Thank you, Sister Holland. Te amo. In General Conference of October 2016, I told
the story of my friends Troy and Deedra Russell of the Dutchman Pass Ward in Henderson,
Nevada. No one will remember the talk, but it dealt with their experience
when Troy pulled his pickup truck out of the garage on his way to donate
goods to the local Desert Industries. As he did so, he felt his back tire roll over a
bump. Thinking some item had fallen off the truck, he got out only to find his precious nine-year-old
son Austin lying face down on the pavement. The screams, the priesthood blessing,
the paramedic crew, the hospital staff, all in due course were engaged in trying
to save this beautiful boy's life, but to no avail. Austin was gone. Over
time, Troy and Deedra found peace in their faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the
comforting presence of the Holy Ghost, and in the scores of loving friends
and neighbors who helped them, especially their then home teacher John Manning.
My purpose today is not to repeat that message, but it is to tell you in your university years
that some of life's lessons will be difficult, and you may be asked to face more than you think
you can, and certainly more than you want.In Brother and Sister Russell's case, one might
think that losing a child in the nightmarish way that they lost Austin would be enough of
a parental test for any young couple to face, but there is language in the very heart of one
of the greatest of the Book of Mormon sermons that implies trials and tests may come to
us often in life. In his farewell address, King Benjamin taught that a fundamental purpose
of mortal life, perhaps the fundamental purpose of mortal life, is to "become a saint through the
Atonement of Christ the Lord" which will require as he goes on to say to become, "as a child,
submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which
the Lord seeth to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Well what
does that mean for us? It means, in part at least, that struggle and strife, heartbreak and loss,
are not experiences that come only somewhere else to someone else. It means that moments when
faith feels frightfully difficult to hold on to are not reserved for bygone days
of our persecution and martyrdom. No, times when becoming a saint through christ
the lord seem almost almost too much to achieve are still with us. And so it will
be until God has proven his people for their eternal reward, we will be
asked to submit, to obey, to be childlike and for some of us that is difficult
now and it will be difficult then. My plea today in this university
that I love with all my heart is that we practice now and be strong now
for those times of affliction and refinement that surely will come. For some of
us, they come now in university years. That's when faith in God, faith in Christ, faith
in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will really count. That's when faith must
be unwavering because it will be examined in the refiner's fire to see if it is more
than "sounding brass or tinkling symbol." For some, the severity of the test may seem like
a marathon length final exam in mortal life 101. It is then, sailing in what
Hamlet called "a sea of troubles," that it may take all the faith you have
just to keep your little craft afloat. But you can sail on, King Benjamin said, if you'll
be childlike, "submissive, meek, humble, full of love." I think the only commentary needed for this
verse might be regarding that line suggesting that God inflicts trials and burdens upon us. Now we
don't know Reformed Egyptian, but in English, the word inflict which comes from the latin
"infligere" has at least two meanings: one is "to strike or dash against or beat down,"
but that's not applicable to God or his angels. No, the proper definition of the word as King
Benjamin uses it is, "to allow something that must be born or suffered." Now allowing
something is a very different matter. God can and will do that if it is ultimately
for our good. I'm going to say it again--God does not now nor will he ever do to you a
destructive malicious unfair thing ever. It is not in what Peter calls the
"divine nature" to even be able to do so. By definition and in fact, God is perfectly
and thoroughly always and forever good, and everything he does is for our good. I
promise you that God does not lie awake nights trying to figure out ways to disappoint us,
or harm us, or crush our dreams or our faith. Now with that long introduction, let's return
to Troy and Deedra Russell just four months ago. Early in the morning hours of September
eighth, having spent much of the night getting her second son ready for his
beginnings of university at BYU-Idaho, Deedra Russell was traveling northbound on
Interstate 15. Near mile marker number 14, where the highway is tightly cut into the
sides of the Virgin River Gorge, Deedra saw a pickup truck traveling at freeway speed.
