My father - Jim Hartley |
"[...] I felt the power of a
purposeful fast for the first time when I was 11-years old. We had a little
girl in our ward, maybe five years old at the time, named Kelli Meyer. She
suffered from leukemia. The disease progressed and she was hospitalized. She
was in immense pain, and the doctors didn’t expect her to live. The bishop, Al
Priddis, asked ward members to fast and pray for Kelli and her family. I knew Kelli. I knew
her father, Vern. He ran the Flying A gas station next to the high school. I
included Kelli in my prayers and voluntarily joined the fast. It was the first
time that I had fasted for a full 24 hours. During the fast, Bishop Priddis and
Brother Meyer gave Kelli a priesthood blessing to fight off the disease.
Miraculously the disease immediately went into remission. The doctors could not
explain the change. Kelli’s pain went away and she was able to go home.
But, within a few weeks, the
leukemia returned with a vengeance and threatened to take her life again. Again
the ward members (including me) prayed and fasted for her. Bishop Priddis and
Brother Meyer again blessed her in the hospital, and the same unexplainable
miracle happened. The disease suddenly went into remission, the pain
disappeared, and Kelli went home to her family. Again, the doctors were
completely baffled.
Then, just like before, within a
few weeks the disease returned to claim little Kelli. This time there was no
ward fast, but the bishop and Kelli’s loving dad gave her a final blessing.
This time it was to release her from mortality. Kelli’s pain disappeared, and
within a couple of hours of the blessing, Kelli passed away peacefully with her
family surrounding her hospital bed.
I remember the bishop’s words
when he reported the experience to the ward. He said that our prayers, fasts,
and priesthood blessings were honored by Heavenly Father, but it was God’s will
to bring his little daughter home to the spirit world. Our prayers and fasts
were keeping her here, and she needed to go. It was time to say to Heavenly
Father, “Thy will, not ours, be done.” When we did, Kelli was mercifully
released from life. What a profound lesson that was to me as an 11-year old
about the power of fasting, prayer, and the priesthood."
---
Taken from life sketch and autobiography "James
E. Hartley: My Story"
* The spelling for "Kelli Meyer" may vary slightly in reality. This is the spelling how my father recalls..
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