LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Finding God in the Little Things - Stories of Hope & Inspiration: David Anderson - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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Have you ever stopped to consider how many small miracles have quietly shaped your life?

In this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, we sit down with David Anderson—a husband, father of eleven, and grandfather of twenty-eight—whose life is a beautiful tapestry of tender mercies, quiet revelations, and sacred moments.

From losing his mother as a baby to discovering faith as a teenager, from extraordinary mission experiences to miraculous moments later in life, David shares how even the smallest spiritual impressions can leave the deepest marks.

Through heartfelt stories of pioneer ancestors, personal encounters with the Spirit, and everyday acts of courage and obedience, David reminds us that God is in the details. His stories aren’t just inspirational—they're a powerful invitation to reflect on our own lives and recognize the hand of the Lord, even in the seemingly ordinary moments.

*** Please SHARE David's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/KuvWl5A7ycQ

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Scott Brandley:

Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how a life of ups and downs has helped one man to recognize the many miracles that have been sprinkled throughout his life. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today. We're really excited to introduce our special guest, david Anderson, to the show. Welcome, david.

David Anderson:

Thank you.

Alisha Coakley:

And thanks so much for reaching out to us. I always, I always tell everyone I'm like I love when we don't have to go track people down. I love when they just come to us and you have a lot of just really cool stories. I know when we were talking over the phone I was like, oh my gosh, this is so amazing. So this is going to be a little different, I think today, instead of just one focused thing we're talking about, we've got a lot of really cool things that you're going to be sharing with us and, um, we're just going to kind of we're just going to learn from you and let the spirit in and see where our conversation goes. But, um, before we start with all all those stories and everything you're sharing today, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? You know where you're from married kids, all of that stuff.

David Anderson:

Yes, my name is Dave Anderson and I live in Bluffdale, utah. I've lived here the majority of my life. My wife and I are the parents of 11 children and we have 28 grandchildren.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh my gosh.

David Anderson:

And I grew up in this area it was a small farming community and building a house here and raising our family here. My wife taught homeschool to our children until they were about in ninth or tenth grade oh my gosh and she did a lot to help our family over the years. And anyway, I love poetry, I love the gospel. I've written a book on Zion. I served a mission in Missouri and so I was interested in all the things I learned there and the book's entitled Zion in Our Day, and that's basically all I can think of.

Alisha Coakley:

Nice, okay, what are the range of ages for your kids? Because 11 kids, I'm thinking like your wife was pregnant for like two decades.

David Anderson:

Yes.

Alisha Coakley:

Probably right, Like either pregnant or nursing or baby on her hip type of thing, right?

David Anderson:

Yes, yes, it's 20 years. Our youngest is 20 years younger than our oldest. He was on a mission when our youngest was born.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh my gosh. Well, I don't know about you, but she gets an automatic pass to heaven.

Scott Brandley:

So yes, and she homeschooled on top of that.

Alisha Coakley:

And then 28 grand babies to love after that. Wow, that's you. Guys are overachievers already I can tell.

David Anderson:

Well, we didn't plan on that, it just kind of worked out one at a time, right, wow?

Scott Brandley:

Awesome, Well cool, David, let's jump right into it. Let's turn the time over to you, my friend.

David Anderson:

Okay, well, I was born in 1957, and I've got four sisters and three brothers, and I'm the youngest of eight. My father's name is Moyle Anderson and he worked at Geneva for 32 years Geneva still and my mother was a homemaker, karine Lewis Anderson. And anyway, she passed away when I was a year old, leaving my father with eight children, and so then I went to live with my dad's brother, my Aunt Loree and Uncle Reed in Sandy for three and a half years. I moved back home because my father remarried. He married a woman named Shirley Gilstrap, who was my stepmother. That raised me, and she was a convert to the church.

David Anderson:

She was raised Baptist and she had a really strong testimony of the gospel. She was the first person in her family to join the church and as a result of that she had a lot of spiritual things happen in her life, and when she first joined the church and moved to Salt Lake, she would have the spirits of her ancestors in the kitchen of her apartment and she could actually hear them talking, and it got to be such a distraction that she prayed that she wouldn't be able to hear it. So then that went away and then when she did her favorite uncle's temple work. He did appear to her and smiled at her like saying thank you. She was a great woman and I feel like I had three mothers that raised me. My birth mother contracted breast cancer when she was pregnant with me and the doctor told her that she should have an abortion and have a mastectomy. She didn't take that route, so in a way I feel like she saved my life, you know, in a sense, because she died of cancer a year after I was born. So my aunt raised me and she is a wonderful woman.

David Anderson:

She and her husband both went on a mission. My uncle he had served as a bishop and patriarch and he's really close to the Spirit. One day when he and his son Mark were out turfing their backyard, they bought this squares of turf. It's Saturday night and they had just enough to finish the yard, except they were short one square. And he turned to my cousin Mark and said Mark, it'd be nice if some truck or trailer came down the road with a load of turf and one fell off right by our house. And right when he said that, this guy with a truck pulling a trailer with a load of turf came by their house and it hit a bump and a square of turf fell off and they went and grabbed it and finished the job.

