Faith of a Soldier

This account was related by Don B. Colton, who served as the president of the Uintah Stake in Utah before representing the state as a congressman in the 1920's (when this account was written). He later served as a mission president in the Eastern States:

"There came into my office a few weeks ago in the city of Washington, a middle-aged man whom I could tell at a glance was more than ordinarily well educated and cultured. Introducing himself, he asked me if he could talk to me a little while and I told him he could. Said he: "I was educated for the ministry. I graduated from a college of theology and was ordained, and for ten years I was pastor of a church. Then the war broke out. I went as a chaplain with the regiment from my city to a foreign land. One night, as there was a good deal of sickness in that camp, I was out among the boys, giving them what comfort I could. My attention was called to a tent where an unusually sick boy was lying. Said the doctor to me: 'Go in there; you had better prepare that young man for the worst.'
"And I went in and said to the young man: 'Buddy, you are very sick?'

"'Yes,' said the boy with conviction, 'I am sick, but I am going to get well.'

"Something in his tone struck me with peculiar force. I went up and took him by the hand and said, 'Buddy, I am glad to hear you say that.'

"'Well,' said he, 'I say it and I know it is true.'

"I left that tent," said the major, "and went to others, but I could not get the words of the boy out of my mind; and before I could go to sleep, I went back again, and opening softly the tent door, I said to him: 'Buddy, are you asleep?'

"And he said, 'No, major, come in.'

"I went in and I said: 'Who are you? Where did you get that assurance with which you told me a short time ago that you were going to get well?'

"Then, he replied: 'You probably would not believe me, but I am from Utah and I am a Latter-day Saint and I have obeyed the revelation of God given to man upon which the blessing of health is predicated; and I had a promise given to me by those who had a right to give it that I would return to my home; and the other night, when stricken with my illness, there came to me a witness that I knew that I was going to get well. And so, with that conviction I am facing this ordeal.'

"Do you mean it?" said his chaplain. "Do you mean that you know whereof you speak?"

And the boy, with earnestness, replied: "Yes, I do."

Said this man to me, in relating this, "I left his tent; I wanted more knowledge concerning that faith. I asked the boy for books. He game me them -- the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and others. I read them. All my religious life I have been seeking for a vitalizing force such as I felt that night in that tent in the camp in a foreign land. And when I returned to my home I sought out your elders. I have listened to them: I have read more of your books; I cannot stay away from it. I want more of that spirit; I want to feel what I felt and what I know that boy felt that night in France."
He came to our meeting the next day. I haven't time to relate all the conversation. I received a letter from him the other day, in which he said: "I must join you people; I must come out where you are. My soul cannot find rest elsewhere. I know you have the gift of the Holy Ghost for which I have been seeking."


(Don B. Colton, _Liahona_, 22:77; see also Nibley, _Faith Promoting Stories_, pp. 60-62)

Compiled and written by David Kenison