[Stop here!]

This story is from Jane Lassetter's BYU Devotional talk.

My late brother-in-law, Patrick Clarke, served a mission in Chile in the mid-1960s. One of his most memorable mission experiences happened during a two-week period when he and his companion traveled with the mission president and his wife and Elder Spencer W. Kimball and his wife, Camilla, on a 3,000-mile tour of Chile, holding branch and district conferences as they traveled.

They rode in a ’61 Chevrolet station wagon with three rows of seats along the Pan‑American Highway, which was then a narrow cement road with no shoulder or painted lines to identify lanes. Many rivers and deep canyons crisscrossed the path of the highway, necessitating bridges to span them. Most of these bridges were very narrow.

Late one afternoon, after holding a conference in the most southern branch of the Church in Chile, they headed north along the Pan-American Highway. Patrick was driving. His companion was in the front passenger seat. The mission president and his wife were seated in the back row, and Elder and Sister Kimball were in the middle row.

As they drove along they approached a narrow bridge that crossed a deep canyon with a river gushing below. Elder Kimball suggested they pull over and stop.

Patrick questioned him, saying, “Do you want to stop here where there is no shoulder, or do you want to drive a ways and find a better place to stop?”

Elder Kimball repeated, “Stop here.”

Without further hesitation, Patrick pulled the car over and stopped. Then he realized a semitruck was approaching the opposite end of the bridge in front of them. As the truck moved onto the bridge, the front wheel came off, causing the truck to roll over. Patrick and his companion jumped out of their car and assisted the driver out of the wrecked semitruck.

After the truck was removed from the middle of the bridge and things settled down, they continued across the bridge and up the road. As they reflected on what had happened, it became obvious that if Elder Kimball had not told them to pull over, they would have arrived on the bridge at the same time the semitruck lost its wheel and rolled. They would have had nowhere to turn and would very likely have been killed in a collision.

Patrick asked Elder Kimball how he knew they were in harm’s way. Elder Kimball explained that the Holy Ghost had whispered to him, “Pull over. Pull over.” The young elders were impressed with his inspiration but also wondered why they had not been warned; after all, they were missionaries living close to the Lord. Elder Kimball explained to them that the Holy Ghost had not overlooked them but that they were not listening. They had not trained themselves to hear the still, small voice. Elder Kimball encouraged them to hone their senses to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.