Who Was That Good Samaritan?

While my companion and I were tracting a street in Madison, Wisconsin, one cold October morning in 1980, we met an elderly man. When we told him who we were and what we were doing, he said he would like to compliment the Mormon church. We asked him why, and he related this story.

“I was coming down from the upper part of Michigan en route to Wisconsin some years ago, and not far from the state line my car broke down. I found that I needed a new part before I could continue. Then another car pulled off the road ahead of me, and the driver got out and asked me if he could help. I told him my problem.

“He took me to the nearest town, and we stopped at the first service station. They could offer no assistance, so we went to the next station. After talking with several people there, a young boy found the needed part, so the three of us returned to the stranded car. In a few minutes, it was running.

“I offered to pay the man who had so generously befriended me, but he would accept nothing. He said all I could do for him was to ‘put in a good word for the Mormon church.’ After that, he drove the boy back to the service station where we had found him, and went on his way.

“As the years passed, I often wondered who that Good Samaritan was. I thought there was no chance of ever finding him. But a year ago this fall I read an article in the Madison newspaper about the Mormon area conference. I looked over the article and my eyes beheld the picture of a man I had seen before—the man who had helped me out of my troubles that day long ago. He was your prophet, Spencer W. Kimball.”