Yesterday morning (11 November 2024) I received a call informing me that my friend's stepson had committed suicide. I hurried there to support and comfort my friend. My friend is a widower, and for several years had provided a place for the stepson to live with him. The relationship was always strained. The 52-year-old stepson was an alcoholic, a drug user, had difficulty finding and holding down jobs, and had no driver's license due to many arrests for driving while under the influence. He had no friends or social life. He regularly argued with his stepfather, and had threatened to kill him. It was a difficult situation.

While my friend was away for the afternoon or evening, the stepson shot himself in bed. He was surely drunk at the time He wasn't discovered until the next morning. At one point when the attending deputy sheriff and everyone else had stepped outside, I looked into the bedroom and saw the heavily-tattooed body of the man peacefully lying in his bed. My sensation was that he was a useless piece of humanity, and perhaps even a dangerous one. My friend's life will be better and more peaceful now.

How sad. The person was useless, but not worthless. He was a baptized member of the Church, but had never been active in the Church in his adult life. He had briefly been married twice, but had no children. He was useless and unloved, but he wasn't worthless. Repentance is the golden key that could have turned that soul into something of great worth. He was a son of God who allowed himself to become ensnared in Satan's evil traps. He was all alone in the world, and now has the task of figuring out how to repent and to get himself out of Satan's grasp and out of the deep hole that he lowered himself into.

Yesterday was also the day that my grandsons rolled their pickup down a steep mountainside into a canyon. They had a day off from school due to Veterans' Day, and planned to hike into Twin Lakes. The mountains are covered in snow. As their plans were being discussed the previous evening I was uneasy. Probably about four times I almost said, "I don't feel good about this," but then told myself to keep quiet. "It's not my business." The bishop's boys went along on the excursion, but were in a different pickup. Interestingly, the mothers, one father, me, and the bishop all later told of having uneasy feelings about the trip, but none of us spoke up.

To the boys' credit, they began their trip with prayer. That explains why, when the pickup refused to make the curve on the slick road, the two boys survived despite the fact that the truck rolled over multiple times as it plunged into the canyon. They were bruised, and had abrasions, but they were alive! I'm extremely grateful. These are good, valuable boys who had unseen protections around them because of their goodness and their useful futures. They should have been killed, but they were protected. I am so, so grateful.

Yesterday was also the day when a hunter's guide out of Halfway was accidentally shot and killed by a hunter he was guiding. Two single-car accidents in the county also resulted in the deaths of the drivers. Life is tenuous. Much sorrow is connected with all of these episodes, except in the case of my grandsons. Great gratitude surrounds their experience.