[Katzpur]

I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through, and don’t even want to try to imagine what your daughter is going through. She’ll be in my prayers. Just remember that the vast majority of people who were the sickest eventually did recover. This too shall pass.

[Katzpur]

Does she live alone? I hope there is someone taking care of her.

[Katzpur]

mom3 wrote:

My overseas daughter has contracted Covid19. She was tested Sunday. Confirmed this morning. She is on house quarantine but on the list for ambulance pick up if the fever portion kicks in.

The world is looking very different to me right now.

Oh, no, mom3. I’m so, so sorry. Please keep us informed, and we will keep her and you in our prayers. How hard, too, to be separated during this time.

[Katzpur]

I’m fine with a tiered heaven — in fact it makes sense to me — provided there is the opportunity for upward movement. I’ve always been taught that there isn’t, but I am not aware that the scriptures actually say that is to be the case. As with most of my beliefs, I go with what makes sense to me in light of what I believe a loving Father in Heaven would do.

[Katzpur]

Wow, Roadrunner! What a beautiful letter! You ought to feel a great satisfaction in showing your kids what true love and true integrity are.

[Katzpur]

Hi, sknab. You know, what I zeroed in on in your post was the phrase, “there’s one thing in my life that… according to LDS belief, would most likely keep me out of the Celestial Kingdom.” Try to keep in mind that “LDS belief” is going to be pretty irrelevant at the end of the day. As my all-time-favorite bishop once said, “Your salvation is between you and the Lord. It’s not between you and your bishop or you and your stake president or you and the Prophet. It’s between you and the Lord. Period.” Nobody else’s opinion is going to even be taken into account. You also said that you “haven’t been able to let go” of this thing. That indicates to me that you’re at least trying, and that your heart’s in the right place.

Have you ever read, “Believing Christ” by Stephen E. Robinson? When it came out in the early 90s, pretty much every English-speaking adult member of the Church read it. At the age of 71, I’ve never found another book that has given me such insights into Jesus Christ’s Atonement and how it applies to the very issue you’re dealing with. You can still occasionally find copies of it in Deseret Book (brick and mortar or online), and there are also copies of it to be found on Amazon. If you haven’t read it, please do yourself a favor and do so. It will make you see things in an entirely different light.

One final thought… The older I get, the more I’ve come to trust in my own gut feelings about things. If it “just doesn’t make sense that a loving God that cares so much about the family unit would break it apart,” then go with your feeling that He won’t. Don’t just assume that certain commonly accepted beliefs among the rank and file members of the Church (or even among “the Brethren”) are necessarily correct. It has only been within the last couple of years that I’ve been able to find peace in what my own mind and heart tell me, and to accept my own understanding as being as valid and legitimate as anybody else’s. For years, I always told my husband that I wished the Holy Ghost would speak to me the way He apparently speaks to other people, confirming in their minds that certain things are “true.” It’s been very, very recently that I’ve started to think differently. If something “doesn’t make sense” to me, then I no longer dwell on it. I think the peace I’ve found in what I actually think a loving God would do under certain circumstances comes from the Holy Ghost. Acknowledging that my own thoughts aren’t always going to coincide with “LDS belief” has made me a lot happier than I was before. Trust what you believe a truly loving God would do, and don’t worry about what anybody else says He’ll do.

[Katzpur]

TinSoldier wrote:

You mean they won’t be preaching to the choir?

😆

[Katzpur]

Minyan Man and Curt… Thank you both for you kind, kind words. I can’t tell you how much they mean to me.

[Katzpur]

I haven’t thought much about this thread lately, but having been reminded of it, I just thought I’d post the talk I was asked to give in my home ward Sacrament Meeting last month. My husband and I asked to be excused from the first hour of our jail assignment in order to share with our home ward members how our calling is going. So, here’s my 12-minute talk:

Good morning, brothers and sisters. It’s been just about fifteen months now since Matt and I last attended Sacrament Meeting here in the Brighton 5th Ward, and I’m so happy to be here with you today. We’ve been asked to speak on the subject of salvation, and to share with you how we have come to more fully understand and appreciate the Atonement, through the experiences we’ve had while serving at the Salt Lake Metropolitan Jail.

