July 16, 2025 • 30 mins
On an August night 17 years ago, LynAnn received devastating news: both her husband and son had died in a plane crash. Wanting to turn to the Lord for comfort and strength, LynAnn and her family clung to the gospel of Jesus Christ with “both hands.”
In this episode, LynAnn shares her story—the heartbreak and sadness, but more importantly, the hope and healing.
We discuss the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it really means for us, as well as how to support someone who is grieving—whether they’re facing a cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one, addiction, or another kind of loss.
I have a testimony that there is purpose and meaning behind our suffering. Our pain is not in vain—it matters.
I hope you’ll take the time to listen to LynAnn’s story and gain strength from what she so generously shares.
And one quick update: I’ve officially decided to move to one episode per week instead of two. With this change, I’m making a commitment—to you and to myself—not to miss a single week for the rest of the year. New episodes will drop every Wednesday. Thank you for your continued love and support. 🫶🏻
Here is a link to my table of contents: https://docs.google.com/docume...
Make sure to turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode!
In this episode, LynAnn shares her story—the heartbreak and sadness, but more importantly, the hope and healing.
We discuss the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it really means for us, as well as how to support someone who is grieving—whether they’re facing a cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one, addiction, or another kind of loss.
I have a testimony that there is purpose and meaning behind our suffering. Our pain is not in vain—it matters.
I hope you’ll take the time to listen to LynAnn’s story and gain strength from what she so generously shares.
And one quick update: I’ve officially decided to move to one episode per week instead of two. With this change, I’m making a commitment—to you and to myself—not to miss a single week for the rest of the year. New episodes will drop every Wednesday. Thank you for your continued love and support. 🫶🏻
Here is a link to my table of contents: https://docs.google.com/docume...
Make sure to turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dude, Hello, and welcome back to my podcast today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am really excited.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
You know, every once in a while you have one
of those episodes that you're like, dang, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is going to be one of those.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And the reason it's going to be is because sister
Imlay has consecrated her experiences for the gain of herself
and others. And it's a really beautiful thing that she's done.
Back in twenty twenty one, I went to one of
those devotionals that Seu has BYU does them all the time,
but Su has one every single Sunday at six, and
she was invited to speak at one back in twenty
(00:49):
twenty one, like I said, and it just was really
touching and really inspiring to me. And so when I
ran into her at the temple however long ago, I
asked her if she'd be willing, and he kindly said yes. So,
Sister Emily, do you want to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
I am living in New Harmony currently, just south.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Of Cedar City. Beautiful home.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
Thank you, glad you're here.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I've moved here twenty six years ago, so now it
feels like home. But I say I'm from Arizona. But
we've raised our kids. We are empty nesters. We've got
a garden, a cat and a dog and chickens. And
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Wonderful. Tell me where in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I didn't know that about you, Mason, Okay, So to
talk you talk about Arizona.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
There, there you go.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I didn't even know that about you, Okay, very cool.
So I just figured I would let you kind of
have the rains and all kind of guide us as needed.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Does not work for you, it's perfect, sweet perfect.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I'll just start by sharing this story that kind of
leads to people asking me to speak. It happened seventeen
years ago, regular August Day. It was in two thousand
and eight, and I was really concentrating on taking care
of my eighteen month old granddaughter. I was baby singing
(02:11):
her while her parents were in Missouri looking at graduate
school programs, and so I had to drive with her
up to Salt Lake City because my youngest daughter, Hannah,
was a senior in high school and playing in a
soccer tournament up there.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
So she went up.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Hannah went up with a school bus, and then I
drove with this eighteen month old granddaughter up to Salt
Lake and everything went great, and we watched the soccer game,
and then we started traveling home. And at about eight
thirty pm, my daughter in law called and she is
married to my oldest son, Dallen, and she was in
a panic, and she said, do you know when the
(02:45):
airplane is going to get home from Moab? And I
was so confused for a minute because I didn't understand
that my oldest son had worked with his dad that
day and they had flown to moeb that day as
part of a dermatology team. They went every month to
give dermatology services to Moapp And so I said, Camber, no,
I don't know when the plane's going to get home.
Let me make some phone calls. I called my husband's phone.
(03:08):
It rang and rang and rang, no answer. I called
his pa his phone. They were business phones and just
one digit difference, rang and rang and rang, no answer.
I called the airport, no answer, and so we just
kind of kept driving. I had no news for her,
and of course you could always think, well, no news
is good news. So the time clicked on, Hannah and
(03:29):
I were driving down fifteen, it was getting dark. I'd
look up in the sky and wonder where is that plane?
And I asked Hannah, I go what do you feel?
And we just we didn't feel anything alarming. And so
we got to Cedar City and I dropped her off
at the high school because her car was there, and
then she and I were starting to drive back home
(03:49):
and my phone rang again and it was a dear
neighbor and he said, where are you And I said,
I'm just around the corner from my house.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
He goes, I'm standing in front of your house.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I need to talk to you. And then I knew
then I knew that it was not going to be good.
And I said to him, I don't want to hear
anything you have to say, and he said I know.
So we parked and got out on the driveway and
there were people lining the sidewalks that had knew what
had happened before we did, and the Iron County sheriff
(04:21):
came up to us and said the plane has crashed
and there are no survivors. There were ten people from
Cedar City on the plane, including the pilot, and so
it was a tragic and unbelievable loss. And I remember
as soon as we had kind of greeted those people
(04:41):
and received their love. I took Hannah into the house
and we quickly went to the master bedroom and knelt
down by the side of the bed and just prayed,
because I knew we needed to turn to heavenly Father.
But how did we get through those first hours in day?
My heart was pounding, my intestines churned, and I trembled
(05:04):
and was so cold, my breath was shallow, and I
felt a deep heaviness. Well, we immediately knew we had
to go to my daughter in law's house, camber her apartment.
