Abby and Jonah wanted to go to institute.  Jonah tried to start his car.  The battery was so dead that the starter wouldn’t even turn over.  Abby got into her mother’s car, put the key in the ignition and started the engine; but as she released her hold on the key, it snapped off.  She was holding the lanyard in her hand, and the broken-off key was in the ignition with the motor running.  She jammed the portion of the key that was still in her hand back into the ignition, and managed to shut off the engine.  But now, even with the extra key, the engine would never start again until the key fragment could be removed.  Would it be necessary to replace the ignition?

What to do?  Neither car would start, and they were now so late that making the 20-minute drive to institute was no longer possible.  They stayed home.

Jonah and Abby’s father later got some jumper leads, and went to start his car.  Before attaching the jumper leads Jonah got in the car and tried to start it.  He was astonished when it roared to life without hesitation.

The next morning Abby’s grandfather took a pair of tweezers and a strong magnet and got into the other car to see if he could somehow extract the broken-off portion of the key that was stuck in the ignition.  Neither of his ideas worked.  He looked in the ignition, and couldn’t see a thing.  His gaze then happened to go to the floor of the car.  There on the floor mat lay the business-end of the key!

How did it get out?  Why hadn’t Jonah’s car wanted to start?  Who removed the broken-off key from Abby’s ignition?  What angels had been busy preventing them from going to institute?  What accident or misfortune had they avoided?  Had these incidents possibly saved their lives?

These are questions that won’t be answered on this side of the veil.  It will be interesting—and probably astounding—to get over there and learn what unfortunate circumstances we avoided here in mortality because of the intervention of angels and the Holy Spirit.

The faithful are promised that they’ll have angels round about them to bear them up.  (D&C 84:88).  I’m sure that they are there, and that they have prevented us from placing ourselves in harm’s way more times than we can imagine.

(For other stories about hazards that were unknowingly missed see Numbers 22:21-34, and the article, “Invisibility and Other Protections” in Selected Sermons pp. 116-121).