Now, “salvation” is word that means different things to different people. I know that as an LDS child, I never gave much thought to the possibility of not being “saved.” I knew that I had a Heavenly Father who loved me and who had given me the opportunity to leave His presence for a period of time, with the expectation that I would someday return to Him, ready to take the next step on my eternal journey. The prospect of perhaps spending eternity not only separated from Him, but in an “everlasting state of torment” was just something that didn’t figure into my idea of what a loving Father would want for His children. Salvation, to me, and to most of you, I’m sure, is so much more than that.

Most often, when we as Latter-day Saints use the word, “salvation,” we’re actually speaking of “the fullness of salvation” which is Exaltation, or Life Eternal in the Celestial Kingdom. That “the fullness of salvation” truly is an attainable goal has always resonated with me, mostly because the life I’ve been blessed to live has given me something of a head start on the road to that goal. I was raised by an extraordinary mother and father in a Christ-centered, LDS home. I was not raised by two alcoholic, heroin-addicted parents. I didn’t grow up in a dozen or more different foster homes, abandoned or abused by the people whose responsibility it was to love and nurture me. Neither of my parents ever sat me down as a youth and suggested that we smoke a little weed together.

It’s hard to focus on the Celestial Kingdom when you’re sitting in the corner of a deep, dark, cold pit, as so many of the men in jail are. Before you can aspire to what your Father in Heaven has in store for you, you have to be able to climb out of that pit and get to a place where you can envision Heaven as at least being within the realm of possibility. For my brothers in jail, salvation begins with healing, and healing often begins with the one hour each Sunday we spend with them. Several of them have told us that, for them, being in jail has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The scriptures often describe Christ as a Healer, and not just of the physical body. Early in His ministry, He stated that He had been sent “to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives… and to set at liberty them that are bruised.” In chapter 18 of 3 Nephi, we read His words to the Nephites concerning their responsibility towards those among them whom they deemed to be “unworthy.” “Ye shall not cast [them] out of your synagogues or your places of worship,” He said. “For unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.”

What a sobering responsibility it is to be able to help prepare some of my brothers to return to the loving arms of the only individual who can truly heal their hearts and souls! I love teaching these men those simple, basic, gospel truths that we sometimes lose focus on as our knowledge of the gospel becomes more sophisticated – truths like what the purpose of life is, why we have adversity, how Christ can strengthen us during hard times, what it means to have faith in Him, the need for repentance, and why it is so important that we learn to forgive others.

In interacting with these men, I have come to genuinely care about them. The funny thing is that a handful of them have come to mean so much to me that, at times, I’ve been puzzled by my own feelings. I’ve wondered, “Am I really so naive that these men are so easily able to endear themselves to me? Or is something within me changing?” I’ve come to the conclusion that I really am at least starting to see these men as Christ sees them, and it’s been a sacred, humbling transformation for me.

Prior to my first week at the jail, as excited as I was to be setting out on this new adventure, I will admit that I was uneasy about how – or if – I was going to be able to relate to these men. Would they be sullen, belligerent or disrespectful? Would they make light of sacred things? Would they look at me with contempt because I was on the outside and they were on the inside? Would they respond to questions or contribute at all to class discussions? Most of all, I wondered: Would I even be able to make eye contact with them? It took just one Sunday in jail for me to realize that these concerns were completely unfounded.

These men are not scary. They are sad, afraid, confused, and discouraged. They desperately need the light the Savior can bring into their lives. Because He knows that, He is in attendance each and every week. We always start our class with an opening hymn of the men’s choosing. The most often picked hymn is “I Am a Child of God.” They remember that one from their days in Primary. If you’re not feeling the Spirit when class starts, by the time those grown me in prison garb have finished singing, “Lead me, guide me, walk beside me. Help me find the way,” I promise, you will be.

We then ask for a volunteer to offer an opening prayer. Most of the time, one of the brothers wants to do so. The prayers they offer are simple, heartfelt and unpretentious, and they almost always thank their Heavenly Father for our willingness to spend our Sundays with them. While it’s clear to us that they are sincerely appreciative, I suspect they have no idea that being there is truly every bit as much a blessing for us as it is for them. They also pray for each other and for their loved ones on the outside. The separation from family is difficult for them, especially for those with children. And let me assure you: they love their children like you love yours. A few weeks back, we were talking about how the Savior can help us through our trials. I asked for their input as to what some of their trials were. One mentioned addiction, another, divorce. The third man to respond broke my heart when he said, “having to watch my kids grow up through pictures.”