Unfortunately, it was traveling right at her coming south in her northbound lane. At the
wheel was an inebriated male driver aged 39. This is a photo taken by emergency personnel
at about 5:30 in the morning, so forgive the dark lighting. It's what was left of Deedra's
charcoal-colored Honda after a head-on collision. In spite of what that wreckage would seem
to indicate, Sister Russell, though pinned, immovable inside the car, was not killed in
the accident. With remarkable assistance from emergency personnel, she was extricated from
the wreckage and life-flighted to the St. George Regional Medical Center where, after 132 days of
hospitalization as of this morning, some 40 of them in intensive care, she is still waging the
fight for her life. Fortunately, she is alive. Here is the best she could do to say goodbye
to her oldest son Colin who left two months after the accident to serve in the Canada
Edmonton Mission, Tagalog speaking. Her dreams of helping him get ready and seeing
him off to serve were left somewhere near mile marker number 14 on Interstate 15. I need to move
past the details of Deedra's medical condition, but as I do let me say that
her lacerations, fractures, and surgical needs almost defied description. She
has been in the operating room for 18 surgeries with more to come. Her kidneys have been
damaged, and at least two of her external wounds have to remain open with wound VAC assistance
until they can be closed. Indescribable pain, interrelated injuries, recurring nightmares, and
most recently a sequence of paralytic seizures have been her lot day and night, but every
indication is that she's going to make it, for which we are all very grateful. Here's a photo
of Deedra with Troy on the right and Area Seventy, John Smith, on the left, to whom I'm
indebted for many of these photos. Now let me share a few gospel related
thoughts that I've had as I've heard these reports from my friends. First of
all, public condemnation of the driver--who miraculously survived this incident, and
is with his parents and some of the Russell family in the audience today as our special
guests--that's not the purpose of this message. Our purpose is to learn. That's why we
come to a university and one thing this brother and his family have taught us is when
we've made a mistake, serious or otherwise, we should feel genuine remorse and sorrow and
we should take responsibility for damage done and suffering caused. In the process we should
demand of ourselves a change in the habits and behaviors that brought on those harmful
events, but even when we've done what we can it often won't amount to much.
And so we'll have to ask god to carry all the parts that we can't repair or
repay. To deserve such help we surely ought to seek to live a life that would warrant it, always
remembering that heaven's grace exceeds our merit. I'm touched that this good brother who caused
this accident is trying to do everything he knows how to do and has done just what i have
said in all ways that he knows. For example, I was touched to learn that in addition to writing
to praying for and visiting Deedra and Troy, he and his extended family spent not
a penny on Christmas gifts this year in order to give that sizable cash equivalent to
the Russells to help defray some of the horrendous financial costs that will most assuredly
bankrupt them before this is all over. An equally poignant example of true remorse
is this handwritten eight-page letter, a copy of which I hold in my hand. It's too long to read here in its entirety,
but I give you just a sample of a line or two. "Deedra, I feel so horrible about what I have
done to you. My heart is broken, my lungs can't breathe, I'm so sorry for the pain you were
in. Troy, you were an angel to forgive me. I am so sorry you had to go through so
much in your lives already, and now this and all because of me. But I'm going to church
again, and I'm reading my scriptures every night, and please tell the kids I'm
so sorry I hurt their mother. Deedra, I know I nearly took your life,
but if it matters you've saved mine. Sincerely..." Behind what we want to be, a truly hopeful and constructive ending to this
story is the constant reminder the drum beat in my brain, rain or shine, night or
day, spring, summer, winter, and fall that there is a loving reason to obey
gospel laws and a worthy reason to follow gospel principles. The keeping of
God's commandments really is important and the revealed do's and
don'ts are for a purpose. Without needing another photo of that Honda to
prompt us, we all ought to recognize the wisdom of a loving God who, decades before cars, and
freeways, and life flights were ever imagined, revealed the destructive possibilities in
this case of alcohol consumption. Without listing again the cost borne by the victim and
the perpetrator of this accident, we ought to acknowledge the tears of a Heavenly Father who
simply asked us to take care of one another to be careful rather than reckless with the
well-being of our sisters and our brothers. Childlike obedience to his parental calls and his
divine warnings will spare us and others agony in the end. Thus the cry of his Only Begotten
Son, "If you love me keep, my commandments." It is part of the apostolic burden for me and my
colleagues and associates in the twelve to stand with the Savior in that plea. In that request we
always extend our love-- always. We are morally obligated after that love to ask for obedience to
the commandments as evidence of that affection. Now please, please as I have
tried to speak for a moment of childlike Christ-like saintly submission
to the trials and tribulations of life and to divine commandments. However
tried and tested you may already feel, please do not walk out of here today eager to
tell your absentee roommate that Elder Holland gave a devotional today on the word of wisdom.
