Are There Angels Among Us?

This post had me at driving in the rain. Lately I’ve been anxiety ridden while driving in non rain too! My mind plays tricks on me and I’ll be afraid to drive in the best of road condtions. The rest of the post was such a gift to read. Daily I wonder if my deceased parents are alive and well in the hereafter. And this post gives me hope they are. And to have had that ladies husband tell that lady to switch her child from the right side to the left reminds of an accident my mom and I were in after attending the RS building in Slc, Ut. where Sis. Camilla Kimball and her daughters were speaking. This took place when people didn’t regularly put on seat belts, back in like 1981 or so, besides they were buried behind the seat usually. But this time my mom and I wore seatbelts! We never had before, then on the way home coming from Beck street and when it forks to go left or right on the ramp to the freeway, somebody completley stopped for a second at that fork and this led to several cars rearending each other. I was the last to rear end and got a ticket of course, but the miracle was that my mom and I were okay. Where our seatbelts held us in was terribly bruised, which told us we’d probably have flown into the windshield. I think we had a guardian angel somehow tell us to wear a seat belt that day.

Thanks so much for your story!!!

I had cobbled together a few references to this for a previous thread: http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3557&hilit=+guardian

President Joseph F. Smith gave us some insight about angels who minister to those on the earth: “When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from among our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants. The ancient prophets who died were those who came to visit their fellow creatures upon the earth. They came to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; … such beings … waited upon the Savior and administered to him on the Mount. … Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.” (Gospel Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1970, pages 435–36.)

John Taylor, “The Origin and Destiny of Women,” in The The Mormon (Aug. 29, 1857). An LDS woman asked John Taylor questions on her origin and destiny.

“Lady — whence comest thou? . . . “Knowest thou not that eternities ago, thy spirit, pure and holy, dwelt in thy Heavenly Father’s bosom, and in his presence, and with thy mother, one of the Queens of heaven, surrounded by thy brother and sister spirts in the spirit world, among the Gods. That as thy spirit beheld the scenes transpiring there, and thou growing in intelligence, thou sawest worlds upon worlds organized and peopled with thy kindred spirits, took upon them tabernacles, died, were resurrected, and received their exalt[at]ion on the redeemed worlds they once dwelt upon. Thou being willing and anxious to imitate them, waiting and desirous to obtain a body, a resurrection and exaltation also, and having obtained permission, thou made a covenant with one of thy kindred spirits to be thy guardian angel while in mortality, also with two others, male and female spirits, that thou wouldst come and take a tabernacle through their lineage, and become one of their offspring. You also choose [chose] a kindred spirit whom you loved in the spirit world, (and had permission to come to this planet and take a tabernacle,) to be your head, stay, husband, and protector on the earth, and to exalt you in the eternal worlds. All these were arranged, likewise the spirits that should tabernacle through your lineage. Thou longed, thou sighed, and thou prayed to thy Father in heaven for the time to arrive when thou couldst come to this earth, which had fled and fell from where it was first organized, near the planet Kolob. Leave thy father and mother’s bosoms, and all thy kindred spirits, come to earth, take a tabernacle, and imitate the deeds of those you had seen exalted before you.

“So, until further knowledge is obtained, we may say that angels may be sent to guard us according to our need; but we cannot say with certainty that there is a special guardian angel, to be with every person constantly.” (The Improvement Era, April 1944, page 225.)

Stories like those give me warm fuzzies. I don’t know if they’re true, but I hope they are.

My father passed away several years ago. One weekend I was up helping my mom do some of the spring chores that needed done around the farm – she was getting it ready to sell. I needed a particular fencing tool and went into the barn/shed to get it. I looked high and low and couldn’t find it. Finally, I said out loud “Dad, I know that you know where you left those pliers. I’m here helping Mom and I need them now.” I immediately walked over to a workbench and found them under a pair of leather gloves.

Another time I was sitting at work and heard my Dad’s voice, as clear as a bell in my mind, say “Call your mother.” I didn’t argue too much and wonder if it was all in my head – I picked up the phone and called my mom. We had a nice chat but nothing profound. At the end of the call I asked if everything was alright and she said that it was. I told her why I’d called, and then she confessed that she’d been particularly lonely that day. We both had a good cry and talked about how we both missed my dad.

I don’t know if I was actually inspired by my father’s spirit in either of those occassions, but I like to think I was.

I recently read a true story of a woman named Sue Brewer, 62, from Mansfield Ohio. She wrote: “The day my first grandchild was born, I braved a three-hour drive in a torrential downpour. My husband, Henry, who had passed away two years before, had always done the driving. So to calm my nerves, I taped a photo of him—wearing a pink Hawaiian shirt—to my dashboard. “An hour in, I was humming along with my favorite oldies station when my SUV began to hydroplane. Terrified, I jerked the wheel and slammed into the right side of a small sedan, crushing in its backseat. “I was unhurt, so I jumped out and ran to the car, where I found a woman hugging a little girl. ‘We’re okay,’ she said. “It’s so strange. I was at the last exit getting gas, and a man insisted that Sarah sit on the left side of the car. So I moved her car seat—and this saved her life!” I invited them to sit in my car to stay dry until the police arrived. When they got in, the woman gasped. ‘That’s the man at the gas station-he was wearing the same pink shirt!’ I stared at the photo as tears spilled down my cheeks. “That’s my Henry. He’s in heaven, and he was my hero.” The woman hugged her child close and said, “He still is.”

So, my question to you all is: “Are some of our deceased loved ones our guardian angels, on earth?”

Ooh, I love that! It gives me the chills in a good way.

Thank you for sharing that, Bridget.

I had one experience. It wasn’t a life or death case, but rather spiritual/emotional life or lack of. I was really depressed & a lot of things seemed to have happened all at once & I was feeling so alone, so sad & was crying as I walked down this dirt road. After a little while of walking, I sensed a woman on a bike. I kept looking down, not wanting her to see me crying but she seemed to be trying to make eye contact, to make me look up. When I looked at her, she looked like a younger version of my nana (great-grandma who had passed away several years ago) & she smiled, encouraging me to smile. I didn’t think much of it until a little while later, I saw that the gate was locked. There was no way a bike could fit through it. The woman’s persona was just like my nana’s – kindof joking around, but also elegant.

It’s good to remember experiences like this. Bridget, thanks for bringing this up.

A lady gave a talk in SM last Sunday and shared a personal experience. Her grandmother was in a nursing home and was not always coherent, but one day told a everyone that in three days she would get to meet her newest grandson. This apparently was not possible due to circumstances and everyone just felt that the statement stemmed from the grandmothers strong desire to meet this baby. Three days later the woman died and sadly the baby died on the same day. The experience was very comforting for the lady giving the talk who lost two family members on the same day. I do think that for those who are leaving this life, heaven or whatever is beyond can be a lot closer.

I don’t have any dramatic experiences but I have often felt comfort that felt like my grandfather watching over me as we’ll as my father-in-law since he passed away a few years back.

Yes, there are angels amongst us, but unlike what the New Agers think not all of them are good, not even that ones that seem good.

There may be angels among us but we are unable to count on them for anything in particular Their actions are random at best so we have to live our lives as though they do not exist. If for some reason there is an intervention then so much the better.