Alisha Coakley:

He should have asked for something else.

David Anderson:

Right, but anyway, that's kind of my background. Most of my ancestry is pioneer heritage and I had three of my ancestors that were bodyguards to the Prophet Joseph Smith and I just thought I'd share something about two of them. The prophet had about 40 bodyguards during his life. Wiley Payne Allred was my grandfather's grandfather. He was about 13 years younger than the Prophet Joseph Smith but he and his father, james Allred, were both bodyguards. And Wiley Payne just lived across the street from the mansion in Nauvoo and he lived with the Prophet Joseph Smith for a year helping him to build a barn. He lived with the Prophet Joseph Smith for a year helping him to build a barn. He was pretty knowledgeable in herbs even as a teenager. The Prophet at one time got injured where his leg got infected and gangrene set in. He was able to help heal the Prophet's leg. After the Prophet's leg was healed, he gave him a blessing. He was told that he was a natural-born doctor and the prophet blessed him to be an herb doctor.

David Anderson:

He spent his life doing that and at one time he risked his life for the prophet Right before Carthage jail he went and kind of acted as a spy, you know, with the mob that was in Carthage, and anyway he was there when the prophet fell from the window. But he saw that and his father, james Allred, was in the jail with the prophet, joseph Smith, one of the men that was in there and the prophet was trying to get rid of them because he knew that their lives would be at risk, and so he gave James Allred his sword and he said you might need this to protect yourself. And so James Allred left and after the prophet was killed he was the one that brought John Taylor back in his wagon and anyway, it was so painful they had to make a little sleigh for John Taylor back in his wagon. Anyway, it was so painful, they had to make a little sleigh for John Taylor because they couldn't go on the main road, they had to go where the people wouldn't find them so easily. So then anyway, james Allred's wife she was a seamstress and the prophet came in and asked her one day if she would help cut out some temple garments.

David Anderson:

And so she was the one that was the first person that helped make the first temple garments for the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram, that was about in 1842. And his brother Hiram, that's about in 1842. And they made it out of unbleached muslin with the red turkey thread to put it together. But anyway, that's just something special from one of my ancestors. But anyway, my grandfather Louis, that just lived up the road from me, he was a farmer and I idolized him and I worked a lot with him on his farm and one of the jobs he had me do was with all of his chickens. He had to do something with the lice problem where they get lice in their feathers had to do something with the lice problem where they get lice in their feathers.

David Anderson:

He had this liquid nicotine and he had me go paint all the chicken roosts with the nicotine and he explained to me that the nicotine is so powerful that when the chickens went to roost that the fumes from the nicotine would kill all the lice in their feathers. Really, yes, you never knew. Anyway, it's kind of a lesson on the word of wisdom. You know not to smoke, anyway.

David Anderson:

That's one thing I always never had a problem with, I think because of him, but he had a strong testimony too and he'd written in a Book of Mormon challenging me to get a testimony of the gospel. I made some tries, you know, but nothing really serious until I was about 16. And then, finally, I decided I always wanted to serve a mission but I wanted to really know that the gospel was true for myself and I started reading the scriptures every night in my bedroom and one night, while I was reading, the presence of the Spirit came into the room, really powerful, and I felt the warmth of the spirit and power of the spirit radiate through my body and it just filled me with joy and that experience it stuck with me all my life. It's kind of a defining moment and another moment in my life. About that time I was kind of an average student in school and all of my friends played sports a big percentage of them. I rarely did homework and I just was a little bit of a slacker maybe.

David Anderson:

But there's a little poem I like. It's called Improvement by Ruth Roth and it says Do not look back on yesterdays unless it is with pleasure. The moments spent in blind regret are plain pain, double measure. We make mistakes and see our faults and try to mend our way by being sure we do not make the same mistakes today. So anyway, I just thought, well, I haven't applied myself, what could I do? And so it's my senior year coming up and I could have taken work study. But they had a quest program where you could study in the seminary library and just any question. You had any book you wanted to read, seminary library, and just any question. You had. Any book you wanted to read, you could read and consult with the seminary principal. So I did that. I had three hours of seminary my last year of high school and I think that really helped me in my life. They said that our lives are the stories of our choices and the things we experience as a result of our choices. So I felt like that prepared me for a mission and I learned the value of hard work. Growing up I had all these different jobs and so when I graduated I went to work for Associated Foods warehouse graveyard shift and I spent time in the day up at the church family history library in Salt Lake quite often and I think I got the spirit of Elijah there and I got interested in that and then I saved enough money to go to Snow College and I went to Snow College and really enjoyed that One experience.

David Anderson:

I had this girl in my seminary class that I thought was really cute. She bore a testimony and said that she loved the Savior so much she is willing to die for Him. And when I heard that it just kind of took me back because I didn't know if I had that much faith. I never did date her, but after my mission I'd written a letter to her asking her. On a date my grandfather died and her mother came up to the funeral and it was my mother's first cousin, so we were second cousins and I didn't even know it. But I just wanted to share maybe a few stories from my mission.