If you want to see an old man cry, do that. I pray you will find my message larger and more
significant than the sorrow of drunk driving. After understanding the reason for commandments
and the need to seek forgiveness when we break them, I offer a second lesson. It's
the other side of the forgiveness coin: just as the transgressors seeks forgiveness
as part of the quest for relief and peace, we need to forgive at least in part
for the relief and peace it brings us. As angry as Troy and Deedra might justifiably
have been over this terrible experience, they have felt that they could not and should not
withhold forgiveness for him who gave offense. At least part of that motivation was because
Troy has spent these last five years of his life struggling with his role, accidental as it
was, in the loss of nine-year-old Austin. To carry that into this setting, this morning
there's not one of us anywhere on this campus who has not needed forgiveness for
some mistake made somewhere, sometime. Our deed may not have been as severe
as the kind we're recounting today, but we've all made mistakes and some of them were
serious mistakes. I include myself in that list. Whatever the event, we all thank God
for being the Father of Forgiveness and for the gifts of mercy and relief that he offers us. All of it ultimately coming to us through the majestic Atonement of his
Only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to join in and participate in that
offering the Russells have done, that they've looked up to their
God and even in their anguish have humbly but resolutely joined the Savior
in extending forgiveness to one in need. They have been "submissive, meek, humble, patient
and full of love." Without embarrassing them, surely they are "becoming saints through
the atonement of Christ the Lord." Now a third lesson from this incident. I've
never heard them say it, but like all of us in moments of suffering and pain, the Russells may
have sometimes shouted "Why me? Why us? Why again? Or how much do we have to face in life?
Or does God really care about me at all?" If they've asked those questions, they would
be in good company. The Psalmist asked, "How long wilt thou forget me O Lord," and the
prophet Joseph asked, "O god where art thou?" Even the savior himself, in the excruciating ordeal of Atonement
wondered if he too had been forsaken. But the divine answer to every
one of these faithful souls to questions uttered in the darkness of
despair, the answer is always and ever the same: "Be still and know that I
am God." He has not left us, we are not cast off, his promises are
sure, sanctified love is constant, "The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of
Jacob is our refuge." So when you're being hammered
on the anvil of adversity, when your soul is being
refined with severe lessons that perhaps cannot be learned any
other way, don't cut and run. Don't jump ship. Don't shake your fist at your
bishop, or your mission president, or God. Please stay with the only help and strength
that can aid you in that painful time when you stumble in the race of life. Don't crawl
away from the very physician who is unfailingly there to treat your injuries, lift you to
your feet, and help you finish the course. We don't know why all of the things
that happen to us in life happen, when sometimes we're spared a
tragedy and sometimes we're not. But that is where faith must truly mean
something or it's not faith at all. In such severe circumstances, rare as we hope
they are, we can fall back on Alma's reminder that faith and knowledge are
related, but they are not synonymous. In some matters you can have knowledge,
pure knowledge, perfect knowledge, but in some things, faith will
have to do until knowledge comes. And the sweet Sister Holland always tells
the missionaries faith isn't really faith if you have anything else to hang on to. What we need, all of us together, you and I, from those solidly in the church as
well as those struggling to hold on: what we need in every case is still the same powerful faith faith that sustains us here
and now, not just on the day of judgment or somewhere in celestial glory. Most of us
have faith in the ultimate, long-term, big issues like the truthfulness of the church
or the reality of Christ's Atonement and resurrection, but sometimes we're less secure in
pulling that faith down to today, to this morning. To help with the challenges in the near term like
Austin's death, or Deedra's automobile accident, or your financial troubles, or disappointment
in dating, or asking for a much-needed blessing regarding marriage, or health or
some other personal need--prayers which seem to go unanswered
and unanswered and unanswered. In these matters we need faith, we need it
then as well as having faith in ultimate things like the truthfulness of this church, the
reality of Christ's Atonement and resurrection. With this latter call for submissive and childlike
faith in the near term, with it coming virtually every day of our lives, my young friends, I
welcome you to the life King Benjamin described, and that Jesus perfectly exemplified. Welcome to concepts like
patience and long-suffering: words and principles that take on
meaning you never knew they had. Welcome to not knowing, but still believing. Welcome to trusting in your Father in Heaven and
believing that all his promises near term or long will all yet be kept in full, every word. But be aware that along this
journey is some degree of anguish. That's because the road from faith to pure knowledge, from mortal trials to celestial
rewards, always somehow winds through Gethsemane. And when we're invited to join the
Savior of the World in that place, we should be prepared to
answer the demanding question he put to Peter, James, and John,
"Could ye not watch with me one hour?" Figuratively speaking, our entire cycle of searching and waiting of repentance and
forgiveness, important as they are, add up to much less than an hour compared to his blood producing
