1998
An Apostle’s Embrace
June 1998


“An Apostle’s Embrace,” Ensign, June 1998, 60

An Apostle’s Embrace

It was 1979, and I had recently been called to serve in the bishopric of our struggling ward in Telford, England. My wife and I and our four children had been Church members for 14 years, and for most of those years I had been unemployed. Deeply concerned, I had prayed sincerely for the Lord to assist me and had traveled all over Britain looking for work.

After a particularly trying time with unpaid bills, I told my wife that we could afford to travel as a family to the Sunday session of conference but that I could not afford to attend the Saturday priesthood session. I had been looking forward to attending all the conference meetings because Elder Howard W. Hunter, then an Apostle, was to preside. I was feeling very low.

My wife tried to comfort me. She told me she had been praying for me and that I would get a ride to the priesthood meeting. I responded that I had already told the bishop and others that I could not attend. She told me to have faith.

A short time later there was a knock at the door, and a good priesthood brother told me to get in his car. I explained that I could not afford to help with gas, but he merely said I was not to worry. As we left, he explained that he had been halfway to Newcastle, where the stake center was located, when he kept hearing a voice in his mind telling him to turn back and pick me up.

We arrived just as the meeting began, and as I sat through the talks I began to feel much better. After the meeting, I stood in the corridor watching Elder Hunter walk past members shaking hands with them. As he drew opposite me, his back was toward me. Then he turned around and walked over to me, looked deep into my eyes, then took me in his arms and gave me a hug. Without a word he continued on shaking hands with members.

When I returned home and told my wife what had happened, she burst into tears and said that after I had left, she got on her knees and asked Heavenly Father to let me know somehow that everything would work out. I knew then that things would eventually improve, which they did. I am grateful to Heavenly Father for being mindful of me at a time when I was in such need of comfort.

  • A. Peter Scholes serves as a home teaching supervisor in the Telford First Ward, Newcastle-under-Lyme England Stake.