David Anderson:

But I started out in St Joseph, missouri, and that's where the Pony Express started and I'd never experienced humidity before. And anyway, my first companion and I his name was Elder Ashton. He was a really hard worker and we got a referral to go see a woman in the hospital and her name was Frances Shirley, so we gave her a blessing there at the hospital she was not a member, so we asked her if we could share the discussions with her and she said yes, after I got home and we went to her house and in the second discussion she shared something with us. But she'd had quite a hard life. Her husband had been an alcoholic and she'd gotten a divorce. She was 60 years old. She said well, I wanted to ask you a question.

David Anderson:

We were doing the discussion on the plan of salvation and every time we shared a concept you know like well, we started in the preexistence. Then she'd say why did we come to earth? We'd talk about that. And she says well, what happens when we die? And she's always one step ahead of us. And so at the end of the discussion, and she's always one step ahead of us. And so at the end of the discussion, the Spirit was really strong. So we challenged her for baptism and she accepted.

David Anderson:

But then she said I want to ask you a question. And we said okay. And she said when I was 11 years old, I had a vision, but I've never shared it with anybody, I just kept it to myself and I never really understood what it means. But I wanted to share that and see if you could help me understand it. And so, anyway, she said, in her vision, all she saw was gold all around. And other than this beautiful gold, she saw candles that were burning. Every so often she would see the face of a man that would blow out the candle and then he'd smile down at her and she asked us what this meant. But while she was sharing that, the Spirit came down through the top of my head so strong, filled my whole body. I just felt like Nephi, you know, when he was going to shock his brothers. I was so full of the spirit. But just in a flash in my mind, what her vision meant came to my mind, that anyway, I was able to tell her that that the candles represented the burning questions that she'd had all her life and and that when those questions were answered, that God would confirm it to her and smile down on her that it was true. But anyways, a simple answer. But to me that was a special thing. You know, that's something I'd never experienced before and it gave me a connection with God that he was helping us as missionaries.

David Anderson:

After that one night, my companion Elder Kelsey—this is a different companion—we only had one bedroom in our apartment, and so I was out in the front living area with the bed and it's the middle of summer, you know like 95 degrees at night, with the humidity really high, and I woke up at 12 o'clock in the night and the room was ice cold. I had the window open by my bed, but it was ice cold and this feeling of fear came over me. I felt this evil presence in the room and it was so overpowering, it was like pressing down on me. I tried to yell for my companion to help me and nothing would come out of my mouth. So I just had to say a prayer in my mind. So I just had to say a prayer in my mind asking for the Savior's help, for Heavenly Father to help me in the name of Jesus Christ. And after that it left but gained a testimony that Satan's real and he didn't really like what we were doing, I guess.

David Anderson:

And an interesting experience and an interesting experience my stepmother, shirley Anderson. After she had joined the church, she had this experience where she had actually been possessed by evil spirits and her stake president. She went to him and asked for help and he cast out the evil spirits. But what they were doing at night? They were stretching her body, preventing her from sleeping and she was just getting worn down and it was terrible. And anyway, he cast them out and when they left she saw a tall man and a short man and the short man turned around and sneered at her short man and the short man turned around and sneered at her. But anyway, I knew from her experience that people do experience that. So anyway, back to my mission.

David Anderson:

When I was walking down the street this one day with my companion, elder Kelsey, we were in the older part of St Joseph, missouri, where they built all these houses like in the 1930s and they all were wood frame homes with a single car garage, wooden garage. And I looked at this one garage and I saw, you know, maybe a dozen pigeons up on the roof of that garage. While I was looking at them, I heard this voice in my head say hold out your hand and snap your finger and a pigeon's going to fly down and land on your head. And I thought, why would I think that? And then I thought, well, what if it's the Holy Ghost? And then I thought, well, what if it's the Holy Ghost? And I thought, well, the Holy Ghost wouldn't want me to do something like that. And then I thought, well, if I did do this, what would my companion think if the pigeon didn't fly down? So I'm having all these thoughts going in my brain, and so then I heard it again and as I looked at this pigeon, this feeling of confidence came over me and I knew it was going to happen. And I heard the voice a third time hold out your arm and snap your finger, the pigeon will fly down and land on your head. So I did, and I, you know, I thought, well, if, if it doesn't happen, I won't have to tell my companion what I'm doing? But but I had this feeling of confidence and it happened and it flew down on my head and anyway, this little boy was following us around. You know the a lot of times they thought we were like fbi or something with our suits and all that, but anyway, we didn't really have anything happen as a result of that. But for me it was a way for me to recognize how the Spirit speaks to me in my life. And so down the road, when I heard that voice different times you know, with my work or my mission or whatever my family the times I've listened to it, it's been a blessing in my life. And so that happened and we'd been teaching quite a few people. And so that happened and we'd been teaching quite a few people. One person we were teaching was a girl named Sherry Gregg, and their family was Catholic and her mother had joined the church. My first companion had baptized her mother and so she wanted us to teach her daughter, sherry. That was going to college at that time. She is really a special person that had a lot going for them. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon. She says well, I'll read 50 pages a day, but if I don't get an answer, then I want you to leave me alone". And we thought no one's, she doesn't know what she's committing to you know. But we thought if she's willing to read, that's awesome. We left her. After that discussion, about a week and a half or two weeks later, I get this phone call in the middle of the morning, at one o'clock in the morning, and she said Elder Anderson, this is Sherry. She says yes, how are you doing? Is everything okay? And she said I want to get baptized. And I said well, what happened? And she said well, you know it takes a long time to read 50 pages a day. She'd been reading up till one o'clock in the morning. While she was reading, she was saying this prayer where she said Heavenly Father, I don't expect you to tell me this is true because I already know it's true just from reading it. Expect you to tell me this is true because I already know it's true just from reading it" she was actually trying to read it on one hand to point out what was wrong with it to her mother after joining the church. But she gained a testimony and when she said that prayer, she heard an angelic choir singing and she ran into her mother's bedroom and said Mother, can you hear the beautiful music? She was the only one that could hear it. Her mother didn't hear it, but she joined the church. Then her best friend in school, pat Castleton, joined the church. Her niece, her grandmother joined the church. A couple other people, her niece, her grandmother joined the church and a couple other people just as a result of her testimony had a big impact and influence on those people. Other members of her family joined the church later on. Just to show one thing how powerful stories can be when we were teaching her grandmother she didn't care about Joseph Smith. She said she knew that Brigham Young was a prophet because he took all the saints across the plains, and that was her testimony, because she had learned that growing up in school or somewhere. It just shows how powerful stories can be on people. I mentioned I had a lot of companions. Well, I'll share one other story. I trained five new missionaries after I left St Joseph and went to Farmington, missouri, and one of my companions, elder Aldous and I his name was Alan Aldous and I, his name was Alan Aldiss We'd been teaching this divorced woman with a teenage son and her name was Pat Hart and anyway, it was sacrament meeting at Farmington Ward and the sacrament song was playing and that voice, you know, like when the pigeon experience I had it, came to me and said go over to Pat Hart's house, so we get up. My companions thinking well, why don't we wait till the sacrament's over, you know. But I thought, well, just do it. And so we left and she lived in another town. We went over there and challenged her to get baptized. That's what the Spirit said to do. And she committed. And the next week I went over to do a baptismal interview and she had moved away and no one knew where she went. Just to end that story after I was married and we had a couple children, saturday night one night I got this phone call and it was Pat Hart on the phone. She said is this Elder Anderson? And I said yes and well, we talked for a little bit. But then she says well, do you remember when you came over and challenged me to get baptized? And I said yes. And she says well, after you left, she said I just got really scared and I just felt I couldn't do it. And she said I left town. She said she had met a new person and they got married and a new set of missionaries came. They'd been taking the discussions and she just wanted me to know that she was getting baptized the next day. Wow, that was a special thing. Wow, that was a special thing. And anyway, one of my companions came from an inactive family but he had a scout leader, you know, when he was 16 or 17,. That had a big influence in his life and got him going to church. When he came to Missouri it was pretty challenging for him because he hadn't had the same background as a lot of missionaries, you know from active homes. But he'd get kind of depressed sometimes. And this one morning we got up and I had gotten ready in my suit and tie and he was still in his Levi's and he says well, Elder, are you ready to go out and do the work? And he didn't look up. He was pretty despondent. He's tying the shoe. He says well, when I get this shoe tied, I'm going to be out that door and you're never going to see me again. He said I was on the track team in high school, so don't try and keep up with me. He took off and I'm running after him in my suit, you know, and he's saying a few choice words, you know. And finally he gets winded and I said let's just call the mission president and then you can do whatever you want, you know. And he agreed and turned out. The mission president talked him into staying and his advisor, as a young man, had become a mission president in California. So he got to finish his mission in California under that person and finished an honorable mission. Elder Lee's had a poem that helped him and that's one reason I mentioned him. It was called the Road is Rough. So I wanted to share that it's. The road is rough, I said, dear Lord, with stones that hurt me. So Ah yes, dear child, I understand, I walked it long ago. But there is a cool green path. I said, let me walk there for a time. No, child, he gently answered me. The green path doesn't climb, but I wish that there were friends with me who could make my way their own. Ah yes, said he. Gethsemane was hard to face alone, and so I took the stony path, contend at last to know that where my Savior'd gone before I did not need to know. And strangely then I found new friends. My burden grew less sore. As I remembered long ago he walked that way before. That's a poem he shared with me that helped him get through his mission. That's something that helped me understand the power of poems. Sometimes that got me interested in writing poems. So, my mission president I had a new mission president because they were going to split our mission. The last nine months of my mission I had the opportunity to serve in the office as his assistant. His name was Norman Olson. He had such a huge influence on my life that I think back on that decision I made at the seminary that helped prepare me for my mission and I think if I hadn't did that I probably wouldn't have had that opportunity. But anyway, outside of my father and my grandfather, he probably had the greatest impact on my life. He was a multimillionaire and he had me be a chauffeur driving his Mercedes around the mission. But his wife always said she felt safe when I was driving. Maybe that's why I became a truck driver. I've been in the transportation industry for 40 years. But anyway, he chose a couple counselors. He chose a counselor named Menlo Smith that was president of Sunmark Corporation. It's a multimillion-dollar corporation and he had ancestors that were descendants of Hiram Smith, but some of them had gone inactive. He actually grew up outside of the church. He ended up becoming a Jehovah's Witness. He joined the church later in life but after he served as a counselor he got called as a mission president to the Philippines. The poverty there was so bad that he thought what can I do? And after he got back he started a nonprofit organization to help create loans, like $5,000 or $10,000 loans to help people with their education or start a business, and he asked my mission president, norman Olson, to be on the board of directors with them and they did about 10,000 loans and 95% of them were all paid off and they helped people all around the world. And one day one of the apostles asked if he could come to their board meeting. I can't remember if it was Elder Holland or who it was, but they asked if they could take over their nonprofit organization. And that's where the Perpetual Education Fund came from and it just shows how a small thing can turn into a big thing. You know my other mission, president Graham Doxey from the Missouri Independence Mission. After he got home, president Kimball called him one day and said Can you come see me? And he went to see him and President Kimball said Well, I've got a little job for you. I want you to be a watchman over Missouri and tell me whatever needs to be done in Missouri to prepare for the second coming. That's basically it. So he went home, started reading everything he could about the end times with the Savior in Missouri and anything that had to do with it. You know, he read in Daniel 7 where 10,000 times 10,000 saints would stand before Father Adam. He thought, well, adam-on-diam in the church only owns a couple hundred acres. So anyway, he ended up buying 1,100 acres for the church in different places in Missouri, in different places in Missouri. And then when I was there, I'm just going to show you and when I was there, adam-on-the-almond was just overgrowth of trees and woods. You know mostly some farms. These were the thorn trees that were around there.