While Matt and I are still learning how to be effective teachers, we feel inspired to try to convey to our brothers that their Heavenly Father loves them, that He will never give up on them, that nothing they’ve done is beyond the cleansing power of the Atonement, and that it’s never too late for them to get off the path they’ve been on and onto one that will lead them to a happy and productive life and, ultimately, back to God’s presence. We encourage them to pray often, to watch for the Lord’s hand in their lives, to recognize that they can’t change without His help, to accept our Father in Heaven’s will and to remain optimistic about the future.

Brothers and sisters, for several years prior to receiving this calling, I’d been really struggling to get up and go to church on Sundays. Please do not misunderstand and assume this to be due to some sort of “faith crisis” or loss of testimony; it wasn’t that at all. It was more just a lack of enthusiasm and a feeling that, much of the time, I was just going through the motions. I was not really being fed spiritually and I didn’t feel as if I were making much of a difference in anybody else’s life either. Church activity had become just one more tedious, mundane obligation, and I found that to be both frustrating and disturbing, not to mention the fact that it made me really, really sad. At any rate, for several months, starting roughly the middle of 2018, every day when I said my prayers, I pleaded with my Heavenly Father to lead me to find a renewed joy in the gospel and to once again know the satisfaction of serving someone who genuinely needed me. Every day, I’d say, “Father, please! Please, help me find the place where I belong. I’m hurting, and I need your help.” I knew I was saved. I just needed to be healed, and as a result of this calling, I have been.

Serving in the Metro 1st Branch isn’t just my calling. At the risk of sounding like something of a drama queen, let me just say: “IT’S MY CALLING.” For me personally, it just doesn’t get any better than this. I am serving “the least of these [my] brethren” in the Lord’s hospital. I feel Jesus Christ there at my side every Sunday, and I cannot even begin to express how my life has changed over the past fifteen months. You may at some point be asked to serve at the jail. If you are, it is my prayer that you will welcome the opportunity to grow in a way you never imagined possible. And I ask this in the name of our loving Savior and Healer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

[Katzpur]

Minyan Man wrote:

I must bump this up again. Anything new to report Katzpur? How has the virus affected your calling?

I need inspiration bad!

We have been told that we won’t be able to visit the jail for at least 30 days. That means that the earliest we could go back would be on Easter, but to be honest, it don’t expect we’ll be allowed back till mid-May. I feel bad for the inmates. They really love our Sunday services. Of course, all other outside programs are also temporarily suspended. This means GED tutoring, etc.

[Katzpur]

Well, it was just barely announced that Conference will be closed to the general public. Nobody will be allowed in the Conference Center except the General Authorities, the Tabernacle Choir and technical support people.

[Katzpur]

I don’t know that all of this is really necessary. After all, Trump said just the day before yesterday that “it’s all under control.” 🙄

[Katzpur]

Minyan Man wrote:

I’ve been thinking since a post by TinSoldier’s Introduction & comments from DarkJedi. The discussion involved Temple Sealings & the thought

that at some level, we all will be sealed as a common family. BYU has a web site called: relativefinder.org. This web site asks you to sign in

using your FamilySearch.org account. It compares all user accounts & tells you who you’re related to (both living & dead). You can set up a group

that specifically looks at members of the group & tells you if we’re related. It would be completely voluntary & even password protected, if

desired. We could set up a group for StayLDS.com. The more names enrolled & the more names on your family tree the more connections you

make. We have done it for our Ward, Stake & Temple District. The results are very interesting.

There are people in our ward, for example, that greet each other as: “Hi Cousin”.

My thought is: this could help show that we are more related than we can imagine.

Maybe the Administrators could discuss & decide if it’s feasible. If not, I completely understand.

I love the idea! We did it in our ward a few years back. I found a second cousin and a third cousin, and we now address each other as “cousin.” I would definitely participate.

[Katzpur]

Minyan Man wrote:

Reflecting on Jesus Christ, his life seemed to be an open book. When it comes to our day of judgement, our life

will be an open book too. Shouldn’t Christ’s church be as open to the membership with their financial transactions?

My personal belief is: when my money leaves my bank account, it’s not my money anymore.

For me to think otherwise will make me angry & resentful.

My feelings EXACTLY.

[Katzpur]

Minyan Man wrote:

I think it was David O McKay who said:

Quote:

The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better.

This certainly is a big part of your calling and the message of the video.

I watched it several times today & shared it with my friends & family.

Thanks again.

I’m so glad you watched it! And I’m really glad you liked it and shared it! Merry Christmas!

[Author]

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