She and Dallan were SUU students, and she was eight
months pregnant.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
With their son.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I forgot about that part.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
She was twenty one years old and they had been
married for fifteen months. So we knocked on the door
and she was beside herself as you would expect, and
we shared the same terrible news that Dollan was gone,
and she collapsed and.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Crumbled and sobbed.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
So I often wonder, what are the sentences that introduced
us to the trials in our lives. Was it one
like mine, your husband's passed away, or your child has died,
or was it there has been an arrest or. The
diagnosis is cancer. Did you hear there's an addiction? You
are fired?
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Or I want a divorce?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I truly think that all of us could stand and
share heartbreaking experiences and stories of facing adversity. The variety
of trials that we experience on this earth is so
mind boggling.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
And each is a sorrow that compels us to wonder,
how will I ever get through this?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
On the funeral program the following week, we chose the
scripture Proverbs three Versus five and six.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Trust the Lord with all thine heart, and not until
thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge them, and
he shall direct thy paths.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Thank you. That's perfect. I always have to read it
so free.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, it was an fs Y theme, so we.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Memorize, yeah, yeah, so trust in the Lord. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
I did that.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
We did that as a family. We held onto the
Gospel of Jesus Christ with both hands. October Conference was
just like six seven weeks away, and we were praying
to receive comfort and answers and guidance from the conference
speakers and our son, our second son, Chris, had just
arrived in Japan as a missionary when the accident happened,
(07:09):
and even he could hardly wait. I knew that we
were looking for a specific sign that our suffering was
understood and could be explained, and our prayers were so answered.
Here is some of what we heard. President Monson's introduction
to conference. Some of you are struggling with problems, with challenges,
with disappointments, with losses.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
We love you and pray for you.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You can imagine that we thought that he was speaking,
oh yeah, directly to us. Elder Anderson taught in the
days of our difficulty, we choose faith. We don't know everything,
but we know enough. President Updorff reminded us hope in
our heavenly Father's merciful plan of happiness leads to peace, mercy, rejoicing,
(07:51):
and gladness to all who suffer, To all who feel discouraged, worried,
or lonely, I say, with deep love and concern for you,
never give in, never surrender, never allow despair to overcome
your spirit.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Those fel pretty pointed.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
So perfect. Elder worthlend Joseph P. Wor Worthlyn this.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Was his last talk before he passed away. He said,
these are words of wisdom that he learned from his mother.
Come what may, and love it in spite of discouragement
and adversity. Those who are happiest seem to have a
way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and
happier as a result. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be
(08:35):
a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love
it well. Come what may and love it. Became a
family mantra for us at that time. Elder Holland said,
I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind.
In doing so, I am testifying that God never leaves
us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges we face.
(08:57):
And I truly remember the mortal angel that surrounded us
at that time. Our community, our family, people praying for
us was an incredible experience.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What would you say was most helpful?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
People sometimes just saw what needed to be done and
did it. A group of our neighbors came and mowed
the lawn and we did. I had another neighbor that
came and said what can I do? And we were
in the middle of a bathroom remodel, and I said, okay,
everything just needs to be finished because we were filling
(09:29):
up the house with people for the funeral, and they
came and within twenty four hours finished that bathroom remodel.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
It's incredible, incredible.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Another man said, I want to take my teenage son
and help you. I want to do something, and he
knew we had a cabin. He goes, what could we
do at your cabin? Well, we had just had a
load of firewood dumped outside the cabin.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Well they went in and stacked it and put it
in the garage and got it out of the weather.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So yeah, people who either they did what they saw
needed to be done or they asked specifically, how can
we help?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And then I needed to be able to say this
is really what we need. You know, we do need
we do need some help.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
So and then, but prayers, prayers are so great, and
even sharing in sharing how they were feeling. Like someone
told me, every time I see you, my heartbreaks, and
I just thought that was the sweetest thing because she
got it right.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
She and she shared that.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
And then another another couple that were close friends with us,
they just came over and sat down and talked with
us about the people that we had lost.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
That's that's scary.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
I was really impressed with the people who were willing
to come and maybe they don't know what to do,
but they were just willing to come. They were and
get a hug, bring a box of Kleenex, anything, anything.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I think a lot of times when people lose loved ones,
others have no idea how to help and support and
they want to, but they're like, I don't even know exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, yeah, so I would say, definitely talk about the
people that passed is so sweet. That's what we wanted
to do, right, We wanted to talk about and how
amazing they.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Were, because it's not like bringing him up is going
to suddenly you know you already are thinking about that, right,
So yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
It's not more painful to bring him up. So I
appreciate that question. Yeah, yeah, continue, Sorry, No, you're fine.
Back to conference, Elder Cook revealed, we are aware that
many who are listening to this conference are experiencing trials
and hardships of such intensity that the underlying feeling in
their hearts as they approach our Father in Heaven in
(11:33):
prayer is hope. You know, I'm having a hard time,
And that was said like in a childlike I think
it was a childhood said that. So shortly after General
conference one afternoon, my daughter Hannah was offered a priestood
blessing from a family friend before an important soccer game.
She was playing her senior year of varsity soccer, and
he was so sweet he offered to give me a
(11:55):
blessing as well. And so this brother Den Halter spoke
these words of counsel from a loving father in heaven
to me. He said, to pursue joy and happiness is
not being untrue to your loss. And so I'm just
going to say that again, to pursue joy and happiness
is not being untrue to your loss. And this felt
(12:17):
like direct encouragement from God and was evidence of his
hand in my life. I think sometimes when something hard happens,
we think we have to be so sad and could
never have joy and happiness again, and that I think
is probably true for a time. But how much healthier
it is to get beyond that space and then say, oh,
(12:39):
I'm not being untrue to the loss by pursuing joy
and happiness. And that's a great comfort and a direction
that we can go. Another thing that we did as
a family that was incredible was see the tender mercies
in our lives from the hand of God, like that
priesthood blessing. Another mercy I realized in hindsight was the
(13:02):
calmness that I experienced that evening as I drove home
from Salt Lake City. That was a blessing because the
minute the reality of what happened hit us, I would
not have been able to drive, and there we would
have been in the middle of a tower with a
baby in a car seat, and my daughter and I
would have been a basket case. But instead we were
blessed with calmness, even though it was obvious, probably that
(13:26):
the plane had crashed right, it was obvious, but we
were protected until we got home safely. So that was
a great tender mercy. And then an interesting thing with
Chris again, my son who was serving in Japan. He
had arrived maybe five days before the accident in Japan,
and he'd been assigned a companion and they were going
(13:46):
to be sent to the far corner of the mission
to serve, but their apartment was not ready, and so
when the phone call came that his dad and brother
had passed, he was still in the mission home and
the mission president and his wife were a will to
sucker him and lift him up. And then his companion revealed.
