Death
How I Feel About Death
Terry Fisher called a week ago Wednesday to inform me that his wife, Carolyn, had just passed away. She had surgery a week earlier, developed blood clots, and they overwhelmed her heart. I told Terry that I would consider going to her funeral. He suggested that I might even speak. Thankfully, though, other more appropriate arrangements were made. Her funeral is today, and I don’t have to make the trip to Ogden.
Read MoreWilliam and Delilah
Yesterday (7 November 2020) I completed my family history research for the family of William and Delilah Frizelle. They were my 3rd great grandparents. My objective was to find all of their children, and to check and correct the vital information of each. I traced each descendant in all of their lines down to at least the year 1910. I made sure that each person either had all of his or her temple ordinances completed, or was put on my own reservation list where I could see to it that the work is done. I sifted through hundreds of people, made scores of corrections, and am now in a position to offer the precious temple ordinances to dozens of people who have not yet had their temple work done.
Read MoreDeath and the Spirit World
One of my earliest memories is of sitting on the floor in a nook of our kitchen with my back to the wall, the end of the cabinets to my right, and the freezer to my left. I was listening to my parents and their visiting friends as they sat at the kitchen table. I marveled as their voices began droning, and their words became indistinguishable. I fell asleep. My next conscious moment was of waking up in my own bed. How I got there, I didn’t know; but I assume that my father must have picked me up and put me there.
Read MoreGreat Peace While Starving to Death
As a young missionary I was assigned to a small island of about 700 inhabitants in a remote area of the South Pacific. To me the heat was oppressive, the mosquitoes were terrible, the mud was everywhere, the language was impossible, and the food was—well, “different.”
Read MoreThe Bridge Builder—Poem
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
Funeral Dedicated to Testifying
I have 17 nieces and nephews, who are a pure delight. We have hiked and biked and fasted and prayed together. And recently we have cried together. A few weeks ago we suffered a crushing loss when an accident took the lives of two of my sister’s children—Amanda, who was 11, and Tanner, who was 15. Because we have lived together in love, we have truly wept for the loss of them that died (see D&C 42:45).
Read MoreMother Met Daughter-in-Law
The afternoon my mother died, we went to the family home from the hospital. We sat quietly in the darkened living room for a while. Dad excused himself and went to his bedroom. He was gone for a few minutes.
Read MoreTrunk Lid Was Pulled Shut
In August of this year, there occurred a tragedy in Salt Lake County. It was reported in the local and national press. Five beautiful little girls—so young, so vibrant, so loving—hiding away, as children often do in their games of hide-and-seek, entered the trunk of a parent’s car. The trunk lid was pulled shut, they were unable to escape, and all perished from heat exhaustion.
Read MoreName Not Mentioned At Funeral
Contrast these events with an incident which happened to me when I was a young man in my early twenties. While serving in the Air Force, one of the pilots in my squadron crashed on a training mission and was killed.
Read MorePioneer Husband Died During Night
The Resurrection and the Atonement of the Savior can be a constant fortifying influence in our lives as illustrated by the account of Elizabeth Jackson, a pioneer in the Martin Handcart Company. She tells of the death of her husband, Aaron, on the Wyoming plains in 1856 in these moving words:
Read MoreWidow Loses All But Her Faith
Many years ago I attended a large gathering of Church members in the city of Berlin, Germany….The majority of those who sat on crowded benches were women about middle age—and alone.
Read MoreDeath of Heber J. Grant’s Wife
I read of a young woman who exercised…faith and trust. For many months her mother had been seriously ill. Finally, the faithful father called the children to her bedside and told them to say good-bye to their mother because she was dying. The twelve-year-old daughter protested:
Read MoreElder Haight’s Near-Death
The evening of my health crisis, I knew something very serious had happened to me. Events happened so swiftly—the pain striking with such intensity, my dear Ruby phoning the doctor and our family, and I on my knees leaning over the bathtub for support and some comfort and hoped relief from the pain. I was pleading to my Heavenly Father to spare my life a while longer to give me a little more time to do His work, if it was His will.
