Lauren Willardson was serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston, Texas when an intruder broke into her apartment while she and her companion were sleeping. She was stabbed multiple times.

Even hearing that stirs a reaction in me, like a Momma Bear wanting to protect her cub! But what stirs me more is to hear how God has helped her turn this horrible experience into a faith-building, Christ-testifying opportunity. I move from wanting to protect her to wanting to learn from her.

Of course, Lauren and her companion fought hard for their lives in those terrifying moments. Adrenaline did its job, but then that wore off and she started to comprehend what had happened. She had multiple wounds up and down her body. While her companion called for an ambulance, her brain started to move past the limbic response and began to comprehend the extent of her wounds.

But how she was enabled, through grace, to view her wounds is breathtaking to read.

“As I sat there with my limbs tensing up to the point I could not move, not knowing if I was going to bleed to death, I remember looking down at my hand and seeing that it had been stabbed through the middle. While you may think that this would be an alarming sight to behold, I remember feeling the greatest peace as my mind instantly thought of a similar wound in the hands of One much greater than I. As more wounds were discovered on me in the ambulance and procedures following, I soon learned that my intestines had been pierced near my side, and my ankle pierced through as well right above my foot. With these three wounds I have learned more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ than I had ever understood previously. As I thought of His pierced hands, and feet, and side, and felt the pain of my own wounds in similar spots, I finally understood a microscopic proportion of just what Christ [chose to go] through to save us.” 

She writes of many other miracles that let her know that her time to leave the earth had not yet come and how she has felt the Savior’s grace help her through this time of recovery.

I was also so moved by how she felt God helped her forgive her assailant.

“I felt sorry for his family,” she said. “It was really sad, you know? You feel sad that someone would make that decision and how it’s going to affect their life. You just hope for the best for them that they can find Jesus Christ themselves.”…

“God didn’t want me to be stuck with the anger or the hurt or whatever it may be after an event like this if I couldn’t forgive him,” she said. “Because I was trying to do good things and be in a good place and be a good person, I think that he blessed me with that well of grace to draw from so I could forgive him completely.”

To share more of her healing journey, Lauren started an Instagram account called “the.work.of.his.hands” to continue to share her faith and to reach out to others who are also wounded in other ways.

Lauren is a living witness of the healing power of Jesus Christ.

How are you seeing Christ’s love and care in your life or the lives of those you care about?

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Hermana Olmos converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was 10 years old along with her family. Reflecting on that time, she says:

“The first time the Elders knocked on my door they asked for a glass of water, which my mother gave them but when they wanted to share the message my mom said, ‘No thank you. I’m OK with my religion.’ The second time the Elders came, my father let them in. My mom was mad. But she must not have been so mad because she met the Elders in December and was baptized in February.” Hermana Olmos smiled at the memory.

Hermana Olmos loved studying with the Elders when they came to her house. She especially loved the part when they said that families can be together forever. I thought, “I want to live with my family forever.”

On Hermana Olmos’ baptismal day, she was baptized in a small local lake in the town of Zicatepec along with her 8-year-old sister. Her parents had previously been baptized. “I felt so good when I was baptized. I felt I was on my way to having an eternal family.”

In Mexico, Sister Olmos attended the Calipan Branch [a branch is a small congregation in the Mormon faith, smaller than a ward] in Calipan Mexico. There were 20 – 24 members in her branch and they met in a member’s home. While there, Sister Olmos served as a Counselor in the Young Women’s program. For activities, the leaders took the girls to LDS dances in other cities, played sports and went camping.

When asked why she wanted to serve a mission Sister Olmos said, “Always when I was learning the Gospel I saw that the Elders were happy teaching the Gospel. I thought I would want to teach the Gospel like them. When I was 20, I felt scared during my interview to serve a mission. Then I read in the Doctrine & Covenants 82:10 “I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” I wanted the blessings of serving a mission so I had to serve. Also, I really know that families can live together forever. I want all families to know that.”

When asked if there was a time when she knew God answered her prayers Sister Olmos said, “All the time. When I was flying to the Missionary Training Center in Utah, I did not understand any English. I thought AAAAH! I want to return to my house. So on the plane, I prayed and read the scriptures in Spanish. The person sitting next to me said something to me in English that I understood a little. Then he talked to another person and she spoke to me in Spanish. This made me SO HAPPY, because I knew that Heavenly Father loved me.”

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