Dear Elder Lutze,
Who is Jesus Christ to Me?
Because we are here on the earth, we all chose to follow Heavenly Father’s plan and His Son Jesus Christ. And in this, our limited time on earth, we each have the opportunity to choose Jesu Christ again. It is in this daily opportunity to choose Him again that we find Him. And when we find Him, we come to know Him. We learn from John that to know Jesus Christ is to have eternal life. When we know Him, we will desire to, and eventually become like Him and obtain eternal life. Truly wise men and women still seek Him. So how and where have I found Jesus Christ in my journey that He has become, over my lifetime, my best friend, my light, my joy, and my song. He truly leads me along. How have I come to know Him in this way?
In 2012, we participated in my family’s family reunion. One of the items from that reunion that I still display in our home today is a tile with these words in the middle… “Lest we forget and lose our testimony…” and around the sides of the tile are 8 important items to not forget. They are
Temple
Church leaders
Family
Prayer
Scriptures
Holy Ghost
Covenants
Christ
Woven through all 8 items is personal revelation that continues to build my knowledge of Jesus Christ and who He is for me. I want to speak to you today, of how I have found Him and have come to know Him through these 8 areas.
Temple – While my children were teenagers, I often prayed to have a better understanding of charity and to have it more fully in my life. Be careful what you pray for! As our children left and went off to college, one of our daughters left the gospel path. I prayed relentlessly to know what to do and the answer that continued to come each time. “My job is to heal her. Your job is to love her.” This has been one of my greatest trials – to still love her as Christ does, to see her as He does, while she’s making poor choices. I knew I needed more strength to handle this trial and for me the answer was to increase my temple attendance. I love the temple and wept at the veil the verry first time I went back after COVID. As I continue to attend on a weekly basis, I see more clearly my Heavenly Father’s and His Son’s love for all of us. Truly the ordinances we participate in are gifts of love! Like Brother Gale said last week… His arms are open. Jesus Christ is calling to each one of us to come and be still, so we can come to know Him in the temple.
Church Leaders – Our Prophet and Quorum of the Twelve – There is a special feeling in our home on Conference weekend. All are welcome, and we’ve often had those that have left the church still come and join us. The truth these 15 men speak is incredibly important to help keep us on the covenant path. Conference weekend is one of my opportunities to see if my will, thoughts, and desires are still aligned with their teachings and in turn with the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ. A pivotal point for me on aligning myself with the leaders of the church came on my mission. Our mission president asked us to stop using our monthly money for certain things like picture development. (Yes, there were no digital pictures. We had to pay to see our pictures.) I’m so grateful I made the choice to obey in a seemingly small way. I’ve noticed with every choice to obey or align my will with our church leaders; I’ve come to better understand the incredible example of our Savior’s humble obedience to the Father in all things.
Family – My siblings and I enjoy a family call on a monthly basis. I love these calls. We talk of our successes and setbacks. Listening to the unique trials they are each dealing with in their own families and how they confront them with faith, bolsters my faith to stay on the covenant path and follow my Savior’s example. Jesus Christ is truly in the details of our lives. Part of my family is a group of close friends. We meet on a monthly basis. It was initially a group focused on emotional resilience and came about from repeated persistence from the Spirit to form a group after our daughter left the path. Today, almost two years later, we continue to meet. We support each other with no judgment. It is a safe space. They truly are my sisters. They are each incredible examples to me of what we can overcome when we move forward with faith in Christ.
Prayer – And I’ll add personal revelation here. This is still an area I’m working to improve. What I have learned is that when I’m diligent in my prayers, I draw closer to my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I find Him in prayer and have come to know His love and kindness. I’ve already shared one example. I’d like to share a couple more. In 2011, I was asked to apply for a new job within the ICU to educate the nurses. This job would require me to go back to work full-time with a young family at home. I prayed earnestly to know the Lord’s will and surprisingly received the answer to proceed and that I would eventually understand why. I applied and was offered the job. Eight years later, in 2019, I found out the ‘why.’ Second story - My brother Brent, his wife Amy, and their two daughters were on their way from Heber to St. George when they were involved in a major sandstorm car and semi-truck pile up on I-15. There were numerous fatalities that day and yet they all walked away without serious injury. As soon as we received the news, our family fell to our knees in gratitude. I’ve never felt the power of prayer like I did that day when it was simply a prayer of gratitude. The third experience occurred in January 2023. My husband and I flew to Colorado Springs to help in the difficult task to put my mother-in-law in memory care. Through fasting prior to arriving and continuous prayer while there, we saw the Lord’s hand in the miracle of getting her into the facility without a fight. I testify that our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ are always ready to listen and to help. They want to be involved in the details of our lives.