Scott Brandley:

Really, yeah that's what they look like. That looks gnarly.

Alisha Coakley:

That does look gnarly. I mean I haven't been there but I've seen pictures and it looks beautiful and just lush and green and rolling hills and all that stuff.

David Anderson:

So yeah, he got loggers from the northwest. They started these work missions, they started beautifying it, you know, to create an outdoor temple for when that all takes place and anyway it just shows from small things. You know the prophet doesn't have the Savior come maybe all the time and just tell him what to do, but it's just through the Spirit and the Holy Ghost and people that are called to serve in the church. And you know just like your program is affecting thousands of people, I'm sure from you guys creating this and thank you for doing that because it's been a blessing in my life as a truck driver listening to it. Maybe I'll just share a little about after I got home.

David Anderson:

I got married after I got home from my mission.

David Anderson:

I dated maybe 10 different girls before I met my wife at a Cottonwood Mall dancer in the holiday area back then and it was really fun and she was the cutest girl on the dance floor and I danced with her and I wanted to just dance with her all night and she'd come from the Hunter area but she'd come with a carload of girls and said their car was full so she said I could take her home and I took her home, came home about midnight my dad was eating an onion sandwich and I said, well, I think I've met the girl I want to marry.

David Anderson:

Maybe six months later we got married. She had a full-ride scholarship up at the? U. She was really smart and we moved into this apartment in Salt Lake, right across the street from State Street, from the church office building. There's a little park there now, but there used to be a house and we were in that house and so we had a lot of general authorities in our ward and stake. So you know, at stake conference, president Kimball would come and elder mcconkey was in our stake. They asked him to come speak, do a little fireside in the relief society room.

David Anderson:

So I was really excited because he is one of my, my heroes yeah I sat on the front row with my wife and he shared an experience at that fireside. I was like 10 feet away from him. His father-in-law was Joseph Fielding Smith and they were eating dinner. One time at Joseph Fielding Smith's home, before he was the prophet. Joseph Fielding Smith was saying well, if I ever live to become the prophet, I think I'd want to call this man and this man to the Quorum of the Twelve. And so Elder McConkie did end up becoming the prophet and after they had two vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve and they didn't call those two men, he said he's just making the point that the Lord calls the people that are supposed to be in those positions. And he said that he could go to any stake in the church and find 12 men or women that were just as worthy to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve as the ones that are in there now. But then he went on to say that when he was called to be an apostle and they were setting him apart, that he heard this voice from the spirit world say Oscar's son just got called to the Quorum of the Twelve and tears were coming down his face because it meant so much to him because his father had passed away and he knew his father knew that he had been called to the Quorum of the Twelve. That was kind of special to hear that story, so I thought I'd share it because it was meaningful to me.

David Anderson:

My father-in-law, melvin Fish he had been a seminary teacher in Kanab back when my wife was maybe seven or eight years old he told me a story about how they were having student teacher conference and one of the parents of the girls that was in a seminary class came in and they were talking and the mother shared an experience about her daughter that he was teaching. The mother said that when the daughter was like two or three years old she was one of these children that could talk early at a young age. They had a picture of the Manti Temple in their house and the daughter was looking at the picture and she pointed at the picture and said to her mother what is that building? And the mother said well, that's the building your father and I got married in.