His Japanese companion revealed that he had also already lost
(14:10):
one parent and two siblings to cancer before he came
on his mission.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
And when you think of that, that is not a coincident. No, definitely,
that's a miracle.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And that is a heavenly father who knew what our
son needed. He needed someone to understand what he was
going through, what it feels like.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
They're going to be together.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
They were together for seven months, and this cute little
Japanese elder would say, oh, actually he was tall.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
I shouldn't call him cute little. He was just a
beautiful soul.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
But he would say, Elder Ellsworth, the seven of us
are going to go tracting today.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
And that was the two of them.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
And then the five people on the other side of
the veil from their family that had already passed on.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
Such faith and perseverance and such a blessing. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
As a mom, I'm like, what do you want for
your missionary that's serving on the other side of the
world and just lost his dad and brother. You want
his companion to know what that feels like. I was
so thankful and grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
That's a testimony of unspoken prayers and the fact that
they were paired before this even happened.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's that's not evidence. I don't know what it.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Is exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And so if you don't have eyes to see the
tender mercies, they're there. They're there, but we need to
see them through faith that there's a heavenly father. You
could you could turn away from God in the middle
of a trial and adversity instead of.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Turning to God.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And then if you turn away, we'll miss the miracles
and the tender mercies which sustain us and buy us
up and increase our faith.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Yeah, So those were some of them. Another thing that
we did was ministered to others. We had a dear
friend the day after the accident, just the house gets
full of people coming to share their condolences. She just
walked in, didn't say anything. She caught my eye across
the kitchen. She was carrying an ice chest. She put
(16:10):
it in a corner of the kitchen. Then that she
went back and forth to her car, filled it full
of drinks, gatorades, sodas, waters, juices, poured ice on top
of it gave me a quick hug and left. When
you're sobbing and in shock, it's very nice to have
an ice chest full of water in the corner of
your kitchen.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Did I know that?
Speaker 4 (16:30):
No?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
But now I know it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
And ever since then, when we know that someone has
experienced a tragedy or a loss, we take an ice
chest full of drinks and ice because we know. And
they're always like, how did you know? Oh, we know,
But it was because she knew and shared that with us.
So ministring with others is actually a great way to soothe.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
Your own heart.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
And from each adversity or trial that we fail, we
learned something very specific. We're going to see people going
forward in our lives that are going through something similar,
and now we know how to serve. Like you said,
now we know what they might need. Yeah, so that
was a blessing. That was a blessing.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
I remember Elder Neil A.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Maxwell talked about he got leukemia as an apostle. I
did not know that he got leukemia, battled, it went
into remission, and then he eventually got it again and
passed away from it. But while he was in remission,
he said, in addition to being an apostle, I ministered
to people who are going through cancer treatment because he
(17:37):
knew that's incredible.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Is that the coolest thing I love?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Elder Maxim, Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Yeah, so you might want to look that up, but
now I do.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
He talked about that, and who better to minister to
people going through cancer treatment than someone that just went
through cancer treatment. And so through our extremities, were prepared
to serve and bless the lives of others, which I
think is so valuable.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Can we talk about a law of consecration? Real question?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So I love everything you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I like to connect to making sacred and making holy,
and that is the law of consecration. So one of
the temple covenants we make is the law of concretion.
And basically what that is saying as though we'll dedicate
our time, talents, and everything which what the Lord has
given us and blessed us with to building up the
Kingdom of God. And one of the things that I
admire about you is that you live the law of
(18:26):
consecration to the soulest. And I know that to be
true because you share this story which is probably hard
and vulnerable, not probably it is so that others can
benefit from that. And I just think that's really incredible.
So thank you for that.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
And the thing that I thought of when you said,
the love concretion. I think sometimes we think it's in
the distant future that we'll be living that law like
a more organized told how to do it way, and
like the law of order. Is that what it was
called when they were they were living it here, the.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Love concert concuration.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
And so we don't need to wait, we don't need
to wait to be told how to do it. It
will be blessed to know how to do it, especially
through the Holy Ghost and promptings and seeing other people.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Like you said, seeing other people, that's how I learn.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
I see other people doing it, and then I can
follow them.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Christ Ice did it, so we can follow him.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
I loved this quote by Joseph Smith. He had these
feelings after being imprisoned in a liberty jail, and he
wrote these in a letter to a friend. He said,
after having been enclosed in the walls of a prison
for five months, it seems to me that my heart
will always be more tender after this than ever it
was before. I think I never could have felt as
(19:49):
I do now if I had not suffered the wrongs
that I have suffered. So our trials make us uniquely
prepared to support others.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
That was a really powerful quote that I've never heard, that.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
One that he that he recognized it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I love that he says. What does he say? Tender heart,
soft heart?
Speaker 5 (20:09):
My heart will always be more tender after this than
it was before. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
If that's not reason for suffering and pain, then I
don't you know, I don't know what it is. Because
God wants us to become like him, and.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yeah, it would it. And these are just mortal experiences.
People die, planes crash, we will experience loss and heartache
from cancer or a variety of the things that we've
talked about, tribulations. And do they soften us or do
they harden us?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
To us?
