Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Broken, but Not Down • followHIM Favorites • October 20-26 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

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Welcome to follow him favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's lesson. John, come follow me this week. We're in sections 121, 122, and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants. These are very important, very critical, big sections. The story I thought of goes with what the Lord tells Joseph in the very beginning of section 121. He says, my son, peace be to thy soul, thine adversity and thine affliction, so they are real, shall be but a small moment. With the time, it seems huge and awful, which it really is. Later, the

Lord is saying, you'll look back and it will be a small moment. In fact, he says later, it will be for thy good. It will give you experience. The story comes from General Conference, October 1999. Now, I know you'll remember this story, John, and a lot of our listeners will, but there's got to be a few out there who have never heard it. This is Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who at the end of a talk called the High Priest of Good Things to Come, says, forgive me for a personal conclusion, which does not represent the terrible burdens so many of you carry, but it is meant to be encouraging. 30 years ago last month. So, John, we're now talking. Even earlier than 1999. Yeah. I guess this would be 1969. He said, a little family got in a car to cross the United States to go to graduate school. No money, a really old car, and everything they own in the smallest U-Haul trailer available.

Bidding their apprehensive parents farewell, they drove exactly 34 miles up the highway, and their car erupted. Pulling off the freeway onto a frontage road, the young father surveyed the steam, matched it with some of his own. That's good writing. Left his wife and two children, the youngest just three months old, to wait in the car while he walked three miles or so to the southern Utah metropolis of Canaraville, population, I think, 65. Some water was secured at the edge of town. A very kind citizen offered a drive back to the stranded car. The car was attended to and very slowly driven back the 34 miles to St. George. After two hours of checking and rechecking, no problem could really be detected.

So once again, the journey began. This is the best part. In exactly the same amount of elapsed time at exactly the same location on the a highway with exactly the same pyrotechnics from under the hood, the car exploded again. It could not have been 15 feet from the earlier collapse, not even five feet from it. Can you imagine? You're just like, are you kidding? Elder Holland says, obviously the most precise laws of automotive physics were at work.

Now feeling more foolish than angry, the young father, once more. left his wife and two children and walked to the same guy's house. I'm back. This time the man providing the water said, either you or that fellow who looks like you ought to get a new radiator for that car. For the second time, a kind neighbor offered a lift back to the same automobile. Bill with the same little occupant. He did not know whether to laugh or cry at the plight of this young family.

How far have you come? He asked. 34 miles, I answered. How much farther do you have to go? 2,600 miles. And then this man says, well, son, you might make that trip, and your wife and those two little kids might make that trip. But none of you are going to make that trip.

make it in that car. He proved to be prophetic on all counts. Now we're in 1999, Elder Holland speaking. Just two weeks ago this weekend, I drove by that exact spot where the freeway turnoff leads to a frontage road just three miles or so west of Canareville. That same beautiful and loyal wife, my dearest friend and greatest supporter for all these years, curled up asleep in the seat beside me. The automobile we were driving this time was modest, but pleasant and safe.

In fact, except for me and my lovely Pat situated peacefully at my side, nothing of that moment two weeks ago was even remotely like that distressing circumstance three decades earlier. And then, John, this is beautiful. Yet in my mind's eye, just for an instant, I thought perhaps I saw on that side road an old car with a devoted young wife and two little children making the best of a bad situation. Just ahead of them, I saw a young fellow walking toward Canarville, with plenty of distance

still ahead of him. His shoulders were slumping, the weight of a young father's fear evident in his pace. His hands did seem to hang down. I couldn't help calling out to him. Isn't this beautiful, John? Here Elder Holland is. is 30 years later calling out to his younger self. This is something we can all do in our life. Here's what he calls out. Don't give up, boy. Don't quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. A lot of it. 30 years of it now and still counting. Keep your chin up. It'll be all right in the end. Trust God. And believe. in good things to come. Don't you wonder, John, if that Elder Holland from the late 60s

kind of, do you hear that, right? You just wonder, did he hear that? The Lord is maybe saying that to Joseph here a little bit. I know it's hard right now. Endure it well. God will exalt the on high. Good things are coming. Great things are coming. Our guest for this week is actually mentioned in this story. Here is a quote from the story. Elder Holland says, this is later on when he's in the car grown up. He said the two children in the story and the little brother who later joined them have long since grown up and served missions, married perfectly, and now raising children of their own. Well, John, that little brother who later joined them is our guest on Follow Him.

His name is Dr. David Holland. Come on over wherever you get your podcast and listen to Dr. Holland walk through. through these sections. It is incredible. The things he shows us and the tenderness he brings out of these sections is really touching, really touching. Then come back here next week. We'll do another follow him favorites.