Recently, we started our “No More Strangers” series where we have invited Meridian readers to submit stories of times that they were helped by members of the Church, far from home, that they did not know. To submit your experience of a time you felt you had brothers and sisters all over the world, email pr***********@ho*****.com. 

The two stories we’re sharing this week both involve a time when a car broke down and angels showed up. It can be frustrating to depend so much on these vehicles that so often fail to be dependable, but the Lord certainly uses the opportunity to turn strangers into friends.

The following was submitted by Allison Dunlap:

My husband was working for a company based in Salt Lake City that serviced the whole state. Every other week he would travel down I-15, servicing the towns along the way, stay over night in St George and then come back home the next day going through Richfield, Gunnison, and other small towns on the east side of Central Utah. On one occasion, I decided to take a day off work and join him, it felt enough like a small getaway vacation to me to go to a warmer climate even though he’d be working the entire time.

On the drive back as we turned off onto 1-70 and started ascending the climb through a mountainous pass, the large truck we were in began to have mechanical issues. Rather than get further away from the main artery, I suggested we turn right around and head right back down to 1-15 which seemed like a better place to be broken down. Luckily we had gravity on our side and the truck had just enough umph in it to crawl into Cove Fort and park it in a remote parking lot before it completely gave up the ghost. That was the first miracle! What precise timing!

How to get the truck home wasn’t our main concern, it was how we’re we going to get ourselves home with me needing to be back to my job the next day. Our first friends who became aware of our plight was the sympathetic full-time missionaries serving there. They showed us a nice shady place we could rest through the day and even brought us out a snack and water bottles. We began asking fellow travelers if they had any space to fit in two hitchhikers. Most were traveling southward or had no extra space to cram us in and our two carry-on pieces of luggage. We began to feel quite hopeless as the afternoon dragged on and on.

The missionaries began helping us ask other visitors in earnest after we’d been there a couple of hours. Finally, when all our hopes were beginning to sag, a single mom, her young daughter, along with their friend they had picked up in California and were bringing back to Salt Lake, said they’d be happy to squeeze us in. We sat in the back seat with the young 5 year old and were able to keep her happy and engaged with our attention to her. We had such fun, lively conversation amongst us and we all became so instantly connected on the drive back we almost forgot we hadn’t planned this fun trip together all along!

The time just sped by. What was most amazing to us was that once back in the Salt Lake Valley, we lived in the very next adjacent stake to our driver so it was hardly out of her way to take us to our home. We couldn’t have picked a more delightful situation and we went away thanking God for the angels he had provided in this situation that could’ve been otherwise horrible. Thanks to social media, we were able to continue the friendship with our rescuers long after that experience was over. I’m thankful too for landing in a place like Cove Fort where visitors were prevalent and where the prayers of the missionaries joined with ours to find a most delightful solution to our otherwise awful situation.

The following was submitted by Helen Condon:

My middle son left the Church in his teens. He married a non-member of LDS Pioneer heritage and the started their family. Two children were born and then, ten years later, two more.

Several years ago they took the younger two to Utah to visit family white the teenagers stayed in Washington state. On the way home they ran out of gas and access to the little money they had in the bank.
They called me from Baker City, Oregon with the news. I couldn’t send them money; they hadn’t set up an electronic fund sharing system, yet. It was mid-summer, they were hot, stranded and scared. I said I’d figure something out, hung up and called my Bishop. I told him the situation and asked if he could give me the number of a bishop in Baker City. He got back to me and I called.
Within minutes they were on their way and the  car was filled. My son called to say they were safe.
The Bishop also called me and told me they were a delightful little family and they were so happy to help. I asked where I should send the money they had spent and he told me that was the purpose of the Fast Offering fund and I could, if I wished, repay it to my own Bishop, which I gladly did the next Sunday.
Such Tender Mercies are planted in all three of my less active children’s hearts. They have told me how much they appreciate the caring hands of the Church they were raised in.
It is enough.
Thank you both for your submissions. To submit your experience of a time you felt you had brothers and sisters all over the world, email pr***********@ho*****.com.