Elder Matthew Cowley Gives a Blind Nine-Month-Old Maori Baby His Sight at a Naming Blessing

While serving as a mission president among the Maori people of New Zealand, Elder Matthew Cowley was asked by a father to give his nine-month-old baby a name and a blessing. Just as Brother Cowley was about to begin, the father added: “By the way, give him his vision when you give him a name. He was born blind.”

The request shocked him, but he remembered the Savior's promise that His disciples would do greater works than He had done (see John 14:12), and he had faith in that father's faith. After giving the child its name, he blessed it to receive its vision.

Years later, when Elder Cowley recounted the experience in his famous talk on miracles, the boy was about twelve years old — and, as the branch president told him, thoroughly, healthily “the meanest kid in the neighborhood; always getting into mischief,” which thrilled Elder Cowley far more than any quiet child could have.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I said, ‘All right, what's the name?' So he told me the name, and I was just going to start when he said, ‘By the way, give him his vision when you give him a name. He was born blind.' It shocked me, but then I said to myself, why not? Christ said to his disciples when he left them, ‘Greater things than I have done shall you do.' I had faith in that father's faith. After I gave that child its name, I finally got around to giving it its vision. ... I asked the branch president about him. And he said, ‘Brother Cowley, the worst thing you ever did was to bless that child to receive his vision. He's the meanest kid in the neighborhood; always getting into mischief.' Boy, I was thrilled about that kid getting into mischief!