The Beacon of Hope

In the most recent general conference, Elder Jose L. Alonso bore a powerful testimony of the Savior. He said, “Jesus Christ is our hope and the answer to life’s greatest pains. Through His sacrifice, He paid for our sins and took upon Himself all of our suffering—pain, injustice, sorrow, and fear—and He forgives and heals us when we trust in Him and seek to change our lives for the better. He is our Healer, comforting and repairing our hearts through His love and power, just like He healed many during His time on earth. He is the living water, fulfilling the deepest needs of our souls with His constant love and kindness. This is like the promise He made to the Samaritan woman at the well, offering ‘a well of water springing up into everlasting life.’” He shared one example from the Savior’s life of how he loved and cared for the people even amidst His own grief. Elder Alonso related, “In Matthew 14 we learn that after hearing of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus sought solitude. However, a large crowd followed Him. Moved by compassion and love, and not allowing His grief to distract Him from His mission, Jesus welcomed them, healing the sick among them.” Matthew’s account reads this way: “When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick” (Matthew 14:13-14). Though Jesus had desired to be alone to mourn the death of His cousin, when people followed Him, He still took the time to heal them. Elder Alonso continued, “As evening approached, the disciples faced a daunting challenge: a multitude of people with scant food available. They proposed that Jesus send the crowd away to procure food, but Jesus, with high love and high expectations, asked the disciples to feed them instead.” It was indeed that night that Jesus fed the 5000: “And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude” (Matthew 14:19). So even amidst His own grief, He healed and blessed and fed this people. This story reminds us that He is always present to help us if we but turn to Him.

                One of the stories that Elder Alonso referenced was that of Alma the Younger who was redeemed through the Savior because of his memory of his father’s teachings about the Savior. The Lord was with him, even in his wickedness, because of the faith of his father, and because of his father’s words he was saved. A story I listened to recently has I think a similar message. Constance Labetti related her experience as she escaped from the World Trade Center down the stairs on September 11, 2001 after the terrorist attack. She said, “I would start to cry, and I’d start to tremble, and I heard my father’s voice. My father had been dead since 1985 and I heard his voice clear as day telling me that I was not going to die in this building. I straightened up and kept walking down the steps. A few minutes later I heard my uncle who kind of took over when my dad passed away. My uncle passed away in ‘99 and he used to all me kiddo. I heard my uncle’s voice in my left ear telling me, ‘Kiddo, just take one step at a time.’ And I did.” She continued her story, “We got to the lobby, and my coworker Jewels and I had to rest for a moment because we were perspiring terribly. We had walked down 100 flights of steps. People were coming up to me, hugging me, and telling me, ‘Thank you, thank you,’ and hugging me as they walked by me. And I said to Jewels, ‘What? Why? What are they doing that for?’ She said, ‘Connie, you don’t know what you were saying? You were saying, “We are not going to die in this building. Just take it one step at a time.”’ I was repeating what my father and my uncle were telling me, and I didn’t even know it.” She had been saved through the voice of her father. She got out and made it to a building one block away, and the tower she had escaped collapsed just five minutes later. Without that urging from her father from the other side of the veil, she would have surely perished. Another account relates, “[Connie] goes on to tell me how her powerful, spiritual moment in the stairwell reaffirmed her belief in God—a belief that she says ‘absolutely’ carried her through that terrifying day and the difficult days that followed of survivor’s guilt and grief over lost coworkers and friends.” Despite the terrible tragedies that can occur in this mortal journey, Connie’s story highlights that the Savior indeed is with us and will strengthen and sustain us through our trials. I love these final words from Elder Alonso, “As we strive to place Him at the center of our lives, revelations unfold to us, His profound peace envelops us, and His infinite Atonement brings about our forgiveness and healing. It is in Him that we discover the strength to overcome, the courage to persevere, and the peace that surpasses all understanding. May we strive each day to draw nearer to Him, the source of all that is good, the beacon of hope in our journey back to the presence of our Heavenly Father.”