This has been one of the hardest months of my life. I got a call from my mom late one night and I knew immediately that something was wrong. She never calls that late.
She broke down as she told me a dear elderly couple in our ward had been murdered. They were two of the sweetest, kindest people I know and it was a relative of theirs who did it. My mom was recovering from an injury and asked me to pass the news to my brother who is deployed at the moment. I was shaking all over and felt like I was in shock for a while, then furious. My brother was so upset and it felt terrible telling him such a thing, knowing there was no one there to comfort him other than a friendly pat on the back from a pal.
I have struggled a lot with anger for weeks and have never encountered this kind of grief before. I have brief periods of sadness, but then I become angry that I am sad because it was intentionally inflicted. There are enough tragedies in life that have no one to blame as it is. How dare anyone add to that! I just can’t comprehend wanting to commit such an act of evil.
I turned to Heavenly Father and the Spirit said to me, “No one can take their eternity.” That’s one thing I have learned. No matter what anyone ever does to you, they can’t take away your eternal happiness. These friends lived wonderful lives and I believe the most painful thing for them was to witness their posterity doing something so horrible that was sure to jeopardize his salvation. They had given him many chances and always held out hope that he could change. They had spent the day helping him after he just got out of prison and that’s what he chose.
I decided I have one thing to worry about in life and that is my standing with God and teaching my children the same. I just can’t give in to the fear of what could happen to the people I love. If I can live a righteous life, then my loved ones might have peace no matter how I go. The most heartbreaking thing to me in this situation is that this man threw away the life he was given. I imagine it must be a devastating thing for Heavenly Father, as well as his family.
I’ve been very busy working with our full-time Mormon missionaries in our ward the past couple months and have been very impressed with all the work and effort they put in. It has been a while since I have been this heavily involved in missionary service. Some days can be very awesome and others can [...]
BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and [...]
BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and [...]
BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and [...]
BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes. In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and [...]
I read with interest this story about the new website about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China. I have some connection to the church in China (a tiny one) only because I visited one of the expat branches in Shanghai a couple of ye…
Today is Thursday, and we have been having a nice week. The kitchen cabinets are all put in now, so we have a sink and fridge and it all looks beautiful. Dad got the water hooked up to the fridge so that we have ice and fridge water now, an…
The following are excerpts from the article “Mormon Leaders Speaking to Youth in Their Language: Technology:” In most respects, youth in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are just like their peers of other faiths — they study, play sports, hang out with friends and use every type of technology available. They are an [...]
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