Scriptures – I’ve come to truly love the scriptures. This love started in my childhood but was solidified on my mission. We are rewarded with great knowledge of our Savior, as we immerse ourselves in the scriptures. An important part of this knowledge is learning that we will receive answers to our questions through scripture study. One of my first experiences with this came while reading my scriptures and pondering on whether I should serve a mission. I was reading in Ether 2:25 when I realized that the ‘light’ I needed to get through the ‘great deep of life or the waves, winds, and floods’ was a mission. However, I continued to struggle with the decision and was reading a few days later in D&C 108:2 in which I was told to ‘resist no more my voice.’ At that time, it felt like a very difficult decision, I was almost 25, a college graduate, had worked for 2 1/2 years and just bought a new car. Another meaningful experience with the scriptures, occurred last Fall. I was late to the game in accepting the challenge by our Stake President to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I started reading right after our October Stake Conference and amazingly finished on Christmas Day. I’ve read the Book of Mormon many times but never that quickly. I know it was due to the speed of the read that I was able to see and feel so clearly the overarching message of love from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon.
Holy Ghost – As our constant companion because of the covenants we made at baptism and renew each Sunday as we partake of the Sacrament, we receive extra opportunities to receive personal guidance in this life. What an amazing blessing! My most recent experience was two weeks ago as we moved Foster and Hannah’s family to Texas. I woke up Sunday morning (5 days before leaving) and felt impressed to change our plans and take both cars. I mentioned it to Frederick. We came home from church, and I told him I felt impressed to ask our nephew, Caleb, to help us drive. Frederick had had the same impression. Within an hour Caleb agreed to join our road trip and his return plane ticket was purchased. Because of the very specific guidance from the Holy Ghost in this situation and other times in my life, I know the Savior knows me personally and is involved in guiding me home. (On a side note – I don’t think I had another twenty-hour drive to Texas in me. I didn’t know that at the time, but the Lord knew it.)
Covenants – Making and keeping covenants is another way I have found the Savior and come to know Him. I’m so grateful He only requires our faithfulness in this, not our perfection. I’ve mentioned this previously but wanted to share again how different my weeks are when I partake of the Sacrament. Many of you know I’ve worked as a nurse for the last 35 years. This required, for many years, working every other weekend and thus missing Sunday meetings and most importantly the Sacrament. My life was seriously changed when we were allowed to participate in the Sacrament at work. These weeks were no longer different than any other week. Watching a worthy priesthood holder kneel on a cold, hard hospital floor just to ensure I alone received the Sacrament, impressed upon me the very personal nature of the Savior’s Atonement. Through this experience, I’ve come to truly value the Sacrament and the few minutes I have each week to ponder my covenants and progress in becoming more like my Savior.
Christ – He is everywhere, if we are looking for Him. I recently traveled to Eastern Europe and was amazed once again how our Savior Jesus Christ is in and through ALL things… through centuries of building and rebuilding, artwork, sculpture, and in a way even in Islamic mosques. A few years ago, when I was in the Stake RS Presidency, we gave a challenge to the women of our Stake to memorize ‘The Living Christ.’ I felt like I couldn’t extend this invitation if I wasn’t willing do it myself. So, I went to work memorizing it in my car as I drove back and forth from the hospital in Provo. This experience forever changed my feelings and thoughts of my Savior. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve cried as I’ve repeated the words of this beautiful document that testifies of Christ. This quiet time brought Him more intentionally into my life. He truly is ‘the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.”
One of my favorite stories of Christ’s ministry on the earth is His interaction with the woman with an issue of blood. This story intertwined with Jairus and the imminent death of his 12-year-old daughter is found in three of the four gospels. Both stories show two different people acting in faith - Jairus coming to Jesus to bring Him to heal his daughter and the woman with the 12-year issue of blood reaching out to touch just the border of Christ’s garment in order to be healed. He knew immediately someone in the press of people had purposely touched Him. She came forward when He asked, “Who touched me?” This is our Savior. He is one on one, acting with intention to teach her that her faith had made here whole. “… and when He saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” Jesus Christ loves each one of us like this! We are His sons and His daughters.
In a small book entitled, ‘The Gift of Knowing Him” Elder Renlund relates the Christmas story as told by his father and Simeon’s part in that story. Simeon was told by the Holy Ghost that he would not die until he’d seen the Lord. He was then led by the Spirit to the temple where he indeed held Jesus and testified of who He was. Truly Simeon was blessed with the GIFT of KNOWING His Savior. E. Renlund urges, “… ask your Heavenly Father for the spiritual gift of knowing of the living reality of the Savior of the world. As you do, you can know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that He atoned for your sins. This knowledge is better and longer lasting than any gift that ‘Santa’ could ever bring you, because it can transform you. You will learn that the Savior loves to restore what you cannot restore, heal wounds you cannot heal, fix what has been irreparably broken, compensate for any unfairness you have experienced and permanently mend even shattered hearts.”
Brothers and sisters, I’ve shared some of my personal experiences with the Savior today, some of the oil in my lamp, in the hope that you will spend time reflecting this week on your experiences with our Savior, Jesus Christ and write them down. We must never forget, or we will lose our testimony. I testify of Him and His infinite love for each one of us. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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