We're all God's children and we have a responsibility to
look out for one another and to lift and strengthen and
help each other.
The Church helps where help is needed.
Michelle and her husband, Troy, lived in our ward and had two
small children and Troy's health was really difficult.
He couldn't work any longer and Michelle was supporting
the family.
Bills were just piling up.
Things just weren't getting paid the way they should.
And Michelle was a lot more hesitant than Troy
in asking for help.
The bishop talked to me and asked me point blank, "What
kinds of bills are you having problems with?
How much money is coming in?
Let's look at what resources you have available, what
resources have you already used.
The bishop had requested that I go over and
interview for her needs.
It was tough for me to allow her to fill in those numbers.
Michelle was trying to be extremely frugal.
And she asked if we needed ice cream, and I said "No, we don't
need any ice cream; we don't need to take any of that."
And the children say, "Ice cream, we want ice cream."
So we got ice cream.
And that was another testimony to me that Heavenly Father
wants us to have not only the things that we need to get by,
but also some of the things that we want.
The bishops' storehouse is one of my favorite places in the
whole world.
It was starting to get cold when she asked me if the kids
needed anything to keep warm with the
cooler weather coming.
It's very easy to say no for yourself.
I always want to say yes for our children and so I said we
do need a coat for him.
When we got to the bishops' storehouse and he found this
blue one that he thought was the coolest thing ever and I
was very surprised.
These weren't secondhand coats, which I would have been
perfectly happy with.
These were great quality coats that the Church was just
giving to us.
I had been raised in the Church all my life, but I had
never seen those resources or known
that they were available.
We're not in this alone, and no individual needs to go
through these difficult things alone.
But there are many, many who are willing and able to help.
That was a real changing point for me about the Church's use
of its resources to help people.
It seems sweeter to me, somehow.
Troy had been sick for a while.
We found out later that what was actually going on was that
he had an autoimmune disease that was just
destroying his own body.
Troy's death was more sudden than any of us thought.
We knew he was sick, but we had no idea he was that sick.
We had gone to the funeral home.
I noticed that the sidewalk looked like it
had just been scrubbed.
Somebody who was at my house said that the neighbor lady
next door had done it and I just couldn't imagine how she
had done that.
She was behind a walker but she had been out there with
her broom sweeping and when I went over to thank her, she
just said, "I just didn't think you should have to worry about
that sidewalk being dirty today."
Somebody brought paper plates and napkins and plastic
silverware so she didn't have to do dishes.
After the funeral when they took him to the cemetery, we
wanted to release balloons.
I counted down I think and we released the balloons and it
just seemed to form a heart in the sky.
It's amazing to know that Troy goes on.
We are a family.
However it all works out in the end, I don't have all the
answers, but we are a family.
This is a separation; it is not permanent.
Again, we will be with him again.
We don't have to give loved ones up forever.
We will have the opportunity to be with them again.
I know that the Savior loves us.
I know that He knew my pain.
He knew my children's pain.
He knew Troy's pain too.
The Lord loves us so much.
He knows that the only way we can grow and become more like
Him is to have some of these personal trials.
I'm grateful that our church is a church of generosity that
wants to spread that and make that accessible to people all
over the world.
Our time on this earth is an opportunity to learn and to
love and to share and to bless the lives of each other.
We were definitely the recipients of love that I hope
that someday I will be worthy enough to deserve.
You can't ever take away somebody's trials.
You can't take away their grief.
But if you can lift a small burden for a moment, it helps.
We have been greatly, greatly cared for.