David Anderson:

And the daughter looked at it. She says well, it looks like the building that you got married in, but it didn't have the steps going down the back like it does in this picture. And then the mother thought, and she said well, when she got and her husband got married, they hadn't put the steps in yet, and so the daughter couldn't have known that, you know. And so, anyway, I thought that was interesting to support, that we lived with our father in heaven before we came to earth and that that maybe there's people in this, in the temples, when we're performing ordinances, you know that are even children that haven't even been born yet right so then I got a job after we were married at a company called Quality Linen.

David Anderson:

I was a textile salesman and it was kind of a dead-end job. I had a carpet cleaning business that I started and I was only making $18,000 a year with both jobs. And so I went to church and President Kimball had put out this video, where in the video they played it in a priesthood meeting if you doubled your fast offering, the Lord would double your income. And so I thought, well, we only pay $10 a month. That's not too hard if the Lord would do that. So we doubled our fast offering and not too long after that my sister had a baby blessing. We went to and my brother-in-law's brother worked at UPS and I was asking him about the possibility of getting on there and he says well, actually I think they're interviewing at job service tomorrow. And he told me the name of this guy he thought was going to be interviewing. So I went to work. The next day While I was working I heard that voice again go over to job service. So I went over there even though I wasn't supposed to, at the company truck, and I talked to the lady and she said well, there's a card file, is your name on a card file? And I said no, and she said, well, there's 3,000 people on a card file and they only chose 300 out of the 3,000 to interview. And I says, well, I was told that so-and-so would be interviewing and if I came over that I could get an interview. And since I knew that name, she let me get an interview. And they hired me for Christmas help and out of the 300, only 30 people were hired and after Christmas was over they laid everyone off except me and only two other people got recalled back to work after Christmas out of the 29.

David Anderson:

And exactly a year after we doubled our fast offering. My W-2 slip anyway was $36,000. And I was able to quit my carpet cleaning job. It's a testimony that the Heavenly Father helps. And my wife gave up her full-ride scholarship to the? U because we started having a family and that was hard to her and that was a sacrifice. I don't really think I appreciated how, how big of a sacrifice that was, but I love her so much for what she's done for our family and um anyway, one other story I just wanted to share about my wife's grandfather was he lived really close to us in Salt Lake where we lived, and so we'd go visit him and he had been an encyclopedia salesman and he told me on one occasion he was up in Idaho selling to the different farmers, and this one farmer that bought a set of encyclopedias invited him to stay overnight and eat dinner with him, and during the dinner he told an experience that his son had had in Vietnam, where his son had been.

David Anderson:

This Idaho farmer who never had a sick day in his life and was really strong. And his son was in Vietnam and he got ambushed. He'd got separated from his group and wounded and he was about six hours away from any help. And he just had this thought in his head if I had my father's strength, I know I could make it back. And he said that prayer. And so right at that moment his father in Idaho was driving down the road on a hot summer day in his pickup truck and he became so weak that he had to stop, pull the truck over to the side of the road, just slide off the seat onto the road and roll underneath the truck in the shade. And he laid there for six hours. After six hours his strength came back, he got in the truck went home and he was fine. Truck went home and he was fine. And then a few weeks later they get this letter from their son who's been in the hospital in Vietnam recovering, telling how he had said this prayer and the Lord gave him the strength to get back to get help.

David Anderson:

That was kind of a special story. That was kind of a special story I thought so when I was a package car driver at UPS. This one time it was winter and it was icy and it was a nut and bolt place with boxes. I had stacked up on a dolly really high, and I slipped on the ice and the dolly came down on my knee and it was my last stop of the day. Barely able to drive back is a clutch thing, and I just drove back with one leg, you know, using the clutch and the gas and the brake, but I got back and if I didn't put any weight on that knee I was okay.

David Anderson:

But I was in the bishopric at that time and they had a bishopric training and I thought, well, I could go to the training and sit there and listen, you know. So I went to that. They went until 1130. I got home about midnight I went and milked the goats and came in and I said this prayer before I jumped in bed and I said, heavenly Father, I've lived the word of wisdom all my life and it's promised in my patriarchal blessing that if I lived the word of wisdom, that I could run and not be weary and walk and not faint. And this is my only source of providing for my family and I need your help. I needed my physical strength and Sherry's grandfather used to always say that your only security relies on your own ability to produce. And my body was the way I produced for my family. But I laid down in bed in the spirit, came down through the top of my head, went through my body to my knee that was injured and healed my knee and I went to work the next day and I was fine. Wow, that was a special thing, yeah.

David Anderson:

And then I became a semi-driver and anyway I became a vacation driver, because that's kind of how you start out back in those days. And I had this problem where I'd get in the semi and these people I was covering their route for had a playboy calendar up in the front windshield, you know, and it was pretty common and kept putting little sticky notes over it, but that wasn't very effective, and so I went to my bishop and said yeah, I need help, I've got this problem. His name was Chris Vadine. He says just put the garbage in the garbage can, where it belongs. That that was his advice. So these truckers some of them are pretty rough guys, you know, and I just believed that you should follow your bishop's advice, and so I just started ripping off the calendars, throwing them in the garbage before I'd start the day.

Scott Brandley:

And.

