Walt Smutz was a truck driver for Boise Cascade.  One winter day he was trucking in the Tri-Cities area in the state of Washington.  The road was icy and slick.  Suddenly he lost control, and the truck swerved up a bank and turned over onto its top.  Walt was trapped in the cab.  His feet were wedged in the wreckage.  The diesel in the engine had caught fire, and he could feel the heat coming through the wall into the cab.  He had to get out.  He tried the door, but couldn't get it to open.  He tried to open the window, but the handle broke off in his hand.  He was going to die.  His life passed before him, and he imagined his wife informing his two sons that their father had been killed in an accident.

He realized that he had tried everything but praying.  So he prayed.  No sooner had he finished, than suddenly the door was jerked open from the outside.  A voice said, "Looks like you could use some help!"  The man jerked Walt out of the truck, scraping Walt's shins in the process.  He pulled Walt up onto the freeway where Walt then looked back at his truck.  It had been no more than five seconds since his extraction from the truck, yet the entire truck was in flames.

Walt asked the man why he had stopped.  The man explained that he was also a trucker, and was driving down the other side of the freeway.  From where he was, he couldn't see Walt's side of the freeway, but he noticed smoke.  Something told him to stop.  He did so, ran across the median, saw the truck, and realized that someone must still be inside.

Another Boise Cascade trucker stopped and took Walt to the hospital, where he was patched up.  The other Boise Cascade trucker had noticed the truck that Walt's rescuer was driving.  Boise Cascade called that trucking company to get the name of the rescuer and to thank him for saving Walt's life.  That trucking company, however, was only able to reply that they had not had a truck in that area during that period of time.

Walt resolved, as a result of this experience, that whatever the Lord asked him to do from that time on, he would do.  He realized that his time was not up, and that there were yet things that he was to accomplish.  Walt served in many capacities, serving finally as a temple worker in the Boise Idaho Temple until shortly before his death in May 1996.

Prayer accomplishes miracles.  The Lord answers prayers using other people.  He also says, "I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."  (D&C 84:88).