Through These Eyes: Families are Forever

Thursday of last week, 4 September 2014, my brother called me at 6:30am. He's in Arizona, so his time was 5:30am. The whole conversation consisted of him telling me that my grandfather had died in the night. It was 6:30am and I had literally woken up to my brother's phone call. I had to shower, get ready, go to work, and go to school. So, that's what I did. I went on with my day and did what I had to do. At 8am, my Dad called and I talked to him, and then he asked me if I wanted to talk to my Grandma. Honestly, no I did not want to talk to her. Her husband of over 50 years had just died. She was no doubt very upset and I knew that if I talked to her, I would cry. I talked to her, and nothing. No crying at all, on my end at least.

The next day, I had to do it all again. So I did. That day being Friday, the plan was to go to Arizona to see my family. I would leave Friday night after work and class and get home early Saturday morning. I decided to skip class that night and just start the drive. I didn't want to drive all night long and so leaving at 5:30pm would provide that I got home to Arizona at about 2:30am Saturday morning.

On the drive home, I had a lot of time to think. Ten hours in a car leaves you a lot of time to do whatever you can do behind the wheel of a car, which is not much but think and listen to music. I started to think about why I was so content and calm about the whole thing. My initial reaction was, 'why haven't I cried yet? I cry in everything and this hasn't brought me to tears yet?' I had plenty of time to think about why I hadn't, and then it came down to what I know. I know the Plan of Salvation and I know that families can be together forever. If I know this, then why should I be sad? Of course, I started crying after I came to this realization, and because Dirt by Florida Georgia Line came on, so naturally, I cried.

When I got home, my family was all pretty calm and content. Everyone was happy and it was great to be back home. It's always a relief for me to see my parents. A lot of stress leaves me when I see them and it's refreshing.

I have a testimony of families. I know that through the temple, we can live happily with our families for all eternity. The temple is the key to eternity, and I strive to live my life worthily to enter the temple and partake of the blessings therein.