On Monday, 5 May 2014, Sister Allphin, a missionary, called to ask me to go to the hospital and administer a priesthood blessing to an investigator boy who had broken his leg.  I found David Ruben, a small, 11-year-old, smiley boy sitting in his bed, with his mother beside him.  She speaks good English.  She explained that he had broken both bones in his lower leg while playing soccer.  The accident had happened one week ago, the leg was still not in a cast, and he was to be operated on the next day so that the bones could be pinned.  Elder Williams anointed with oil, and I sealed the blessing.  I don’t recall a thing that I said in the blessing, but I came away knowing that all would be well.

Marjorie and I went back to see David Tuesday.  Andrea, the mother, was very excited and talkative.  The doctors had been going to send David to Port Vila for the operation, but had decided it wasn’t necessary.  “It’s a miracle,” she said.  “I prayed to Papa God, and said, “You know that I don’t have any vatu, and that I can’t send David to Port Vila.”  Marjorie visited with Andrea, while I took the playing cards from the little sister of another girl in the same ward, awed them with my magic tricks, and showed them how the tricks were done.

There is not a thing for those children to do while they sit up there in the hospital.  On Wednesday we went to the University of South Pacific, checked out a pile of books, and took them to the children’s ward.   I was grateful to see that David finally had a cast on.  That evening we walked up to visit Dr. Wang.  We explained David’s plight.  He replied, “Oh, that wary serious.  Maybe never heal.  Young boy, maybe, but old person, no.  He must have meat, or maybe never heal. Maybe one leg be longer than the other.”

On Thursday I had to spend all day way out in the bush building a bush chapel.  Marjorie made a protein meal that included chicken wings, and walked up to the hospital to deliver it to David.  His mother said that he’d already eaten (bread and rice every meal, I think), but the chicken wings looked really good to David, so he ate them right up.  They had x-rayed his leg.  They couldn’t believe the results, so they did a second x-ray.  The bones were perfectly aligned, and the breaks had already knitted.  The hospital gave David crutches, and said that he could go home as soon as he learned how to use them.

On Friday Andrea called me herself, said that David was being released that day, and asked if I could transport them home.  I spent Friday scurrying from one service to another.  It was a 12-hour day, with no time to even eat lunch.  I finally got to the hospital, found a wheelchair, and wheeled David out to my pickup.  Andrea guided me to her house.  I was grateful to find that she lived along a road that I frequently travel.  They’ll be easy to visit.

Andrea was ecstatic.  “An Australian doctor looked at David’s x-rays.  He says that in his 20 years of being a doctor, he’s never seen anything like it.  ‘It’s just not possible,’ he said.  ‘It’s a miracle, and I can’t explain what’s happened.’

“It was his priesthood blessing, I told him.”

“Do you belong to this church?”

“No, but I’m going to be baptized just as soon as I can.”

When we got to David’s house, there were probably a dozen family members standing there to greet him.  He still isn’t to put any weight on that leg.  I couldn’t see any way for him to get across the bridge and into his house without hurting himself, so I picked him up, carried him in, and put him on the only chair in the room.

I had promised that I was going to bring a church video up to the hospital to show David on my computer.  He’s home today, so my project today will be to go there and share a video with the whole family.

Follow-up note:  on 5 June I took David for a checkup.  An x-ray showed that his leg was healed.  The cast has been on for just one month, however, so the doctor wants to leave it on for two more weeks.  David is to return to the hospital on 26 June to have the cast removed.  David is very anxious to be baptized.  He tells his mother that he must be baptized first, which she’s willing to let him do.  The plan is that he would be baptized on a Saturday, and that she would be baptized the following Saturday.  David prays every day.  He prays over his mother, and preaches to his family.  He has requested that I come to his house today and show videos.

The rest of the story (28 June 2014):  David had his cast removed Thursday, 25 June.  He left the hospital still using his crutches.  Marjorie and I took him and his mother to our flat where he took a good shower, and put on fresh clothes.  We then took them downtown, and outfitted him with a white shirt, dark trousers, and a tie.  Marjorie altered and ironed them.  We wanted him to look sharp if he was soon to be a deacon.  David and his mother had also been worried about what he would wear when he would bear his testimony following his baptism.

I baptized David Saturday.   He only used one crutch that day.  Following David’s baptism, he bore a long, detailed, and fervent testimony about his experience and his healing.  He said that the doctors had originally declared that he would have to remain hospitalized, and in traction, for six months if his leg was going to heal.David has a real testimony.  It’s more advanced than the testimonies of other boys his age.

His mother told us that she awoke a week ago to the sound of David praying.  She laid in bed and listened.  He prayed for help from the Spirit during the interview that he would have that day with the district leader to see if he was ready for baptism.  He prayed for his family.  He prayed for wisdom.  He prayed that someday he could be a missionary like Elder Kerns.

Following church today, we took David and his mother to Matevulu College to be the sacrament meeting speakers there.  David used no crutches today.  He said that before the blessing he was in pain.  After the blessing his leg felt different.  There was no more pain.  The talks that they gave at Matevulu made that the best sacrament meeting we’ve ever had there.  I love this boy.  I think he may be the reason we were called to go to Vanuatu.