I received a call from my mission president.

Hey Everyone,
It’s your favorite missionary here. I’m going to be 100 percent honest with you guys (I always am). This week has been a really hard week for me. On Monday I received a call from my mission president. It was at about 1pm in the afternoon and Elder Nelson and I were just about to go knock on some apartment complexes. We were really pumped up to get out this week to go do work and find some new people to share the gospel with. The words which my mission president spoke to me on the phone are words I will always remember. He told me that my Grandma Jackson had passed away that morning early. He said some other things and told me to take the day off. I remember just thinking about her and my grandpa and then my mom came into my head. I just started to cry. It was a sadness that I had never felt before. I realized that I just found out that I lost one of my best friends. She was a big influence in my life. I know where she is and know everything is going to be alright but it has still been hard for me. My mission president told me to just go read scriptures and to pray and to just remember the great person my grandma was and is! I was kinda out of it for the rest of the day I imagine. I kinda just stared off into space. Luckily some of the members here helped me out and cheered me up. Later on when I turned my scriptures I wanted to read a few things from the plan of salvation that I’ve read plenty of times. The first thing is about the spirit world in Alma 40 in the Book of Mormon. This talks about our state between death and the resurrection. It talks about spirit paradise or what most other religions would call heaven you could say. It talks about how the people who are righteous go and they receive peace and rest from the cares and sorrow of the world. I thought to myself what is a righteous person. First I thought about my favorite scriptures in Romans 5:19. In that passage it talks about how because Adam we all will be subject to sin but because of Christ we can all repent and be made righteous. So I thought ok repentance leads you to be righteous. Then I thought to myself what is repentance? Repentance is change, finding those things that you need to work on then refining yourself. Making you a better person. A more Christ like person. To be righteous you always have to be progressing and that to me was a great comfort. I know that describes the way my grandmother lived her life. She always tried to be the best person she could possibly be. She had that pure love of Christ which drove her to be as righteous as possible. I know she has received that peace that Alma talks about and is at rest right now. She is such a great person and that gave me lots of comfort. I also read out of the Doctrine and Covenants in section 76 versus 50-70 and 92. It talks about what the celestial kingdom will be like. It talks about how that is where God will reign over his throne forever and ever. It talks about requirements that are needed to enter into this glory. As I read these I knew and know that my grandma qualifies. It’s kinda like receiving a grade and those who receive the celestial kingdom receive an A. I think my grandma deserves some extra credit because how Christ like she really is! She always excelled in all she did and changed more lives than we can even think of. We were all lucky to have her in our lives. She has affected me to be the person I know I am and for that I am so grateful to a loving Father in Heaven. The peace and comfort I felt from those two simple things (prayer and scripture study) were amazing. My testimony has strengthened from this experience. We all face challenges in life but no matter what our challenges or concerns may be the teachings of the Savior or the gospel will help us more than we understand. I know that statement to be so true. I want to express my gratitude to my wonderful grandmother for the person she was and for making us all better people just by simply being herself. I’m eternally grateful to God for her being a part of my life as well as my wonderful grandfather. I hope and pray that all is well with you all!
Those are my thoughts for this week. Just always remember as one of my good friends Jeremy Jay would say, "Try to read your scriptures it can be such and up lifter, when a problem comes up, there’s not a better problem fixer, and temptations everywhere, you can climb it like a stair or you can beat it like a snare, just know that God is always there and don’t forget to say your prayers." Thanks for all you do and always keep on keepin on! Love you all

Love Elder Weston Reay