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Right?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah, Another way, and again, we were trying to access
the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I guess that was one of our.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Main questions is how we know that there's grace and enabling.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Through Jesus Christ's atonement, but how do we access that?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
And one other way is that we did it was
to fill our minds with truth and let me just
add this little thing. Camber, our daughter in law. She
moved in with me and Hannah that night and she
finished her senior year at SUU had her baby, their
baby Porter. So she is a hero to me in
(21:18):
the way that she persevered heartbroken. I didn't lose a
spouse when I was twenty one. I couldn't even imagine
what that was like. But she persevered. But she's the
one that we were like, how do we access the atonement?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
We know it's there right because you're suffering yourself, but
you want to reach out and help her?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
So when we were thinking about that, we were asking,
there are all kinds of trials and adversity, who's this hardest?
Speaker 5 (21:44):
And then we decided, you don't compare. You just don't
need to answer that question.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
No matter what kind of adversity we face, we must
choose how to handle it. This life is about choice
another word for choices agency. Pursuing joy is a choice.
Our minds tell us that when bad things happen, we
can only be sorrowful, filled with disappointment, discouragement, hopelessness. And
(22:08):
I don't in any way want to minimize the severe
trauma that accompanies adversity. I have experienced that, and our
lives can be turned completely upside down, emotionally, physically, spiritually.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Financially, mentally, and socially upside down.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
The distress is real and unavoidable for a time, but
eventually we must focus on truths that lift us and
propel us forward. Absolute truths that are an, unchanging and eternal,
And here are a few. It is true that you
are a beloved child of heavenly Father, who knows you.
(22:47):
It is true that after each dark and fearful night,
there is a sun that rises to give us light.
This is a daily symbol of Jesus Christ and his
ability to bring light into our lives. It is true
that the Holy ghosts can be our constant companion. He
comforts and he teaches. It is true that we live
on an earth of astounding beauty. See the glory of
(23:10):
God and His love for you in sunsets, seasons, sens, animals,
and water. It is true that we can pursue joy
and happiness without being untrue to our loss. It is
true that living on this earth and enduring the atonement
helped Christ identify.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
With our sufferings, and he can succor us as we
overcome trials.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
I did have a conversation recently with my son in
law Cameron. So he Hannah married Cameron and their first
pregnancy resulted in a son with a trisomey similar to
Down syndrome, and so that's been very challenging is that
Sun has special needs. He's nonverbal, he has a feeding tube,
lots of real challenges. Cameron has a brother, a young
(24:00):
brother named Griffin, and he and his wife. Griffin and
his wife had twin girls a few years ago with
the twin to twin transfusion syndrome, and after a lot
of medical procedures, they ended up losing both twins. So
that was heartbreaking for Griffin, Cameron's brother. Then he has
an older brother, Jackson, who just this past fall, Jackson
(24:22):
and his wife's fourth pregnancy encountered placenta abruption, so their
son was born at twenty nine weeks, so ten weeks
early was in the NICKU and Jackson called this other brother, Cameron,
and said, I wish I had come to support you
when Samuel was born.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
I didn't know what you were going through. I didn't understand.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I wish I had gone to the graveside service of
the twins to support Griffin and his wife. I didn't know.
I didn't understand. But now because he has a son
in the Nicku, he knows and understands.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
And a vivid thought came.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
To me, this is why Christ had to go through
his atoning sacrifice and bear all things so that he
could know, so that he could understand, so that he
could sucker us in our traumas.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh wow, beautiful. It reminds me. I was listening to
a speech by President Irek and I don't know when
it was given because.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
It was one of those classic speeches on the podcast
that it was like, I don't know, could have been
nineteen seventy something, I don't know. Yeah, but anyway, he
talks about how God had the power and Christ have
the choice to spiritually experience everything.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
That week like, does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Like he could have done the atonement in a different
way if he had chosen that, but he chose not
to do that, and he chose instead to physically, emotionally,
spiritually actually experience it.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
And that blew my mind.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
I was like, wow, that is a great point, Like
he spiritually could have understood everything, but instead he made
the decision to actually feel it so that he could
perfectly suffer.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Us great and that was through his body because he
had his body and experienced so much of our anxiety
and our.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Trauma is through our body.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Our heart rate, upset stomach.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Our upset stomach, Yeah, inability to sleep, all of that
is how we experience these, according to Yes, and that's
how he experienced the atonement.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
So we can.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Trust that he knows and understands how we feel through
any adversity.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
I would love to share the lyrics of a song
have sort of the Lamb of God oratorio.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yeah, did you see it this spring here in Cedar
City they performed it?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (26:47):
Was it the little high school at the Kenview High
speditorium the choir and an orchestra and narrators and Okay,
I love the Lamb of God.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
I play it every time I drive to serve in
the temple. Is because I have a twenty five minute drive,
so I can listen to a chunk of it.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
But wait to consecrate your time.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yep. Yeah, but it just gives me in again, a
real attitude of being in the temple and remembering Christ.
It was about the last week of his life, and
the words are taken from the Four Gospels and from
the New Testament.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
So this is one of the lyrics.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
It's sung by Thomas Doubting Thomas. So he's the one
that said, I will not believe that Christ is resurrected
until I see him and I touch him, and then
he was able to have that great experience. But this is,
of course, this part is fiction. It is just a
lyric that the composer wrote. But I love it. He
(27:44):
sings not now, but in the coming years. It may
not be when we demand. We'll read the meaning of
our tears, and there sometime we'll understand why what we
longed for most of all eludes our open, pleading hand,
our silence meets our call. Somewhere sometime will understand. So
(28:05):
trust in God through all thy days, fear not, for
he doth hold thy hand, though dark thy way, still
sing and praise. Sometime sometime we'll understand. Sometime will fall
on bend a knee and feel there graven on his hand.
Sometime with tearless eyes we'll see what here we could
(28:26):
not understand. So trust in God through all thy days,
fear not, for he doth hold thy hand though dark
thy way still sing and praise sometimes sometime we'll understand.
Though dark thy way still sing and praise sometime sometime
will understand. So that's beautiful to trust in God and
(28:50):
know that we will understand, and that right now Christ understands.
