Bob and I were invited to speak at our February Zone Conference. The theme was “Maximize Your Missionary Experience.” We were asked to use Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s October 2011 General Women’s Conference talk, Forget Me Not. Bob talked about “The Why of the Gospel,” and my topic was “Heavenly Father Loves Us.” My talk was kind of long, so here is the last part of it:
Does God forget us? No. He loves each of us enough to give us His greatest gift: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Does Jesus love each of us? Enough to walk this earth and experience the depths of its pain and sorrow, to show us how to live our lives in service and love. Enough to establish His true Church upon the Earth. Enough to atone for all of our sins, so that we might not suffer. Enough to give his life, so that we might be resurrected.
And they both love us enough to want us to be happy, “and men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:27).
Our job is to go about sharing their love with others. I see examples of that in you every day. You do it with a smile, with helping others, with your friendship, with small acts of kindness and love, and with your dedicated service to the Church.
We have been given a unique opportunity in coming here to Frankfurt to practice being loving people away from home, and because we are far from home, here we have bonded and become one another’s family. I am grateful to have these association with you. And when we see one another after our missions and perhaps when we meet again in Heaven, we will embrace each other, knowing from D&C 132:2, “that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory.”
Because I know the effect of God’s mercy and love in my own life, I am trying to be more like Jesus each day. I have made a special effort to carry our Savior’s love out into the community. I know as I go into the local elementary schools, that teachers and parents are watching me because they smile when they see their children running to me with outstretched arms, smiling and calling out my name, and asking to sit on my lap during story time. I do not speak their language, but children know the language of Heavenly Father’s love, and that is what draws them to me.
We have opened our home here to many. The missionaries know that they can call and bring friends over for what they call our “happy apples” (baked apples and ice cream) that they believe can cheer anybody up. We have invited over the Eckerts and the theater company that is producing my play for dinners. On each occasion, we share the gospel with them.
Because we have the Gospel in our lives, we can stand as witnesses of God by being a light unto others, so that they may see that light, and know that we are Latter-day Saints and will want to know more about the joy and peace and love that we have in our lives.
In closing, Elder Uchtdorf said, “Years later, I can look back on that young boy with tenderness and compassion. And I do know now—I was never forgotten." When I look back on my own life, this is my testimony as well. Like the little Forget-Me-Not, I know that I have never been forgotten. Beyond any doubt, I know that God loves me. He loves us, for the great commandment of life is to love--to love the Lord and to love one another as He loves us. “We love him, because he First loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is my testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.
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