She was
created by our Heavenly Father and lived with Him, and us, as a spiritual
being.
Heavenly
Father is a glorified being of spirit and flesh and bone.
He
wanted Kirsten to have a glorified body of flesh and bone also.
So he
created the Earth for her, and us, where she could receive a physical body and
experience a life of agency, or choice, away from our spiritual family. A place where she, and us, could not
remember the spiritual life - a place of testing.
Grandma
and I prepared a physical body for Kirsten and after her spirit entered the
physical body, she was born to this world thirty years ago. I became her
Earthly Father, and Grandma became her Earthly Mother.
Kirsten
has two fathers, and so do we all - a Heavenly Father and an Earthly Father.
Kirsten,
and all of us, came to Earth to learn obedience and faith. That means to do what Heavenly Father
wants us to do, without seeing Him or remembering our Spiritual Life, and
believing in Him without physical proof that He exists.
After
we have experienced this earthly life for a period of time, different lengths
of time for each of us, Heavenly Father asks us to come back to Him. So our spirits leave our physical
bodies and we return to the spiritual existence.
That’s
what Kirsten did last week. We say
she died, or passed away, but she is really alive in the Spirit World with
other family members who have also gone to the Spirit World. She was greeted by her grandparents.
Kirsten
will be there to greet all of us in the family when we leave our bodies and
return to Heavenly Father.
Jesus did something similar. He died on the cross and three days later His spirit returned to His body
and he resurrected.
Because
he had the power to do that, he has given Kirsten, and all of us, the gift of
the resurrection. Some day we will
all receive our glorified eternal bodies and will live forever.
Kirsten
is alive and loves us. We can’t
see her or communicate with her now, but we will all be with her again.
One of
the most wonderful gifts of Heavenly Father is the gift of making choices, either
good choices or bad choices.
Sometimes
we make wrong choices, but most of the time we make right choices.
Some
wrong choices, like drugs, are more dangerous than others because they can take
away our gift of choice and thereby control the way we think and act.
When
Kirsten was a teenager she made a dangerous choice which caused many
heartaches throughout the rest of her life and even her death.
Finally
her Heavenly Father called her home where she can get special help and rest
from her illness.
We are
sad that we can’t see her and be with her but we are happy for her. She
is in a peaceful place.
How do
you know what I said is true?
Because
Heavenly Father has told us in the Scriptures.
Alma
40:11,12,22,23 “Now, concerning
the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been
made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they
are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they
be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. 12 And
then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are
received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest,
a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all
care, and sorrow. 22 Yea, this bringeth about the restoration of those
things of which has been spoken by the mouths of the prophets. 23 The soul
shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb
and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not
be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”
My remarks at the Memorial Service, April 26, 2013
My remarks at the Memorial Service, April 26, 2013
