I was excited last week when Thomas asked me to speak at his baptism on the topic of the Holy Ghost.  The next evening we read an article in one of my books entitled “Coincidences,” and it occurred to me that perhaps the story might be useful in my talk.

I don't actually believe in coincidences.  I do, however, believe in the Holy Ghost, and that He engineers things to happen in our lives when we most need them, and especially when we ask for them.

In a few minutes, Thomas, you're going to have hands laid on your head by someone who holds the Priesthood of God, and who is authorized to give you the gift of the Holy Ghost.  This is an essential ordinance which the Christian world has lost.  The Bible says that “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”  (John 3:5).  In other words, unless a person is baptized and receives the gift of the Holy Ghost he can't go back to God's presence.  These are essential ordinances.  This gift is going to be given to you just like Paul gave it to Timothy in the New Testament.  Paul admonished Timothy to “neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee … with the laying on of the hands ...”  (1 Timothy 4:14).

“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.”  (2 Timothy 1:6).

The article that I wrote about coincidences relates an impressive experience that my friend Don Crompton had.  I hadn't seen Don in many weeks, but we “happened” to run into him in Walmart just a couple of weeks before.

After I'd read the article on coincidences, I had a thought in the night.  The thought was, “You ought to invite Don to Thomas' baptism.”

“Yeah,” I thought, “except that I won't be seeing him, and he'd think me strange if I just popped in on him with such an off-the-wall invitation.

Now I should tell you, Thomas, that the Holy Ghost is most often described as a “still, small voice.”  It will rarely speak to you in an audible voice, but if you're paying attention you'll hear, or rather feel, that still, small voice all the time.

Well, “coincidentally,” we ran into Don again last Thursday afternoon at Albertsons.  I heard myself telling him “I was just thinking about you.  I reread the article on coincidences that I wrote about you and thought that I should use your story in the talk that I've been invited to give at my grandson's baptism.  I was thinking that I should invite you.  Would you and Susan come?”

“We'd love to,” Don said.  “In fact the missionaries are coming over tonight, and we're excited.”

Can you see all of these “coincidences” that are happening?

So that's how I found out that I was going to be speaking about “coincidences” that are really events engineered by the Holy Ghost.  And that's how I ended up having Don Crompton here in person as a visual aid.

As an eighteen-year-old boy Don got a summer job working for the U.S. Forest Service outside of Buhl, Idaho.  The following summer his supervisor made him the crew boss over two other young men.

The three young men lived in a cabin nestled in a deep, V-shaped valley.  Each morning by the time the sun came up over the ridge and bathed the cabin in sunshine, the three men were already out of the cabin and hard at work.

One morning, however, Don awoke to find the sun shining in his face through the window.  His mind said, “Oh, no, we've slept in!  I've got to get up.”  His body, however, wouldn't respond.  Try as he might he could move neither his arms nor legs.  A wave of panic swept over him which provided just enough adrenaline to enable him to roll out of bed.  Hitting the floor provided enough additional adrenaline to give him the strength to crawl and pull himself to the door.

As he laid outside recovering in the fresh air he realized that his friends were still inside the cabin and in the same condition he'd been in.  He crawled back inside and drug both young men out into the open.

A gas leak had occurred.  All three young men had been just minutes away from succumbing.  But for the timely arrival of the sun and for Don's mental and physical exertions, they would have perished.  Don said that his head throbbed all that day.

What Don doesn't know is that it was the Holy Ghost that woke him that morning.  The Holy Ghost woke him that morning because it wasn't his time to die.  He wasn't ready.  The Holy Ghost has been working with him ever since and has been preparing him to do what you're doing today, so that when the time is right, he'll be ready.

The title of my talk tonight is “The Holy Ghost in Our Neighborhood.”  That phrase came to me in the middle of the night as I thought of all the Holy Ghost events that take place around us.

When you were a toddler, you drowned.  It was the Holy Ghost that directed Wes to see you, and to leap into the pond and carry you out.  It was the Holy Ghost that caused an Emergency Medical Technician to be just minutes away.  It was the Holy Ghost that had put your Priesthood-holding grandfather there to lay his hands on your head and to command you to live.  He was supposed to have still been half a world away.

