“I Was Doing His Work Today,” Ensign, Mar. 1993, 68
“I Was Doing His Work Today”
It was late on a cold, blustery Saturday afternoon. Stake leadership meetings had just concluded, and people were getting ready for the long trip home. The group that climbed into Emily’s van shared the ideas they had learned in the meetings. The conversation was so lively that no one heard the moan of the engine as it sputtered and then failed.
In North Dakota in the winter, when a car doesn’t start, it’s more than inconvenient—it can be life-threatening. Everyone in Emily’s carpool recognized the gravity of their situation: They were eighty miles from home with little money, car repair shops had already closed for the weekend, and bad weather was coming in from the west.
Emily sat in the driver’s seat, mentally going over all the possible reasons for the engine’s failure, but she couldn’t recall any engine problems. In fact, before her husband had left for overseas military duty for a year, he had tried his very best to leave her with a good, dependable vehicle.
A small group quickly gathered around the vehicle and offered advice. Someone from Emily’s ward soon had the hood up and was looking for the problem. In the midst of these concerned conversations, Emily excused herself and disappeared into the dark and deserted stake center.
Everyone was baffled. No one could imagine who she could call at this hour, and her husband was thousands of miles away.
Just as the person under the hood again announced that he simply couldn’t find anything wrong, Emily came running from the building.
“I know what the problem is now, and I know how to fix it,” she announced. Emily climbed into the driver’s seat, leaned forward, and flipped a small switch. This time, when she turned the key, the engine roared to life. All of us were amazed. Emily then began to explain how she knew what was wrong.
“As we were trying to fix the van, I remembered that I hadn’t asked the one who would know what the problem was. I needed to ask for the Lord’s help,” she said. “I knew he wouldn’t give me a problem I couldn’t fix while I was trying to fulfill my calling.
“Almost right away, I realized that as we were climbing in and out of the van, one of us must have bumped the switch that controls the gas tanks. So the engine was using the empty tank of gas instead of the almost full one.”
She explained that when her husband had gone overseas, she had promised the Lord that she would willingly fulfill all her responsibilities. “In return,” she continued, “I have been reassured that a way would be made available for me to accomplish that goal. I just knew this wasn’t a big problem, because I was doing the Lord’s work today.”
Illustrated by Jeffrey Carter