From David's Farewell

The Helaman Sons Letters Issue No. 7 – From David’s Farewell

I want to share with you just a brief personal experience.  About a week and a half ago, myself and a couple of my friends planned a date.  We had lined up some fun, good Christmas things to do.  We found some people that we were able to help that night, but on the way one of the girls asked if we couldn’t stop by the nursing home.  We had some fudge and we could deliver it to her grandmother.

We went into the nursing home and went to a room where she thought her grandmother was staying.  Her grandmother wasn’t there so we asked an older lady who was in that room if she knew where this girl’s grandmother was.  She said she had been moved to a different room.  We stayed for a few minutes and got to know this older lady a little.  She was in a wheelchair and told us a little about her childhood and her husband who died several years ago.  Then one of our group said, “You know, you look very beautiful today.”  To our surprise, she began to cry.  Big tears welled up in her eyes and she said, “You know the medical condition that I have is causing me to go blind.  I can’t see myself anymore.  I can’t look in the mirror.  I don’t know if I am beautiful.”  We assured her in fact that she was very, very beautiful.  And then it came time that we needed to move on and I said to her, “Would you mind if we all gave you a big hug before we left?”  And we each took our turn.  As I bent down to her wheelchair and put my arms around her I felt her big, wet tears run right down the side of my face.  I put my cheek up against hers and she just cried and said, “You know, it has been so long since a man gave me a hug.  It has been so long since a young man came in to see me and gave me a hug.”  And we assured her that we would return again and that we loved her as we walked out the door she said, “Please, next time, bring the hugs, bring the hugs.”  We assured her that we would return and then we left.  Isn’t it interesting that the greatest opportunities for service are not in our plans but we must respond to the promptings of the Spirit, as did the Savior.

We went on with the rest of the night.  We were able to take a Christmas tree to someone who didn’t have one and decorate one for another who wasn’t able to.  I took my date to her house and about 11:30 I got home and I distinctly remember because it was the night that we had attacked Panama.  I stayed up until about 1:00 o’clock and listened to the news and followed the developments there and then I went in to go to bed.  As I said my prayers I knelt down and I began to thank the Lord for the opportunities that we had had to serve that night, for they were many.  And as I did, I had a feeling that I don’t think I have ever had before.  More glorious than I think that I can even describe to you.  You see, when I began to thank Him for those opportunities to serve I was thinking about the major events, the things that we had done, the Christmas trees and the caroling.  But my mind went back to that ten minutes in that nursing home room and I had a feeling that said for ten minutes of your lives you did the things that the Savior would have done if He were there.  If He would have went to these other people I am sure He would have had a better idea of really what their needs were.  Their spiritual needs, the things that they really needed.  But for ten minutes we represented Him…I can’t tell you what that means.  You see He would have known that she couldn’t see herself and that she needed to  know that she was beautiful and that she hadn’t had hugs and that she needed to know that she was loved and then He would have promised to return.  And He would have returned.  That feeling is more glorious than I can ever describe to you and it is the feeling that comes when we resolve to do the things that please the Master.  I know that I am just beginning to understand what these things are, but I know that if we analyze the life of Jesus Christ and look at where He spent His time and the kind of people He spent His time with, I know that we can find those things and that through the promptings of the Holy Ghost that we can know what He would do.

I have not lived very many years in this world, only 19.  And I am conscious of very many, many weaknesses and inadequacies and where I need to be in relationship to the things that I have been given.  But I testify to you that there is one thing that is not weak.  I know that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that He is the very Son of the Eternal Father and that in Him all power and authority is vested and that in and through Him we may have life and that eternally.  I know that of myself, independent of any other person on this earth.  Until I die I will bear testimony of His name because I know that it is in and through the Holy Messiah that I am redeemed and that there is no other way.  Without His merits I would be nothing.  I bear testimony that He will rise again upon the earth in a much different manner than He came before, for a thousand year period that we will call the Millennium.  It will be filled with peace, and there will come a time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.  But I humbly do so now and pray that I might lay claim on His atoning sacrifice because were it not for His atonement I do not know what I would do.  The weight of my sins I testify would be more than I could bear and to think that I could not return into the presence of the Father would fill me with pain that I cannot explain.  But I love my Savior because He provided that for me.

I mentioned several effects that come from deciding to do the things that please the Master.  There is one more that I want to make just brief mention of.  I don’t think that it can be explained with words and I think that it can only be felt and experienced, but there will come into the hearts of those who make that resolve a desire to find the will of God for them and then with the help of Jesus Christ achieve that will, and to return into His presence and to enjoy Eternal Life.  Worlds without end.  I can’t describe to you how that feels and how much it means to me and how thankful I am for that feeling that is in my heart.

I pray that we might all resolve to do the things that would please Him.  That we might come under the influence of the Holy Ghost and that we will begin to do the things that He would do and represent Him and come to know Him and become one with Him that we may inherit all that the Father hath.  That when He shall appear that we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is, is my humble prayer.  In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Next post is on companionships.  David wrote about his thinking on companionships and then over the next several months others commented about it and added their own thoughts until I had enough to put out a page just on Companionships.  I am sure that it was helpful for the Guides, and hope it will be for you.