I bear testimony of this with all my heart and
say these sings in the name of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Amen, It's beautiful. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I really really deeply appreciate you sharing that. I just
felt so uplifted and thinking about just like different experiences
in my life and different people I know and people
I could.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Share this with.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And so one of the things I felt prompted to
do is to invite people listening to share this with
someone that you thought of while listening, because they could
benefit from it too. And I'm really grateful for your
willingness to share your story. I really appreciate it. Thank
you so much for listening and spending thirty minutes with us.
Once again, I hope you share it with someone else
(29:38):
that could benefit. And I know everything she said is true.
I have a testimony in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and in the atonement of Jesus Christ. And I'm really
grateful for it in my life. And if you don't
have a testimony of it yet, then I hope you
know that the keyword is yet, and as you seek
for a testimony, it will become one of your greatest
(29:59):
and most precious treasures and prize possessions. And I know
that to be true too, So thank you so much
for listening. Don't forget to embrace imperfection, find meaning, satisfaction
and joy from the journey. I'm Kaira, I'm Lenanimle and
this is imperfectly broken.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The podcast
Dude, Hello, and welcome back to my podcast today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am really excited.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
You know, every once in a while you have one
of those episodes that you're like, dang, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is going to be one of those.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And the reason it's going to be is because sister
Imlay has consecrated her experiences for the gain of herself
and others. And it's a really beautiful thing that she's done.
Back in twenty twenty one, I went to one of
those devotionals that Seu has BYU does them all the time,
but Su has one every single Sunday at six, and
she was invited to speak at one back in twenty
(00:49):
twenty one, like I said, and it just was really
touching and really inspiring to me. And so when I
ran into her at the temple however long ago, I
asked her if she'd be willing, and he kindly said yes. So,
Sister Emily, do you want to introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
I am living in New Harmony currently, just south.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Of Cedar City. Beautiful home.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
Thank you, glad you're here.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I've moved here twenty six years ago, so now it
feels like home. But I say I'm from Arizona. But
we've raised our kids. We are empty nesters. We've got
a garden, a cat and a dog and chickens. And
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Wonderful. Tell me where in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I didn't know that about you, Mason, Okay, So to
talk you talk about Arizona.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
There, there you go.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I didn't even know that about you, Okay, very cool.
So I just figured I would let you kind of
have the rains and all kind of guide us as needed.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Does not work for you, it's perfect, sweet perfect.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I'll just start by sharing this story that kind of
leads to people asking me to speak. It happened seventeen
years ago, regular August Day. It was in two thousand
and eight, and I was really concentrating on taking care
of my eighteen month old granddaughter. I was baby singing
(02:11):
her while her parents were in Missouri looking at graduate
school programs, and so I had to drive with her
up to Salt Lake City because my youngest daughter, Hannah,
was a senior in high school and playing in a
soccer tournament up there.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
So she went up.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Hannah went up with a school bus, and then I
drove with this eighteen month old granddaughter up to Salt
Lake and everything went great, and we watched the soccer game,
and then we started traveling home. And at about eight
thirty pm, my daughter in law called and she is
married to my oldest son, Dallen, and she was in
a panic, and she said, do you know when the
(02:45):
airplane is going to get home from Moab? And I
was so confused for a minute because I didn't understand
that my oldest son had worked with his dad that
day and they had flown to moeb that day as
part of a dermatology team. They went every month to
give dermatology services to Moapp And so I said, Camber, no,
I don't know when the plane's going to get home.
Let me make some phone calls. I called my husband's phone.
(03:08):
It rang and rang and rang, no answer. I called
his pa his phone. They were business phones and just
one digit difference, rang and rang and rang, no answer.
I called the airport, no answer, and so we just
kind of kept driving. I had no news for her,
and of course you could always think, well, no news
is good news. So the time clicked on, Hannah and
(03:29):
I were driving down fifteen, it was getting dark. I'd
look up in the sky and wonder where is that plane?
And I asked Hannah, I go what do you feel?
And we just we didn't feel anything alarming. And so
we got to Cedar City and I dropped her off
at the high school because her car was there, and
then she and I were starting to drive back home
(03:49):
and my phone rang again and it was a dear
neighbor and he said, where are you And I said,
I'm just around the corner from my house.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
He goes, I'm standing in front of your house.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I need to talk to you. And then I knew
then I knew that it was not going to be good.
And I said to him, I don't want to hear
anything you have to say, and he said I know.
So we parked and got out on the driveway and
there were people lining the sidewalks that had knew what
had happened before we did, and the Iron County sheriff
(04:21):
came up to us and said the plane has crashed
and there are no survivors. There were ten people from
Cedar City on the plane, including the pilot, and so
it was a tragic and unbelievable loss. And I remember
as soon as we had kind of greeted those people
(04:41):
and received their love. I took Hannah into the house
and we quickly went to the master bedroom and knelt
down by the side of the bed and just prayed,
because I knew we needed to turn to heavenly Father.
But how did we get through those first hours in day?
My heart was pounding, my intestines churned, and I trembled
(05:04):
and was so cold, my breath was shallow, and I
felt a deep heaviness. Well, we immediately knew we had
to go to my daughter in law's house, camber her apartment.
She and Dallan were SUU students, and she was eight
months pregnant.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
With their son.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I forgot about that part.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
She was twenty one years old and they had been
married for fifteen months. So we knocked on the door
and she was beside herself as you would expect, and
we shared the same terrible news that Dollan was gone,
and she collapsed and.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Crumbled and sobbed.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
So I often wonder, what are the sentences that introduced
us to the trials in our lives. Was it one
like mine, your husband's passed away, or your child has died,
or was it there has been an arrest or. The
diagnosis is cancer. Did you hear there's an addiction? You
are fired?
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Or I want a divorce?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I truly think that all of us could stand and
share heartbreaking experiences and stories of facing adversity. The variety
of trials that we experience on this earth is so
mind boggling.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
And each is a sorrow that compels us to wonder,
how will I ever get through this?
