When I think of Enos’ account of his hunting expedition, I read between the lines.  I don’t think of him going into the forest to look for animals, but rather of what was really happening on that occasion.  To be sure, he told his family that he was going hunting, but that was not his real purpose in going to the forest.  He was going there to find a place where he could think, ponder, and ultimately, pray.  He was a troubled young man.  He was weighted down by his sins.  Things could not go on as they were.

Enos did no hunting that day.  He wasn’t looking for animals.  He was looking for relief.  As he pondered and agonized, he remembered the words of his father, Jacob, who spoke of the joy of the Saints.  Enos longed for that joy, and to be freed from the pains and worries that he felt.  He laid his bow and arrows and slingshot aside, and knelt in prayer.  He poured out his heart.  He knelt in that secret place of solitude where only the Father could hear, and audibly voiced his problems and his heartfelt desires.  Then he stood up, and paced, and sat on a rock, and again knelt and told his Father the things of his heart.  He spent the entire day pondering and praying.

Night fell, but Enos was not through.  He had not yet found the relief that he sought, but the feelings he was having kept him praying.  He knew that his prayers were being heard.  He had not yet found the peace that he sought, but there was a presence there in that grove that he could feel.  He was not alone.  He enjoyed that feeling.  This was the first time in his life that he had felt such a presence, and he basked in it.  He prayed on.

“And there came a voice unto me, saying:  Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

“And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore my guilt was swept away.”  (Enos 1:5-6).

He had gotten an answer!  He had found relief.  He had found the key that unlocks the heavens.  There were still questions in his mind, so he prayed on.  “And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold, the voice of the Lord came into my mind again…”  (v. 10).

The voices that he was hearing were not audible, but he heard and felt every word.  They were burned into him.  He had gone to his sacred grove hoping there was a God in heaven who could give him relief from the pains he was feeling.  Now he knew for a fact that God was there, that he was loved, that he had been heard, and that he was forgiven, “wherefore,” he said, “my soul did rest.”  (v. 17).

How do I know what took place there?  It’s because I experienced the same thing at the same phase of life.  I was 19 years old, probably the same age as Enos.  My world became so heavy that my life could not go on as it was.  I quit college, loaded my things into my Nash Rambler, and headed home from Corvallis, Oregon.  My route went up over the Cascade Mountains, and through central Oregon.  I was all alone, and very, very low.  I knew not what to do.  I had quit school, and would thus lose my draft deferment. I would go home, be drafted into the army, would be sent to Vietnam, and would be killed.  I had no hope.  There was no one who could help or direct me.  I was weighted down by my many sins.  There was not a glimmer of light anywhere.

It was October, 1966.  As my car climbed the mountain, I was in agony.  A small breath of relief came as it began to snow.  The flakes were huge, and very, very beautiful as they fell against the backdrop of evergreen trees.  I was so overcome by the beauty of what I was seeing that I pulled my car over into a wide spot in the road, and stopped to watch the falling snow.  The scene triggered something inside me, and caused me to do something I had never done before.  I began praying.  I prayed out loud.  The words came pouring out.  Everything that I’d thought, felt, and done came spilling out.  I laid before the Lord all of my worries, fears, and sins.  I told Him everything.  I plead for relief.  I had started my car and had continued my journey, but my prayer went on and on.

At the beginning of my trip I had not known if there really was a God in heaven.  I hoped that there was, but I had no way of knowing.  I had never before talked to Him, therefore He had never before talked to me.  As I prayed, I no longer felt alone.  To let me know that I was not alone, God caused a brilliant rainbow to appear before me.  I was grateful for that sign, and thanked him repeatedly for it.  I had never before nor have I since seen such a brilliant rainbow.  That rainbow and my heartfelt prayer lasted clear across central Oregon.  Central Oregon was my sacred grove.  The rainbow never dimmed.  My prayer never ceased.  The rainbow and the prayer lasted four hours.  No rainbow in the history of the world has ever lasted so long.  It was my rainbow.  It was a sign given to a desperate young man that he was not alone, that he was being heard, and that he was loved by a God in heaven.

About the time that my car was entering my home county, it began raining very hard, and I caught the rainbow.  I am sure that no one else had ever before caught a rainbow, but I caught the rainbow!  Had my window been open, I could have put my hand right out into it.  It was in that instant that the voice came into my mind, as it did into Enos’.  The voice simply said, “Everything is going to be all right.”

I have forgotten the exact wording of nearly every other verbal message that I’ve heard over the past 67 years, but I’ll never forget those seven words that were spoken by the Spirit to my mind.  Like Enos, my soul did rest.  I felt a degree of peace for the first time in many months.  I had not found the solutions to my problems, but I knew that they were coming.  I had a promise.  Like Enos, I “knew that God could not lie.”  (v. 6).  I had hope.  I knew that God was there.  I knew that He knew me.  I knew that answers were coming.  I have not ceased to pray since that day.

When I was given a Book of Mormon two weeks later, perhaps my reader can appreciate and understand how I received it with a feeling of reverence and great anticipation.  I was looking for, and expecting something more that would truly bring to pass the promise that “everything is going to be all right.”  I knew that this book was going to be the key.

Enos and I had much in common.  We were both troubled young men with no other place to turn for relief.  I will not be surprised if in some distant day I learn that this was Enos’ first uttered prayer.

There is another account of another troubled young man who went into the forest to pray.  It was his first uttered prayer, too.  A voice did not come into his mind.  He saw the Father and the Son, and they did in reality speak to him.  The experiences that were had by Enos and I changed our lives, but the experience of Joseph Smith changed the world.

I am grateful for Joseph’s struggles, questions, and prayer.  I am grateful for my own struggles and problems.  I know because of my own answer to prayer that God knows me, loves me, and desires to bless me.  Because of Joseph’s answer to prayer I know who God is.  Because of the Book of Mormon, and because of Enos and of all the other prophets who wrote in it, a great light has come on in my life, and the promise has been fulfilled that “Everything is going to be all right.”