David Anderson:

I started hearing grumblings and someone would talk to me about it and I'd say, well, I can't handle having that in the tractor all day, so if you want to go on a vacation, just take it out, so I don't have to deal with it. This one day I got in the tractor on Monday morning and there were three magazines in there. I went to throw them in the garbage and the spirit said don't throw them in the garbage, or something bad's going to happen. So I thought, well, what should I do? And so I stuck them inside my shirt and I thought I'll just go put them in this guy's locker. So I stuck it in my shirt, went to the locker room and this locker it was locked, had a key lock and then I thought, oh, this is great. Here I'm, you know, kind of making this stand, and if people see me in the locker room with all these magazines, that's going to go over really good. And so, anyway, I said this little prayer and the Spirit said get a coat hanger. And I got a coat hanger and stuck it in the lock of the locker and it turned and I opened it and threw the magazines in there and shut it and locked it and I would have never thought to do that, but that's what happened.

David Anderson:

And I go to work the next day and I go up in the dispatch office where all the people are hanging out and this one person we'll call him Frank says hey, dave, what did you do with Frank's magazines? And really loud so everyone could hear. And I says well, that's for Frank to worry about. And if you've got a problem with that, maybe you should talk to Frank, since they're his and he's trying to make a big scene saying well, I don't think it's right that you should take people's personal property. And you know, after I was really embarrassed, I went and talked to him, told him what I did one-on-one, and I didn't know that this person that was trying to make the scene had been taking the mission discussions. He got really sick one day and he asked me to give him a blessing. He ended up getting baptized. After that incident I never had any more trouble with people doing that really. So that was a blessing, because I really believe I know, scott, you've been a bishop and maybe you've given advice to people, but I had a stake president that was.

David Anderson:

A friend told me an experience that one time this woman came in and asked him for advice about this person she was dating, who had had a vasectomy, whether she should marry him or not. He was going to tell her, you know, that she should be prayerful and go to the Lord. But while they were in the interview, three spirits came into the room and stood in the corner of the office. Were in the interview, three spirits came into the room and stood in the corner of the office and it was made known to him that that was her children that hadn't yet been born and he counseled her not to marry that guy because of that experience. But that's pretty rare. But I think counsel from our church leaders, you know we should take it seriously and if we follow it it can bless our lives.

David Anderson:

Well, this other time I was going down the road with one of my friends. We were talking on the CB. I was driving a set of triples back from Du Bois, idaho, and when I got to Tremont and area I got hit by a 82 mile an hour microburst wind gust and the back the trailers just bowed like an umbrella and then the back trailer went over and I could see the. The middle trailer was ready to go and I just had this thought come to my mind I wonder if I'm going to die.

David Anderson:

And um, when I had that thought, the spirit came into the cab of the tractor, so powerful that all, all fear left. It wasn't even scary and when I woke up some guy was pounding on the windshield saying are you okay, are you okay? And he pulled off the windshield and I'd had a metal radio box about that wide, went by me in a bag of chains. There's just a small area where they could get by without hitting you. But it gave me a. You know, I went to work the next day. The truck was totaled.

David Anderson:

I didn't have a scratch area where they could get by without hitting you. I went to work the next day. The truck was totaled. I didn't have a scratch on me. The promise we're given in the temple with our garments, that it will be a shield and a protection to us against the power of the destroyer until we finished our work upon the earth, that I felt that that promise is real because the Lord protected me through that. And so the last experience I was thinking I'd share a few years ago my mother had this stake president that had cast the evil spirits out of her that I told you about.

David Anderson:

That had written an autobiography of his life, and when my mother died I'd gotten that book, and so it was really a special book. I've got it right here. It's called the Story of Elmer Bear. Just unbelievable his experiences in life. He was a sheep guy in Colorado. I loaned him this book because it had so many incredible stories in it, and then he went to Hawaii and he died in the ocean and at the funeral I thought, oh, that book's really important to me. I don't know if I dare ask his wife if I could get this book back.

David Anderson:

You know it took her a couple weeks to get his body back from Hawaii, so in the meantime she had taken all his stuff to the DI, you know, all the books and everything, and so it was gone and that really meant a lot to me. The book did, and so I started looking online. I didn't have extra money right at that time, but I was looking online and you could find them for $300, sometimes $80. And four or five months after his death I just had this feeling I should order it because I wanted to have it, you know, even if it wasn't the original book. And so I ordered one that was used, from New Jersey that was $80. And it came back and it was the exact same book.

David Anderson:

It had the picture with my mother in it and the autograph to my mother what so that just little things like that wow you know our miracles that happen in our lives, that are special, and that's kind of what I wanted to share for for now.

Alisha Coakley:

But oh, my goodness, wow that it. It's amazing because it reminds me of that, uh, the conference talk that came out recently, um, I can't remember his last session or the one before that where they talked about, um, pillars of light versus rays of light.

David Anderson:

Oh yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

Where you just I know I love that one so much Cause I feel like that's always been my life too is like I usually don't get these big, grand, huge things. But it's like all these little tiny things and that just your whole, all of your stories just like reminded me of that, like how some of us just get like these little tiny rays and, um, it's just, it's just, it made you, just made me smile the whole time.

