An Impression to Stop
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The following story was told by Ralph Rasmussen to his brother, President Edward Rasmussen who shared this story in our Monday morning office meeting with my wife and I, Phil Michel, and others. While we were missionaries serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission.
“Tom was on a business trip and running late to catch his plane in the Sacramento airport, he saw a lady who was upset and crying and as he passed by her he had an impression to stop and help her. He passed it off and thought, “If I had more time, I would stop and help, but I’m running really late”. He said that as he hurried along he had the impression again to go back and help her. He again ignored it rationalizing that surely someone, with more time than he had, would stop and help the lady. He then received the same prompting for the third time, and choosing to be obedient this time, even though he was late, he turned around and hurried back to help her. She held a sign that said, “I am from Ukraine and don’t speak English”. He thought, “Oh great! I’m running late and I come back to help this lady and she speaks no English. This is beautiful”. He quickly thought of his friend who had served his mission in Ukraine but he told my brother, “This guy hardly ever picks up his phone when I call him”. But in desperation he dialed the guy’s number and he actually picked it up!
Tom quickly explained the situation to his friend and asked if he would speak to the lady. He said “yes” and tom handed his phone to the woman and waited. They spoke for a couple of minutes and the lady handed the phone back to Tom. “So, what did she tell you” he asked? “It was amazing”, Tom’s friend said. “When I was on my mission, I baptized this lady’s family when she was only five years old. She is now headed to the MTC to begin her own mission but because she doesn’t read or speak any English, she can’t figure out how to get to the gate where her plane will be leaving from”. Tom, he said, “find some airport employee who can help this young missionary find the gate that she needs to be at.” Tom said “Okay”, grabbed the Sister by the arm and ran to find the nearest airport employee. After finding help for her, tom then ran back through the airport to his plane and sat in his seat with a minute to spare before they closed the plane doors”.
A statement by the Mission President, President Edward Rasmussen;
“Father in Heaven knows His children and when we immediately follow “heavenly impressions” wonderful things happen, even when those impression are inconvenient or not understood completely at first.”
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