Take the Holy Spirit As Your Guide

Troop Transport Ship US Navy 1950

At the last General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Elder Larry Y. Wilson told this story.  I am just paraphrasing him but you can look up the story yourself by typing in the title of this post with his name.   

The story is about a young LDS naval officer in the 1950's.  The officer was Ensign Frank Blair.  He was on a troop transport   One night after his watch was over, and during a violent storm, the captain of the ship came to ask him to pray for the ship.  One of the ship's engines had gone out and another was not working at full power.  Only one engine was fully functioning.  

Previously the captain had asked Ensign Blair to be the ship's unofficial chaplain since it was too small a ship to have an official chaplain.  Ensign Blair was a man of faith and he was well respected by the crew.  The captain had noticed this.  

Well, Ensign Blair DID pray for the ship that night, but he also prayed for guidance on what HE could do to help.   The Holy Spirit told him to go out on deck and look around.  Ensign Blair got permission to do this, but he had to get the captain's permission.  He went out on deck tied to a lifeline because there were 40 foot or 12 meter high waves.  

While walking around he saw at the stern of the ship, when the propellers came out of the water, that the one propeller was going very fast. He felt inspired to tell the captain to slow that engine down.  The captain had been told by the chief engineer to keep the engine at full power. . . but the captain went with his junior officer's recommendation.  

After the ship survived the storm . . . the next morning, the captain saw and realized that Ensign Blair's recommendation had saved the ship.   If the captain had kept the one engine at full power it would have burned out and the ship almost certainly would have capsized and been lost.  

This story shows how we can turn to our Heavenly Father in times of crisis.  We can also turn to him in the good times.   Although we all won't be naval officers saving our ship and the lives of our shipmates, we all have times when we will benefit form guidance of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.