The doctor isn’t home

I love this experience shared by Elder Matthew Cowley:

Elder Matthew Cowley
Elder Matthew Cowley

When I went over to New Zealand on my first mission, I had only been there a day or two when a nice sister came running to me. And she said, “Come over, please.” I was all alone. I didn’t have a companion. I went over to the home, and there was a little boy, ten or eleven, I guess. He had fallen from a tree. She said, “Fix him up.” I said, “You ought to have a doctor.” I had never administered to anybody in my life, never. She said, “The doctor isn’t home. He is away from town. We don’t need a doctor. You fix him.”

Well, I got down. He lay on the floor. I anointed him, and I sealed the anointing. You know, I guess God wanted to humble me. The next day he was climbing trees again. Every bone had knit. It was only a few days after that that her husband was stricken with typhoid fever. I was scared to death. The water was bad. I was all alone, just a youngster. She called me into her husband. I got down and anointed and blessed him, and the next morning he came over to my house and visited with me. And he said, “If you are going anywhere now, you can go. I am well.” I have never had experiences like that in all my life.

Notes

Leon Hartshorn, Outstanding Stories by Past General Authorities, volume 2. See also: Address delivered at San Fernando Stake conference, May 28, 1952.