Speaker 4 (06:19):
On the funeral program the following week, we chose the
scripture Proverbs three Versus five and six.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Trust the Lord with all thine heart, and not until
thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge them, and
he shall direct thy paths.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Thank you. That's perfect. I always have to read it
so free.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, it was an fs Y theme, so we.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Memorize, yeah, yeah, so trust in the Lord. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
I did that.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
We did that as a family. We held onto the
Gospel of Jesus Christ with both hands. October Conference was
just like six seven weeks away, and we were praying
to receive comfort and answers and guidance from the conference
speakers and our son, our second son, Chris, had just
arrived in Japan as a missionary when the accident happened,
(07:09):
and even he could hardly wait. I knew that we
were looking for a specific sign that our suffering was
understood and could be explained, and our prayers were so answered.
Here is some of what we heard. President Monson's introduction
to conference. Some of you are struggling with problems, with challenges,
with disappointments, with losses.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
We love you and pray for you.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You can imagine that we thought that he was speaking,
oh yeah, directly to us. Elder Anderson taught in the
days of our difficulty, we choose faith. We don't know everything,
but we know enough. President Updorff reminded us hope in
our heavenly Father's merciful plan of happiness leads to peace, mercy, rejoicing,
(07:51):
and gladness to all who suffer, To all who feel discouraged, worried,
or lonely, I say, with deep love and concern for you,
never give in, never surrender, never allow despair to overcome
your spirit.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Those fel pretty pointed.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
So perfect. Elder worthlend Joseph P. Wor Worthlyn this.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Was his last talk before he passed away. He said,
these are words of wisdom that he learned from his mother.
Come what may, and love it in spite of discouragement
and adversity. Those who are happiest seem to have a
way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and
happier as a result. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be
(08:35):
a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love
it well. Come what may and love it. Became a
family mantra for us at that time. Elder Holland said,
I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind.
In doing so, I am testifying that God never leaves
us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges we face.
(08:57):
And I truly remember the mortal angel that surrounded us
at that time. Our community, our family, people praying for
us was an incredible experience.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What would you say was most helpful?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
People sometimes just saw what needed to be done and
did it. A group of our neighbors came and mowed
the lawn and we did. I had another neighbor that
came and said what can I do? And we were
in the middle of a bathroom remodel, and I said, okay,
everything just needs to be finished because we were filling
(09:29):
up the house with people for the funeral, and they
came and within twenty four hours finished that bathroom remodel.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
It's incredible, incredible.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Another man said, I want to take my teenage son
and help you. I want to do something, and he
knew we had a cabin. He goes, what could we
do at your cabin? Well, we had just had a
load of firewood dumped outside the cabin.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Well they went in and stacked it and put it
in the garage and got it out of the weather.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So yeah, people who either they did what they saw
needed to be done or they asked specifically, how can
we help?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And then I needed to be able to say this
is really what we need. You know, we do need
we do need some help.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
So and then, but prayers, prayers are so great, and
even sharing in sharing how they were feeling. Like someone
told me, every time I see you, my heartbreaks, and
I just thought that was the sweetest thing because she
got it right.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
She and she shared that.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
And then another another couple that were close friends with us,
they just came over and sat down and talked with
us about the people that we had lost.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
That's that's scary.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
I was really impressed with the people who were willing
to come and maybe they don't know what to do,
but they were just willing to come. They were and
get a hug, bring a box of Kleenex, anything, anything.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I think a lot of times when people lose loved ones,
others have no idea how to help and support and
they want to, but they're like, I don't even know exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, yeah, so I would say, definitely talk about the
people that passed is so sweet. That's what we wanted
to do, right, We wanted to talk about and how
amazing they.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Were, because it's not like bringing him up is going
to suddenly you know you already are thinking about that, right,
So yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
It's not more painful to bring him up. So I
appreciate that question. Yeah, yeah, continue, Sorry, No, you're fine.
Back to conference, Elder Cook revealed, we are aware that
many who are listening to this conference are experiencing trials
and hardships of such intensity that the underlying feeling in
their hearts as they approach our Father in Heaven in
(11:33):
prayer is hope. You know, I'm having a hard time,
And that was said like in a childlike I think
it was a childhood said that. So shortly after General
conference one afternoon, my daughter Hannah was offered a priestood
blessing from a family friend before an important soccer game.
She was playing her senior year of varsity soccer, and
he was so sweet he offered to give me a
(11:55):
blessing as well. And so this brother Den Halter spoke
these words of counsel from a loving father in heaven
to me. He said, to pursue joy and happiness is
not being untrue to your loss. And so I'm just
going to say that again, to pursue joy and happiness
is not being untrue to your loss. And this felt
(12:17):
like direct encouragement from God and was evidence of his
hand in my life. I think sometimes when something hard happens,
we think we have to be so sad and could
never have joy and happiness again, and that I think
is probably true for a time. But how much healthier
it is to get beyond that space and then say, oh,
(12:39):
I'm not being untrue to the loss by pursuing joy
and happiness. And that's a great comfort and a direction
that we can go. Another thing that we did as
a family that was incredible was see the tender mercies
in our lives from the hand of God, like that
priesthood blessing. Another mercy I realized in hindsight was the
(13:02):
calmness that I experienced that evening as I drove home
from Salt Lake City. That was a blessing because the
minute the reality of what happened hit us, I would
not have been able to drive, and there we would
have been in the middle of a tower with a
baby in a car seat, and my daughter and I
would have been a basket case. But instead we were
blessed with calmness, even though it was obvious, probably that
(13:26):
the plane had crashed right, it was obvious, but we
were protected until we got home safely. So that was
a great tender mercy. And then an interesting thing with
Chris again, my son who was serving in Japan. He
had arrived maybe five days before the accident in Japan,
and he'd been assigned a companion and they were going
(13:46):
to be sent to the far corner of the mission
to serve, but their apartment was not ready, and so
when the phone call came that his dad and brother
had passed, he was still in the mission home and
the mission president and his wife were a will to
sucker him and lift him up. And then his companion revealed.