Just last fall, I was up on my ladder replacing the fascia on the eaves of my house.  I was being super careful.  I knew the dangers involved because my brother-in-law had recently fallen off a ladder and had gotten badly broken.  He had a job to do high in his shop.  I told him to not even think about getting up on a ladder to do that job himself, but the advice of a brother-in-law doesn't carry the same weight as advice that comes from the Holy Ghost.

Well, I was up there on my own ladder making good progress, and I felt that familiar still, small voice.  It said very plainly, “You shouldn't be up here.”

My hammer paused in mid air, and I thought, “Oh!”  I pondered on that message for about ten seconds, and climbed down.  It was very disappointing.  I was 1/3 done with an 8-hour job which I knew I could do.

But I know better than to ignore a prompting like that.  I went to my computer and sent an email to my family to tell them about the spiritual experience I'd just had.

My grandson in Tennessee stopped what he was doing so that he could read the email he'd just received, and then he made a phone call.  Within minutes his two brothers came running down through the field, and climbed up on my ladders.  Simultaneously Ammon arrived from Haines, and joined them.  In about 30 minutes they'd finished my 8-hour job, and I was still in one piece.

I'd like your dad to come up here now and tell about some acrobatics that he saw me perform …

What happened there was that I was pulling heavy pivot tires to the edge of the bed of the semi truck and dumping them over the side.  The things weighed as much as I do.  The tires would hit the ground, bounce, and Adam and the truck driver would catch them and roll them into an upright position in a big pile.  It took a mighty effort for me to get those tires to move to the edge of the truck bed.  The last one was lying flat on the floor.  With my gloved hands I grabbed hold and gave a mighty heave.  My gloves slipped off the tire, and I was suddenly spinning helplessly out in the air somewhere beyond the truck bed.

Interestingly, time slowed down then.  I had time for five thoughts.  The first one was that still, small voice again.  It said, “Keep your limbs tucked in.”  I thought, I can do that, and I did.

Then the voice said, “It's important that you land on your back.”  And I thought, I have no idea which way is up or which way is down.  I haven't a clue how to position myself for the landing.

The fifth thought was that I'm surely going to break.  I hope it's not my prosthetic hip.  All of my senses were tuned and listening for the snap that would tell me what I'd broken.

Adam said later that he never knew his father was so athletic.  He says that I turned a somersault in the air, and just laid down on the ground like I was going to sleep.  I hadn't heard anything snap, so I got up and brushed myself off.  The truck driver said to Adam, “That's a tough old bird.”

The Holy Ghost lives in our neighborhood.

Katie, tell us your attitude about picking up strangers.

Told story about Matt finding a Shakespearean story about a king and a horse.

Ivy, did the Holy Ghost once get you into a concert?

Heidi, what experience of yours would you add here?  (Heidi told of feeling that she should drive the one block to Haines School to pick up 5-year-old Ammon during a blizzard.  She brushed the feeling off because she had a baby and a toddler that she'd have to leave alone for a few minutes.  The feeling persisted.  The baby was asleep, so she told little Hyrum that she'd be right back.  She initially couldn't see Ammon, but located him huddled in the bell tower.  He was grateful to see her as he said, “I knew you'd come.  I prayed that you would.”)

The Holy Ghost lives in our neighborhood, and now the Holy Ghost is going to live in you.  This member of the Godhead is going to be your constant companion if you live worthy of it.  That means that you keep the covenant you just made when you were baptized, to always remember Him and to keep His commandments.  You do that by quickly repenting whenever you do something wrong.  You do that by being consistently kind, and by being helpful.  You do that by attending church each Sunday to partake of the sacrament.  You thereby renew these covenants every week.

I am grateful for the restoration of the Priesthood which made my own repentance and baptism and gift of the Holy Ghost possible.  I never dreamed such blessings existed, but there are more to come in your life.  You'll receive the Priesthood.  You'll be able to go to the temple for your endowment.  You'll then be able to be married in the temple for time and for all eternity.  These gifts are huge.  And you're the happy recipient.  You're now the cleanest person in the world, and are set to receive every blessing, if you live for them.