By Cordell and Janice Vail

28 Sep 2003

A weekly email gospel message for the descendents of Ammon and Winona Vail

Listening to a prompting

Today Janice shared her testimony at a baptism for three young boys. She share with them a story from my past about the Holy Ghost and after she asked me if she had the details right. So I decided to share that story with all of you so that it would be a part of our family history.

After my mission my parents helped me buy a 58 Ford. It was owned by Lavone Perser (SP??) Isn't that funny I remember that. It was an old car in 1966 but it was a wonderful car for me to have at BYU. There are many memories and many stories in my past related to that car. This is only one of them.

One week end night I came from Provo to Brigham City to stay with Eldene and Alvin. It was late at night. Close to midnight when I got to Brigham. In the old days, to get to Eldene's house you had to go through down town Brigham to the court house, turn left and go straight west out of town down to the farm.

Just as you got to the edge of town there is an old train station. At that time they still used it some. And there are about 5 or 6 sets of railroad tracks that you have to cross over because it is right at the edge of the railroad yard. Many times when you went there at that time of night there would be trains going by. Some of them would be going very slow and even stop, then back up because they were adding cars to the train to get it ready to go to a destination some where. So it was easy to get caught there at the crossing for 20 or 30 minutes and have to just sit. If the train was stopped and it was not very long you could go North to the next crossing and get across in front of it and still get to the farm. But most of the time the train was so long that cross over would be blocked too.

So on this particular night I came to the crossing and there was a train going very very very slow. Not much faster than a person could walk. I could see it was very long so I knew it would not help to go to the next crossing to get in front of it. I decided to just turn my car off and sit and wait. What else could I do.

I had been sitting there on the tracks for about 10 or 15 minutes. I was right in the middle of all the tracks because the slow moving train was over on the very last set of tracks to the west. I was sitting on the set of tracks next to it waiting. The car was turned off and I was listening to the radio. The radio was not on really loud but it was loud enough that it would block out any sound from anything outside the car.

As I sat there I herd a voice in my mind that said look over her. It came from the right so I looked over there and I saw way down the tracks what looked like a street light. I noticed that it was moving from side to side but I did not think much about it. I just looked straight ahead at the slow moving train and was further irritated that it was going so slow.. So I intended to just keep listening to the radio and wait.

Then the voice said to me again in a much more urgent tone. LOOK AGAIN! I turned and looked and the head light of the train was huge and it was coming at me fast and I realized now that I was sitting right over the main tracks. This was a train coming probably 70 miles per hour. The head light was huge now and flashing back and forth from side to side so I knew it was the headlight of a locomotive.

I was horrified. I panicked and started the car as fast as I could, shoved it in reverse and laid rubber backing up.....

Just as my front bumper cleared the tracks a heard this swooooooosh and the sound of this huge train screaming past me. I just sat there frozen in time realizing what had just happened. If the Holy Ghost had not spoken to me and warned me I would have been killed. I was also amazed that he had to tell me twice. The first time I did not understand what He was telling me.

In Janice's testimony she said that she was grateful that I had the Holy Ghost that night so that my life was spared so that we could have 35 years of happiness together. I too am grateful that my life was spared so that I could find her and bring the greatest gift the Lord has ever given me into my life... Her and my children.

I thank the Lord often for the many times that He has spared my life through the prompting of the Holy Ghost. This was one more of those experiences for which I am truly grateful.

NOTE: Nothing in any of these Sunday Sermons is intended to represent the official doctrines of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are strictly instructions and teachings from Cordell and Janice Vail to their family.