David Anderson:

I was just smiling, I loved it well, and anyway, I like stories too, so yeah. So I think they're faith-promoting. And sometimes the Savior you know he has stories in his teachings a lot and I think that's because it's something people can relate to.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah Well, a lot of times in life we just don't take the time to really think about all of the little miracles that happen throughout our life.

David Anderson:

You know, yes.

Scott Brandley:

And when you do take time out to really think about that or ponder all the times that there's been a miracle, or that somebody has come into your life right when you needed it somebody has come into your life right when you needed it, or you know, when something crazy happens, like you know, you get that book back in the mail or any one of the dozens of of experiences you shared, you really start to appreciate God. You know God in your life. One of our guests called them God winks.

David Anderson:

Yes.

Scott Brandley:

You know and you know's, but it's, but you got it. You've got to take time out to really look at your life and and see them, or else you just miss them. You'll just miss it.

Alisha Coakley:

You know, because a lot of times, yes, there's time between them or they're just small things, but when you really look back and you see that god's there yes, yeah, I totally agree yeah, I think it's amazing too because, like you have all of these, these stories of, like, your ancestors, your family members, you know, friend, like you have so many of them, and it just sort of reified, or like that's not a word, at least she just I just made a random word just reiterated to me that it's so important for us to share these things.

Alisha Coakley:

Right, like generations to come aren't going to know about our tiny miracles unless we get out there and we share our stories in some way, whether it's, you know, just through telling you know our children and our grandchildren and our friends about it, or writing it down, putting it on social media, doing a blog post, writing a book you know I coming on a podcast and I think you probably know better than I do because I'm not. I'm not very good at my like going online and doing family history and all that kind of stuff but isn't there even places for you to be able to share stories about your ancestors and yourself in the….

David Anderson:

Memories page.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, the memories page.

David Anderson:

Yes, yes.

Alisha Coakley:

So I always like that. I wish more people would put stories in cause. I'm a story reader and a storyteller, um, but I, I like, I just I don't have that with my family. You know, like I, we, we don't have a lot of stories coming from my family, so it was really neat to be able to hear yours, especially with all of your connections that your ancestors have to, like the early leaders of the church and all of those integral things that came about because of them.

David Anderson:

It's you got a cool family line yes, yeah, I'm very blessed, but thank you oh, wow, man.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, well, david, we're, we're probably gonna have to come. Have you come back on and share some more stories with us in the future. Maybe do a part two, something like that.

David Anderson:

I'd love to have someone in the temple that I didn't have time to share, but I'd really love to if I get a chance.

Alisha Coakley:

That would be really cool.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah Well, do you have any last thoughts you'd like to share before we wrap things up today?

David Anderson:

happened to come upon Ben-Hur in different times in his life and there's a scene where he'd lost everything and been a slave and regained his freedom and was going back to Jerusalem. And he says to Ben-Hur your life is a miracle, it's a miracle that you're here. And Ben-Hur responded by saying well, I don't believe in miracles. And then he said, well, your whole life is a miracle. But at that point in time Ben-Hur didn't realize it was the Savior that gave him water when he was close to all these things to happen, so that he could get his family back and get the revenge out of his heart.

David Anderson:

Anyway, I think in our lives that's true, that we just have to recognize the miracles in our lives that are taking place and we may not even be aware of them. And I have a testimony that we all have the ability to share light with others and help them. And we do this by aligning our lives with the Savior's teachings. And you know, if we keep our focus on the Savior and try to always remember Him, then His light and Spirit will flow into us and will sustain us and we'll experience miracles in our life. And the Savior, he's the source of light and he's in and through all things. His light powers the sun. It's His light that gives life to every living thing.

David Anderson:

When we renew our covenants each week, or read the scriptures, or fast or pray or attend the temple, we receive light and we become light. And the Savior is the source of light and he's the answer to removing the darkness from our lives. And if we exercise faith in His atonement, we can overcome the evils and darkness in the world and bring light to others. And I bear that witness in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen, amen. I bear that witness in the name of.

Alisha Coakley:

Jesus Christ Amen Amen.

Scott Brandley:

Wow.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, thank you so much, David, for coming on here. We appreciate you.

David Anderson:

Well, thank you so much. I'm thankful I could have this opportunity.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, thanks, man. It's been inspirational and I think you're going to inspire a lot of people through your story, so thanks for being on.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, absolutely Well thanks, scott and Alisha. All right, well, guys, that's all we have for you today. So thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. Remember, if you guys have a story that you'd like to share, we want to hear from you. Just go ahead and you can head over to LatterdayLights. com and fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page, or you can just email us directly at latterdaylights at gmail. com. We respond either way, um, but definitely do not forget, listeners, to do your five second missionary work, to share today's light brought to you by David, and just comment below Let us know which one of your stories you know, which one of David's stories was your favorite. What did you love? Do you have questions on any of them? You know, just let him know how appreciative you are for his willingness to come on here today.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah Well, thanks again everyone. Thanks again, david, and we will talk to you guys next week with another episode from Latter-day Lights. Until then, take care, bye-bye, bye guys.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host