***
My older brother Taylor Hartley described
an incident in his life that can be summed up as a Book of Mormon miracle. In
1993 when he was nearly 15 years old, he had a bike accident and suffered a serious
head injury. One of the negative effects of the injury was that he lost the
ability to read. Below are my brother's own words about the experience and how
the Book of Mormon played a key role:
BOOK OF MORMON MIRACLE
 |
| My sister Angela and brother Taylor July 28, 1993 |
Well,
my memory stops at the top of the hill.
Apparently, I had been going really fast when at the bottom of the hill,
I suddenly planted my face into the concrete, requiring 42 stitches on my chin
and over my eye by an emergency room plastic surgeon. The worst part of the accident was the
concussion I suffered. It dropped my
mental age to that of about a six year old, making me mildly retarded. I suffered amnesia for a time. The abilities to speak, access words, and
process information, among other things, were noticeably impaired.
It
took me two and a half years before I felt I was totally recovered. One of the most interesting consequences of
the mental injury was my inability to read.
I discovered I could no longer read when my mom brought me children’s
books. She did this to keep me occupied
while I rested at home to recover from the accident.
On
one of the nights, my dad approached me and said that some of the Church
leaders, called area authorities, had challenged the members to read all of The
Book of Mormon before their large meetings, called Stake Conferences. Dad asked me if I’d do it. In my child-like mental innocence, I told him
I’d try. My mom was mad at him for
asking me because he knew as well as she did that I had lost the ability to
read.
I
went to my room, kneeled down and prayed.
I can’t remember what I prayed for, but I know it was very simple. I do remember, however, thinking to myself,
“If this is the Word of God, then I’ll be able to read it. If it’s not, then it’ll be like the other
books my mom gave me.” When I opened to
the beginning, I looked down and read: “I, Nephi, having been born of goodly
parents….” I was reading! There was no delay in my comprehension of the
words either. Part of me was astonished
while the other part of me wasn’t.
Even
though this miracle speaks for itself, I want to give you some independent
witnesses that help verify its reality.
A year before the accident happened, I was given a Patriarchal Blessing
by a patriarch in our area (a patriarch’s calling is to give inspired blessings
from the Lord to individuals, which are written down and serve to help them
through their life). In that prophetic
blessing, he told me, “Follow the counsel and direction of those who are placed
in leadership positions over you in the Church. I bless you that your mind and
intellect will be quickened so that you will comprehend and understand those
things that you read and study. That your testimony and knowledge of the Gospel
will be greatly strengthened.”
Those
consecutive lines outline chronologically and precisely what happened: the area
authority Church leaders had given “counsel and direction” for all of us to
read The Book of Mormon. When I tried it
with the brain damage I had, my mind and intellect were literally “quickened”
so that I could “comprehend and understand” those things that I “read.” As a result of this quickening, my testimony
and knowledge of Christ’s “Gospel” had truly been “greatly strengthened.”
The
last prophetic words I want to quote from as an independent witness to the
reality of the miracle that happened to me are in Isaiah 29:18. After prophesying about the coming forth of
The Book of Mormon in our days, the prophet said, “And in that day shall the
deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of
obscurity, and out of darkness.” Because
of the brain damage I suffered, my eyes were blind because of mental obscurity
and the written words’ meanings were nothing but darkness to me. For all intents and purposes, I was blind to
reading. But, when I read the Book of
Mormon, my eyes actually did “see out of obscurity,” just as Isaiah prophesied
would occur because of the Book."
<End of Taylor's words>
I want to share my witness that
what my brother wrote above is true. I was nine years old at the time of this
accident, and I remember reading children's books to him in our backyard while Taylor
did not have the ability to read. Taylor has since had a full recovery for many
years, and if you were to meet him today you would never have guessed he had
brain damage in his youth. The Book of Mormon truly is a marvelous work and a
wonder.
***
My Own Personal Witness regarding the divinity of the Book of Mormon:
http://thesmallplatesoftom.blogspot.com/2014/12/letter-to-my-mission-president-book-of.html
***
***
My Own Personal Witness regarding the divinity of the Book of Mormon:
http://thesmallplatesoftom.blogspot.com/2014/12/letter-to-my-mission-president-book-of.html
***
You can access Taylor Hartley's
Mormon.org profile at the following link:
Taylor's Book of Mormon miracle experience
is also published in the February 1999 issue of the New Era magazine, but does
not have as much detail. Regardless, it is still a powerful article of the experience.
Here is the link to the magazine article:
https://www.lds.org/new-era/1999/02/my-crash-course-in-reading?lang=eng
* Additional point of clarification: Taylor's words above indicated his "mental age" dropped to 6, but the New Era magazine article stated Taylor's mental age dropped to 12. Both accounts are accurate because the time element is different. For example, essentially right after Taylor hit his head, our Mom indicated Taylor spoke and acted like a 6 year old. However, about a week later, a speech pathologist tested Taylor and the results were his "mental age" had improved to approximately 12 years old (he was nearly 15 at the time). Regardless, Taylor still did not have the ability to read even after the achieving a "mental age" of 12 years. This is noted in the New Era magazine article.
* Additional point of clarification: Taylor's words above indicated his "mental age" dropped to 6, but the New Era magazine article stated Taylor's mental age dropped to 12. Both accounts are accurate because the time element is different. For example, essentially right after Taylor hit his head, our Mom indicated Taylor spoke and acted like a 6 year old. However, about a week later, a speech pathologist tested Taylor and the results were his "mental age" had improved to approximately 12 years old (he was nearly 15 at the time). Regardless, Taylor still did not have the ability to read even after the achieving a "mental age" of 12 years. This is noted in the New Era magazine article.