Many anecdotes are related of Elder Abel Evans, formerly of Lehi, in this Territory, who died while on a mission in Wales some years since. He was a man of wonderful faith, and possessed the gift of healing in a remarkable degree. While laboring as a missionary in Wales in an early day he met a sister who was a member of the Church and was afflicted with a terrible cancer in her face which had eaten away her upper lip and the greater portion of her nose. She had tried all the doctors she could find who pretended to cure cancers and they had one after another given her case up as hopeless. When Brother Evans met her she was mourning over her affliction and recounting her suffering and the efforts she had made to get relief. He listened to her story and then asked: "Why do you not apply to the Great Physician to cure you?"
"Do you think it would be of any use?" she asked, brightening up.
"Why," he replied "with the Lord all things are possible! If you have faith you can be healed!"
She expressed her anxiety to be administered to, and he forthwith purchased a bottle of olive oil, consecrated it and anointed her face, applying the oil with a feather to the worst part. He also rebuked the disease and prayed for her recovery, and from that hour the cancer was killed and her face began to heal. He repeated the operation two or three times, and, strange as it may appear, the flesh and skin actually grew again upon that part of her face which had been eaten away and a new nose in time developed—not a perfect one it is true, but one that was a great improvement upon none at all. Notwithstanding this great manifestation of God's goodness to her, however, this woman afterwards apostatized.
On one occasion Brother Evans was sailing from Liverpool to Bangor, at which place he had an appointment to preach, when a terrible storm arose, which threatened the destruction of the vessel. When the officers and crew were all ready to give up hope, Elder Evans retired to a secluded part of the vessel, called upon the Lord in prayer, reminding Him of the appointment to be filled and that he was upon His business, and, in mighty faith, rebuked the storm, when it calmed so suddenly that all hands on board were as much surprised as delighted, and quite at a loss to account for the sudden change in their prospects.
In the year 1846, a man living in Merthyr Tydvil, who was a member of the Church, happened accidentally to break his leg between the knee and ankle. A surgeon was called in, who set the broken bones, bound the limb up with bandages and splints and cautioned the patient to keep perfectly quiet until the fracture could have time to knit. Three days afterwards Elders Abel Evans and Thomas D. Giles called to see him, and the former questioned him as to his faith. "Do you believe," said he, "that the Lord has power to heal your broken limb?"
The man acknowledged that he did.
"Do you believe," he again, asked, "that we, as the servants of God, holding the Priesthood, have authority to call upon the Almighty and claim a blessing for you at His hands?"
The man assured him that he did.
"Then," said he, "If you wish it we will take the bandages off your broken leg and anoint it."