June

Ahhh, summer is finally here. Not crazy Utah Spring that might be Summer one day and snowing the next. No, this is Summer.  No jackets. Sunshine at 8pm. Ahhh.  That also means that it is June. My month. My birthday month.  Supposedly last year was my golden birthday--29 on the 29th.  But it wasn't such a golden year.  So, I want 30 to be supremely different.  I feel so lucky to still be here.  I am alive.  I am in relatively stable good health.  I have accomplished so many dreams that I need to make up new ones.  Today I bore my testimony for the Fast and Testimony Meeting in my church.  A long time ago, about three years, Esther Okang started a tradition in the 218th ward.  People bore their testimonies in their birthday month.  It is a life affirming thing to do.  And so I did.  And I am:

I know that God loves me. How? because He told me so. And no matter how crazy or Sci-fi that may sound to some of you, I know it.  I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that as the anointed one He came to save me.  And you. And all of you.  He knows us personally. As Nephi says, Christ is my Jesus. And yours too.  I know the Lord loves broken things, like broken earth, broken bread, broken silences, and broken me.  Because it is only when we are broken that He can live in us fully.

I know that God can make broken things whole.  I know, because I have experienced it.  I know that God loves us so much that He will not let us be mediocre.  I also know that sometimes that isn't pleasant.  I know that there is a true and living gospel on the earth today.  That gospel is found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I know that it was restored so that we wouldn't have to walk in darkness anymore. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. And that because he dared to ask, I can know all things.  President Monson is a true and living prophet.  I believe that he speaks to God and that we are not alone. I know that in His plan is happiness.  Families are forever.  Death is not the end.