There is one experience which I hardly ever talk about but
I think I should tell it here. About a week before I gave in my notice to leave work, the firm I worked for had
closed down their Swindon Factory so the people who worked there
were being absorbed into the other branches of the firm.
Consequently, about a half-dozen new men were working
in our room. I was then working in what is
known as the "wetting down" room where the tobacco was sorted and
steamed and taken to the stripping room where I had previously worked. I had liked it there much
better. The first morning these men came to work a very peculiar
thing happened. My friend, Paul, who was working with me said,
"Don't look now, but there's a man over on the
last machine who seems very interested in
you. He has hardly taken his eyes off you since we came in this morning". I laughed a little
and forgot the matter. About an hour later after
our morning breakfast break, the little
sweeper girl came up to me and said, "That man over there wants to speak to you". Thinking that
this was just a joke I went over to the man to see what he wanted
but as soon as I got near him for some reason I started to lose
control of myself. I asked him what he wanted. He gave me a
peculiar look and said, "Whatever you are about to do--don't
do it or you will be sorry". I knew this man couldn't possibly know of my
plans to go to America so I asked him what he meant.
He said, "You
are planning on changing your life, aren't you?" I said, "Yes". "Well," he said,
"don't do it". I asked him how he knew. He
said an angel had appeared to him the night before and told him to give me the message. I asked him
how he knew it was for me then he said the angel told him
there would be a light in my forehead and he would know to whom
the message was to be given. Well, I have felt the power of
Satan on many occasions but the feeling that came over me then
was beyond my power to describe. I could hardly walk back to
my seat. When I got there Paul said, "What on earth is
the matter? You look ghastly". I told her what
had taken place. Immediately she said, "It
is the devil". I knew it was for I had already received the go-ahead from an Apostle of the Lord and I
knew then it was Satan and not really my mother who was
fighting against
me.
Before I leave this
part of my life, perhaps I should record another incident that occurred while working in this room.
Paul was working with me on the same machine. She was now a
member of the church, having been baptized by my father. One
night I had a very vivid dream. In my dream I was standing at my
machine working as usual. Over my head was a large driving belt that controlled
all the machines in the room. This belt with its wheels was oiled every day and renewed every three months
so it was well taken care of. But in my dream as I was
working, the belt broke and whipped around my head so suddenly
that it caused me to cry out and I awoke from my dream and
couldn't go back to sleep.
The next day as I was working in that same spot, I
thought of my dream. I started to tell Paul about it but she
couldn't hear
me above the din. So I left my work and went around to her side of the
machine and related to her all that had occurred in my dream. I had just finished when
suddenly there was a loud slashing noise and a sudden silence. The men came
running, expecting
to find me seriously hurt or perhaps dead. Had I not gone around to the other side of the
machine [to tell Paul my dream] I wouldn't be here
writing this history.
They afterwards put a safety cage underneath the belt to prevent such a thing from happening again. I know that the
Lord was watching over me. I could relate so many things that have occurred in my life that makes me wonder if I had been
chosen out of my lineage to do the work for my kindred dead and
they have
been privileged to watch over me until this work is accomplished.
 |
| This is a picture of the inside of a tobacco factory at a little later time than Hester would have been working there. The machine she was working may or may not have been like one of these, but you can see that these machines could have been dangerous to be around and how fatal accidents could happen in this kind of environment. |
Although Father
wasn't pleased about me working in a tobacco factory,
and I wasn't either, when I talked to Apostle James E. Talmage about it he said, "Don't worry about
it. There is probably someone there you will be
directed to who will receive the
Gospel", and there was. Paul became a member, also her sister, Emma, and a girl named Mabel Howe and
her fiancée, Fred Underdown, and I told countless numbers
about the Church who perhaps someday may hear it again and accept it.
No comments:
Post a Comment