His Japanese companion revealed that he had also already lost
(14:10):
one parent and two siblings to cancer before he came
on his mission.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
And when you think of that, that is not a coincident. No, definitely,
that's a miracle.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And that is a heavenly father who knew what our
son needed. He needed someone to understand what he was
going through, what it feels like.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
They're going to be together.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
They were together for seven months, and this cute little
Japanese elder would say, oh, actually he was tall.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
I shouldn't call him cute little. He was just a
beautiful soul.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
But he would say, Elder Ellsworth, the seven of us
are going to go tracting today.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
And that was the two of them.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
And then the five people on the other side of
the veil from their family that had already passed on.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
Such faith and perseverance and such a blessing. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
As a mom, I'm like, what do you want for
your missionary that's serving on the other side of the
world and just lost his dad and brother. You want
his companion to know what that feels like. I was
so thankful and grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
That's a testimony of unspoken prayers and the fact that
they were paired before this even happened.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's that's not evidence. I don't know what it.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Is exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And so if you don't have eyes to see the
tender mercies, they're there. They're there, but we need to
see them through faith that there's a heavenly father. You
could you could turn away from God in the middle
of a trial and adversity instead of.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Turning to God.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And then if you turn away, we'll miss the miracles
and the tender mercies which sustain us and buy us
up and increase our faith.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Yeah, So those were some of them. Another thing that
we did was ministered to others. We had a dear
friend the day after the accident, just the house gets
full of people coming to share their condolences. She just
walked in, didn't say anything. She caught my eye across
the kitchen. She was carrying an ice chest. She put
(16:10):
it in a corner of the kitchen. Then that she
went back and forth to her car, filled it full
of drinks, gatorades, sodas, waters, juices, poured ice on top
of it gave me a quick hug and left. When
you're sobbing and in shock, it's very nice to have
an ice chest full of water in the corner of
your kitchen.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Did I know that?
Speaker 4 (16:30):
No?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
But now I know it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
And ever since then, when we know that someone has
experienced a tragedy or a loss, we take an ice
chest full of drinks and ice because we know. And
they're always like, how did you know? Oh, we know,
But it was because she knew and shared that with us.
So ministring with others is actually a great way to soothe.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
Your own heart.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
And from each adversity or trial that we fail, we
learned something very specific. We're going to see people going
forward in our lives that are going through something similar,
and now we know how to serve. Like you said,
now we know what they might need. Yeah, so that
was a blessing. That was a blessing.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
I remember Elder Neil A.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Maxwell talked about he got leukemia as an apostle. I
did not know that he got leukemia, battled, it went
into remission, and then he eventually got it again and
passed away from it. But while he was in remission,
he said, in addition to being an apostle, I ministered
to people who are going through cancer treatment because he
(17:37):
knew that's incredible.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Is that the coolest thing I love?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Elder Maxim, Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Yeah, so you might want to look that up, but
now I do.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
He talked about that, and who better to minister to
people going through cancer treatment than someone that just went
through cancer treatment. And so through our extremities, were prepared
to serve and bless the lives of others, which I
think is so valuable.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Can we talk about a law of consecration? Real question?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So I love everything you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I like to connect to making sacred and making holy,
and that is the law of consecration. So one of
the temple covenants we make is the law of concretion.
And basically what that is saying as though we'll dedicate
our time, talents, and everything which what the Lord has
given us and blessed us with to building up the
Kingdom of God. And one of the things that I
admire about you is that you live the law of
(18:26):
consecration to the soulest. And I know that to be
true because you share this story which is probably hard
and vulnerable, not probably it is so that others can
benefit from that. And I just think that's really incredible.
So thank you for that.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
And the thing that I thought of when you said,
the love concretion. I think sometimes we think it's in
the distant future that we'll be living that law like
a more organized told how to do it way, and
like the law of order. Is that what it was
called when they were they were living it here, the.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Love concert concuration.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
And so we don't need to wait, we don't need
to wait to be told how to do it. It
will be blessed to know how to do it, especially
through the Holy Ghost and promptings and seeing other people.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Like you said, seeing other people, that's how I learn.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
I see other people doing it, and then I can
follow them.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Christ Ice did it, so we can follow him.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
I loved this quote by Joseph Smith. He had these
feelings after being imprisoned in a liberty jail, and he
wrote these in a letter to a friend. He said,
after having been enclosed in the walls of a prison
for five months, it seems to me that my heart
will always be more tender after this than ever it
was before. I think I never could have felt as
(19:49):
I do now if I had not suffered the wrongs
that I have suffered. So our trials make us uniquely
prepared to support others.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
That was a really powerful quote that I've never heard, that.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
One that he that he recognized it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I love that he says. What does he say? Tender heart,
soft heart?
Speaker 5 (20:09):
My heart will always be more tender after this than
it was before. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
If that's not reason for suffering and pain, then I
don't you know, I don't know what it is. Because
God wants us to become like him, and.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yeah, it would it. And these are just mortal experiences.
People die, planes crash, we will experience loss and heartache
from cancer or a variety of the things that we've
talked about, tribulations. And do they soften us or do
they harden us?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
To us?
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Right?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah, Another way, and again, we were trying to access
the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I guess that was one of our.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Main questions is how we know that there's grace and enabling.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Through Jesus Christ's atonement, but how do we access that?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
And one other way is that we did it was
to fill our minds with truth and let me just
add this little thing. Camber, our daughter in law. She
moved in with me and Hannah that night and she
finished her senior year at SUU had her baby, their
baby Porter. So she is a hero to me in
(21:18):
the way that she persevered heartbroken. I didn't lose a
spouse when I was twenty one. I couldn't even imagine
what that was like. But she persevered. But she's the
one that we were like, how do we access the atonement?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
We know it's there right because you're suffering yourself, but
you want to reach out and help her?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
So when we were thinking about that, we were asking,
there are all kinds of trials and adversity, who's this hardest?
Speaker 5 (21:44):
And then we decided, you don't compare. You just don't
need to answer that question.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
No matter what kind of adversity we face, we must
choose how to handle it. This life is about choice
another word for choices agency. Pursuing joy is a choice.