Read MoreAn Opportunity To Be Taught
A short time ago, our family had the opportunity to be taught. It was a painful trial, but it became a sweet experience. Last December my wife and I were together with our three daughters.
Read MoreHe Cleaned Our Shoes
One woman tells the story of a tragedy she experienced when five of her close family members from another state were killed in a fiery automobile accident. She herself was struggling to absorb the news, trying to pack for her own little family to leave the following day for the funeral. A good friend and neighbor arrived at her door with the announcement that he had come to clean their shoes. She had not even thought about shoes.
Read MoreAn Atheist’s Death
Even those who don’t think they will live again or who don’t want to live again will nevertheless arise from the grave and live again. There is nothing they can do to stop it, since life is eternal.
Read MoreThere is No Death, But Only Change
What is this thing that men call death,
This quiet passing in the night?
‘Tis not the end, but genesis
Of better worlds and greater light.
Do You Believe in the Resurrection?
Several years ago we lived in Garden Grove, California. I was a produce supervisor for a large grocery chain. I dropped by home and picked up my young son Lawrence, who was three at the time.
Read MoreWhat is Death Like?
What is death like? Here is a simple incident as told by Dr. Peter Marshall, chaplain of the United States Senate:
In a certain home, a little boy, the only son, was ill with an incurable disease.
Our Greatest Sorrow
Brother Marion G. Romney quoted this morning the revelation of the Lord where he said that in the resurrection children would come forth and grow up without sin unto salvation. (See D&C 45:58.)
Read MoreNo Hope For Deceased Child?
What a comfort to those of us who have buried our little children to know that we will be privileged in the resurrection to raise our little ones unto manhood and womanhood.
Read MoreEntire Life Flashed Before My Mind
Loving relationships continue beyond the doors of death and judgment. Family ties endure because of sealings in the temple. Their importance cannot be overstated.
Read MoreSomeone Else Was Present
Our second son, Adam, entered our lives when I was far away in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam. I still have the joyful telegram announcing his birth. Adam was a blue-eyed, blond-haired little fellow with an impish personality.
Read MoreLittle Children Need No Repentance
A neighbor once told me that as a missionary in earlier days he and his companion were walking along a ridge in the mountains of the South. They saw people gathering in a clearing near a cabin some distance down the hillside.
Read MoreStranded on Earth
Death is the surest evidence that our Father loves us. He knows us and remembers us. He does not leave us stranded here on earth.
Read MoreElaine Collard Funeral Sermon
Ernie told me that Elaine requested that I speak at her funeral. I want her to know that I am deeply honored. I was shocked to learn that she had passed.
Read MoreNo Funeral
I look forward to the Millennium. I look forward to the Lord’s second coming when the earth will be cleansed of all unrighteousness,
Read MoreEverything Is Still
Everything outside on this clear October morning is still. Yet there is movement. I’m astonished at Venus’ progress up the sky.
Read MoreWorld’s Most Blessed Man
I am 70 years old. At the age of 69, due to the changes I felt in my body, I became an old man. Yet I’m healthy.
Read MoreWhere Is Your Faith?
There was once a woman who DID NOT want to die. Nearly every Sunday she attended her Protestant church, but her real faith was founded upon science.
Read MoreComing and Going
Grandma Simmons lived the last years of her life with her daughter, Zelma, who cared for her.
Read MoreVanuatu Culture—Deaths and Jobs
Marjorie came to bed last night complaining about the sounds in the night. “It’s either dogs or drunks,” she said, “and I can’t tell which.” We slept soundly, but the hullabaloo started up again this morning.
Read MoreThe Day Will Come
We spend our lives looking forward. We look forward to future events. Some we anticipate with eagerness and pleasure. Others we dread.
Read MoreThoughts on a Vanuatu Funeral
We American Latter-day Saints would like to think that we’re spiritually superior to other people. Our thinking is that we’re blessed with more possessions and comforts, so therefore, our way of living is the way all people would live if they were as blessed as we are.
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