Get Up Anyway • followHIM Favorites • September 28 - October 4 • Come Follow Me 2026

A grizzly bear charged Elder Michael A. Dunn during a training run in a remote forest. He survived the attack but was left with sixteen severe wounds from teeth and claws, alone, covered in blood, and eleven miles from the nearest road. In that moment, he faced a decision: give up or get up. He chose to get up, stumbled more than a mile down the trail, and crossed paths with the only other people in the forest that day. That meeting led to a helicopter rescue and three life-saving surgeries. The story is not about the attack. It is about what came after.

The framework: decision points and divine help

The episode centers on Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Elder Dunn’s experience gives this verse a concrete shape. The framework has three parts. First, the Lord gives warnings in advance—through the Holy Ghost, as Elder Gary E. Stevenson taught, warning of physical and spiritual dangers. Elder Dunn saw a bear track in the dirt and felt his heart jump. He recognized it as a warning but rationalized it away and kept running. Second, when crisis hits, there is a decision point. “If you haven’t had such a moment, be assured you will,” he wrote. Adversity is part of the plan. The choice is to give up or to rally courage an