hands on the lame, and they have leaped like a hart; I have spoken with tongues and had the interpretation thereof; but let me tell you, everything I have seen, and everything you have seen, is the height of idiotism.’ This was Sylvester Smith, after he had apostatized” (Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI., p. 254).


Doctrine and Covenants Commentary by Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl. Deseret Book. 1965. p.127

The Lord made it clear that faith is not developed by miracles.


Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p.5 Ether 12:18

new motherhood

This morning,
In the hush of dawn
I know the miracle of birth
I looked on the small child
In my arms
And felt full ownership
Of Earth!


Katherine Edelman. Quoted in correspondence from Grandma Carmen Dibble to Alexandra Dibble dated March 11th, 2001

Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar.


Pablo Picasso - (1881-1973), Spanish artist. Quoted in: Jean Cocteau, Opium (1929; tr. 1932; ed. 1957, p. 29).

I would like to say a word about the ministering of angels. In ancient and modern times angels have appeared and given instruction, warnings, and direction, which benefited the people they visited. We do not consciously realize the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives. President Joseph F. Smith said, "In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh." Many of us feel that we have had this experience. Their ministry has been and is an important part of the gospel. Angels ministered to Joseph Smith as he reestablished the gospel in its fulness.

Alma the Younger had a personal experience with ministering angels. As a young man, he was numbered among the unbelievers and "led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities." One day, "while he was going about to destroy the church of God" in company with the sons of Mosiah, an "angel of the Lord appeared unto them; and he descended as it were in a cloud; and he spake as it were with a voice
of thunder, which caused the earth to shake." The angel then cried out, "Alma, arise and stand forth, for why persecutest thou the church of God?"

Alma was so overcome by this experience that he fainted and had to be carried to his father. Only after his father and others had fasted and prayed for two days was Alma restored to full health and strength. He then stood up and declared, "I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit." Alma went on to become one of the greatest missionaries in the Book of Mormon. Yet in all his many years of missionary service, he never spoke of the
angel's visit. Instead, he chose to testify that the truth had been made known to him by the Holy Spirit of God.

To be instructed by an angel would be a great blessing. However, as Alma taught us, his final and lasting conversion came only after he had "fasted and prayed many days." His complete conversion came from the Holy Ghost, which is available to all of us if we are worthy.


President James E. Faust , "A Royal Priesthood" April 2006 General Conference