Our minds tell us that when bad things happen, we
can only be sorrowful, filled with disappointment, discouragement, hopelessness. And
(22:08):
I don't in any way want to minimize the severe
trauma that accompanies adversity. I have experienced that, and our
lives can be turned completely upside down, emotionally, physically, spiritually.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Financially, mentally, and socially upside down.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
The distress is real and unavoidable for a time, but
eventually we must focus on truths that lift us and
propel us forward. Absolute truths that are an, unchanging and eternal,
And here are a few. It is true that you
are a beloved child of heavenly Father, who knows you.
(22:47):
It is true that after each dark and fearful night,
there is a sun that rises to give us light.
This is a daily symbol of Jesus Christ and his
ability to bring light into our lives. It is true
that the Holy ghosts can be our constant companion. He
comforts and he teaches. It is true that we live
on an earth of astounding beauty. See the glory of
(23:10):
God and His love for you in sunsets, seasons, sens, animals,
and water. It is true that we can pursue joy
and happiness without being untrue to our loss. It is
true that living on this earth and enduring the atonement
helped Christ identify.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
With our sufferings, and he can succor us as we
overcome trials.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
I did have a conversation recently with my son in
law Cameron. So he Hannah married Cameron and their first
pregnancy resulted in a son with a trisomey similar to
Down syndrome, and so that's been very challenging is that
Sun has special needs. He's nonverbal, he has a feeding tube,
lots of real challenges. Cameron has a brother, a young
(24:00):
brother named Griffin, and he and his wife. Griffin and
his wife had twin girls a few years ago with
the twin to twin transfusion syndrome, and after a lot
of medical procedures, they ended up losing both twins. So
that was heartbreaking for Griffin, Cameron's brother. Then he has
an older brother, Jackson, who just this past fall, Jackson
(24:22):
and his wife's fourth pregnancy encountered placenta abruption, so their
son was born at twenty nine weeks, so ten weeks
early was in the NICKU and Jackson called this other brother, Cameron,
and said, I wish I had come to support you
when Samuel was born.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
I didn't know what you were going through. I didn't understand.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I wish I had gone to the graveside service of
the twins to support Griffin and his wife. I didn't know.
I didn't understand. But now because he has a son
in the Nicku, he knows and understands.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
And a vivid thought came.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
To me, this is why Christ had to go through
his atoning sacrifice and bear all things so that he
could know, so that he could understand, so that he
could sucker us in our traumas.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh wow, beautiful. It reminds me. I was listening to
a speech by President Irek and I don't know when
it was given because.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
It was one of those classic speeches on the podcast
that it was like, I don't know, could have been
nineteen seventy something, I don't know. Yeah, but anyway, he
talks about how God had the power and Christ have
the choice to spiritually experience everything.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
That week like, does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Like he could have done the atonement in a different
way if he had chosen that, but he chose not
to do that, and he chose instead to physically, emotionally,
spiritually actually experience it.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
And that blew my mind.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
I was like, wow, that is a great point, Like
he spiritually could have understood everything, but instead he made
the decision to actually feel it so that he could
perfectly suffer.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Us great and that was through his body because he
had his body and experienced so much of our anxiety
and our.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Trauma is through our body.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Our heart rate, upset stomach.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Our upset stomach, Yeah, inability to sleep, all of that
is how we experience these, according to Yes, and that's
how he experienced the atonement.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
So we can.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Trust that he knows and understands how we feel through
any adversity.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
I would love to share the lyrics of a song
have sort of the Lamb of God oratorio.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yeah, did you see it this spring here in Cedar
City they performed it?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (26:47):
Was it the little high school at the Kenview High
speditorium the choir and an orchestra and narrators and Okay,
I love the Lamb of God.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
I play it every time I drive to serve in
the temple. Is because I have a twenty five minute drive,
so I can listen to a chunk of it.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
But wait to consecrate your time.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yep. Yeah, but it just gives me in again, a
real attitude of being in the temple and remembering Christ.
It was about the last week of his life, and
the words are taken from the Four Gospels and from
the New Testament.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
So this is one of the lyrics.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
It's sung by Thomas Doubting Thomas. So he's the one
that said, I will not believe that Christ is resurrected
until I see him and I touch him, and then
he was able to have that great experience. But this is,
of course, this part is fiction. It is just a
lyric that the composer wrote. But I love it. He
(27:44):
sings not now, but in the coming years. It may
not be when we demand. We'll read the meaning of
our tears, and there sometime we'll understand why what we
longed for most of all eludes our open, pleading hand,
our silence meets our call. Somewhere sometime will understand. So
(28:05):
trust in God through all thy days, fear not, for
he doth hold thy hand, though dark thy way, still
sing and praise. Sometime sometime we'll understand. Sometime will fall
on bend a knee and feel there graven on his hand.
Sometime with tearless eyes we'll see what here we could
(28:26):
not understand. So trust in God through all thy days,
fear not, for he doth hold thy hand though dark
thy way still sing and praise sometimes sometime we'll understand.
Though dark thy way still sing and praise sometime sometime
will understand. So that's beautiful to trust in God and
(28:50):
know that we will understand, and that right now Christ understands.
I bear testimony of this with all my heart and
say these sings in the name of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Amen, It's beautiful. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I really really deeply appreciate you sharing that. I just
felt so uplifted and thinking about just like different experiences
in my life and different people I know and people
I could.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Share this with.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And so one of the things I felt prompted to
do is to invite people listening to share this with
someone that you thought of while listening, because they could
benefit from it too. And I'm really grateful for your
willingness to share your story. I really appreciate it. Thank
you so much for listening and spending thirty minutes with us.
Once again, I hope you share it with someone else
(29:38):
that could benefit. And I know everything she said is true.
I have a testimony in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and in the atonement of Jesus Christ. And I'm really
grateful for it in my life. And if you don't
have a testimony of it yet, then I hope you
know that the keyword is yet, and as you seek
for a testimony, it will become one of your greatest
(29:59):
and most precious treasures and prize possessions. And I know
that to be true too, So thank you so much
for listening. Don't forget to embrace imperfection, find meaning, satisfaction
and joy from the journey. I'm Kaira, I'm Lenanimle and
this is imperfectly broken.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
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