purge of all the sorrows and all the sins and all the mistakes of all humankind
from Adam and Eve to the end of the world. Please, you absolutely beautiful
young colleagues in this work, when your life seems to be one tear, and
tragedy, and heartache after another, the meaning of which and the answers
to which you cannot understand, I ask you as Paul did to hope for things which are
not seen but which are true. As sure as you live, all of the blessings of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel are waiting for you, short
term, long term, and forever. Well tragedies and submission, heartache
and belief, repentance and rainbows, love and head-on collisions,
these are big boy and girl issues. Even seemingly contradictory issues at times, but I promise you in the name of the Lord that
help will come and resolve those contradictions through the cohesive power of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. What President John Taylor called once the "cementing and
harmonizing influences of eternal truth." So the Troy and Deedra Russell submit
like the young saints that they are and they watch the miracle of love and
faith ripple out in ever widening circles to touch literally hundreds of people,
literally hundreds of people. For example, the groups upon groups that have done the
Russell's laundry, who brought in meals every day, who've taken their children to school,
stayed by Deedra's bedside every day and night she's been in the St. George Hospital,
remembering that they live in Henderson, Nevada. Love and faith have helped Troy drive those miles
and stay with his bride fully one half of those 132 days and nights. His colleagues have doubled
up at work to free him to give such attention. Meanwhile, two of his patients have begun reading
the Book of Mormon a close friend who over the years has refused invitations to five different
baptisms and a baby blessing, vowing he would never set foot in a Latter-day Saint chapel,
came to the sacrament meeting in which Collin spoke, prior to leaving on his mission. This
friend thought that was the least he could do for an absent mother lying in an intensive
care unit miles away. And so miracles flow even from the mangled wreckage of a charcoal
gray Honda and a white Silverado pickup, all in response to childlike submission and
meekness when dealing with what the father allows. "We appreciate Elder Holland letting us share our
testimonies with you all today, and I know that we wish trials weren't a part of our life, but
one thing I've learned these past few months which have been really really hard for me is that
we have a very loving Heavenly Father. And the reason he lets us go through these trials is so
that we can learn things about ourselves. We can learn to have faith, we can learn to be strong,
and especially we can learn to rely on our Savior and Heavenly Father definitely sends us angels.
He sent us so many people to help us. He lets other people help us during our lowest moments.
I don't think that I would have had such a strong testimony of just how much Heavenly Father really
loves us if I hadn't gone through these things." "A few weeks after Austin passed away, a friend
came up to me and said that I'd gone through the worst thing that anyone could ever go through,
and I thought about it for a minute and then I said, "I don't agree with you. I think the
worst thing that any of us could ever go through is to not be with our family for eternity."
In these past four months there have been three or four times where I didn't
know if she was going to make it but in the back of my mind I
knew that even if she didn't that we had been sealed in the temple for time and
all eternity and that was really what mattered. The the only thing I believe that we truly own
is our ability to make choices. Our bodies are a gift from God. The air we breathe
is a gift from God all the materials and they all can be taken away at any time, but
the one thing we have is our agency. And what's so beautiful about the struggles and trials and
difficulties that we have is it allows us to use our agency, whether we can forgive or not
forgive, whether we can show love, or kindness, or help people. We hope you all know that we love our
Savior. We know that he died for us and because of him we can be together forever as a family, and
we just hope that we always use our agency to forgive others that have wronged us to show love
and kindness and to be there for other people. And we leave this with you in
the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." Well my beloved young friends,
I too leave my witness with you. I testify that when life brings you
disappointment or sorrow, and on occasion it will, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the
church that espouses the fullness of it, are true and strong. They are what the
psalmist called a "refuge for the oppressed; a refuge in times of trouble." I bear witness of
love and faith, of repentance and perseverance, of long-suffering and the merciful grace of
god. I particularly bear witness of joy at the end of the quest, some of which comes from the
hard things we're called to do on that quest. I testify we are in the process of rebirth
and refinement, of becoming a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord and will
be reduced to childlike faith and humility in the course of that experience. I testify of
these truths and I leave an apostolic blessing on each of you for the realization of
every righteous desire of your heart as you search for the God of Heaven and
Earth to be in your life. I willingly and lovingly share with you my own faith in
you and with you and for you, that that faith will lift you up from every burden that
you feel, the ones you can carry and the ones that you cannot, and it will heal every
wound that you fear now are fatal. I do so with love in the name of him who gives the
power to do such things, who himself was lifted up on a cross so that we could be lifted up to
eternal life. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.