Sunday, July 21, 2019
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Parents of girl killed in Sandy Hook shooting share Miracles By Danielle B. Wagner
Watch: Parents of Girl Killed in Sandy
Hook Shooting Share Miracles They Experienced After Her Death
On December 14, 2012, Alissa and Robbie Parker received a
heartwrenching phone call—a shooting had happened at their daughter's
elementary school, Sandy Hook. The nightmare of that day's events is still
fresh in the Parkers's minds, but along with the horrors, the two recall many
miracles that came into their lives the months and years after.
► Related content: When a Temple Prompting Led LDS Parents to Speak with the Dad of the Man
Who Murdered Their Daughter
Alissa and Robbie Parker remember the first time they realized
their daughter Emilie had become an unseen angel to others. A letter arrived
from New Mexico from the mother of Emilie’s good friend, Arianna. Arianna had
been devastated by Emilie’s death, becoming quiet and withdrawn. Then one day,
Arianna’s parents heard her speaking animatedly to someone while she played
alone in the backyard. She seemed happy, excited. When her parents asked
Arianna who she was speaking with, she replied, “It’s Emilie. She is here with
me. Can you feel her?” The Parkers have learned the power of those words for
themselves as they have grown closer to Emilie and their Heavenly Father,
feeling their love and influence from beyond the veil.
► Related content: When a Temple Prompting Led Latter-day Saint Parents to Speak with the
Dad of the Man Who Murdered Their Daughter
The tragedy drew heaven nearer into their lives as Alissa and
Robbie worked through difficult questions. In an interview with LDS
Living, Robbie shared, “I remember when I was at church sitting in
sacrament meeting, I kept thinking that if only I could have known what would
happen that day, I would never have sent Emilie to school. I would have
protected her, made sure nothing happened to her. But then, I felt this very
distinct thought from Heavenly Father, saying: ‘I knew what they would do to my
Son.’ And it just hit me. Heavenly Father sent His Son to this earth, fully
knowing what they would do to Him. He watched as His Son was crucified and
endured so much. As a father, that struck me, bringing a deeper sense of what
the Atonement means and how much our Heavenly Father loves His Son and all of
us.”
► Related content: Mom of Girl Killed in Sandy Hook Shares Remarkable Moment She Realized
Her Daughter Is Still Near as an "Angel of Comfort"
Recently, Alissa and Robbie shared their beautiful story in a
Church video. Listen to their stirring testimonies below.
Communication from the Dead? By Dan Peterson
Communications
from the Dead?
JULY 1, 2019 BY DAN PETERSON
***
A few
days ago, I found myself looking up the Wikipedia entry on the Swedish actor
Max von Sydow. (I’ve been aware of him since I first saw him in Ingmar
Bergman’s The Seventh Seal during my late teens.) I
found what I was looking for, but I also found this intriguing and rather
mysterious passage:
[Von]
Sydow is reported to be either an agnostic or
an atheist. In 2012, Sydow told Charlie Rose in an
interview that Ingmar Bergman had told him he would contact Sydow after death
to show him that there was a life after death. When Rose asked Sydow if he had
heard from Bergman, Sydow replied that he had, but chose not to elaborate
further on the exact meaning of this statement. In the same interview, Sydow
described himself as a doubter in his youth, but stated this doubt was gone. He
did not elaborate on what he did not doubt anymore.
(For the
relevant portion of the interview with Charlie Rose, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKpQlx79fmU.)
***
While on
that note, here’s a passage from one of my unfinished manuscripts:
Other
accounts speak of knowledge being conveyed that only the dead person could have
known. One of the Guggenheims’ informants, for instance, relates a story
in which her deceased husband told her the location of some badly needed cash.[1]
The ancient Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (d. 43 B.C.)
recounts an anecdote about a murder that was solved when the victim appeared
during the dream of a friend and supplied the details of the crime.[2]
A very interesting subcategory of such narratives involves a deceased friend or
family member warning of danger or of an unrecognized health threat.[3]
A friend at the university where I teach tells, for example, of her
two-years-dead mother (whom I also knew) coming to her in a dream—the only time
she has ever dreamed of her mother—and telling her “You have cancer.”
Although my friend had recently been tested and found to be fine, new tests
confirmed the diagnosis, and early detection saved her life.[4]
A remarkable instance of much the same thing was related to Osis and
Haraldsson. According to the account given to them, a seven-year-old boy
had been hospitalized in critical condition with a mastoid infection.
Unfortunately, he was rebellious. He refused to take the necessary
medications, and resisted the nurses at every turn. Suddenly, though, he
had an experience, as he believed, with his deceased uncle, who had worked as a
physician on that very hospital floor and to whom he had been close.
The boy
insisted that Uncle Charlie came, sat beside him, and told him to take his
medicine. He also told the boy that he would get well. The boy was
very sure that Uncle Charlie had sat in the chair and told him these
things. After this experience, the patient was cooperative. He was
not excited, and he took the deceased doctor’s “visit” as a matter of
course. The next morning, the boy was much better—a dramatic change had
occurred in his condition.[5]
The
phenomenon of “after-death communications” is surprisingly widespread, even
among unbelievers and skeptics.[6]
According to a survey conducted by the prominent
priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley under the auspices of the National Opinion
Research Center, 42% of American adults claim to have been in contact, in some way
or another, with someone who has died. The figures are even higher in
certain subcategories of the population. Studies suggest that somewhere
between 50% and 74.4% of widows claim to have had some such experience.[7]
A lower but still significant figure has been found in surveys of the general
European population, many of whom claim to have been fully awake during their
encounter, unaffected by drugs, and, sometimes, not alone in their perception
of the presence of a deceased person.[8]
Such results cannot simply be waved aside.
Still,
despite their commonness, and despite the fact that many stories of after-death
communication involve multiple witnesses, they remain anecdotal.[9]
[1] Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello
from Heaven!, 42. Other, similar, stories can be found at pages
243-256; $also the rather different case summarized at Raymond Bayless, Apparitions
and Survival of Death (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1973),
185.
[3] Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello
from Heaven!, 42, 257-270. See, too, Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye
in Holy Places (1974), 139. [See original.]
[6] $See, for example, the anecdote related
at Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello from Heaven!, 329-330; also$
Lee Nelson, Beyond the Veil, vol. 2 (n.pl.: Cedar Fort, 1996), 11,
55-57, 91-92, 111;$ Lee Nelson, Beyond the Veil, vol. 3
(Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 1990), 36, 103-104, 121, 138-142. In some
of these encounters, multiple persons had the experience either simultaneously
or serially, and/or seemingly corroborating details were noted. Still,
the evidence, though derived from varied sources, remains anecdotal and
unconfirmed.
[7] See American Health (January-February
1987) [See original]; Sherry Simon-Buller, Victor A. Christopherson, and
Randall A. Jones, “Correlates of Sensing the Presence of a Deceased
Spouse,” Omega 19/1 (1988-1989): 21-30; Torill Christine
Lindström, “Experiencing the Presence of the Dead: Discrepancies in ‘the
Sensing Experience’ and Their Psychological Concomitants,” Omega 31/1
(1995): 11-21. Scott H. Becker and Roger M. Knudson, “Visions of the
Dead: Imagination and Mourning,” Death Studies 27/8 (2003):
691-716, closely examines a quite untypical case of such perception from an
“archetypal” and “non-dualist” (that is, non-literal) point of view.
[8] Erlendur Haraldson, “Survey of Claimed
Encounters with the Dead,” Omega 19/2 (1988-1989): 103-???.
[9] For stories of shared experiences with
deceased friends or relatives, see Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello
from Heaven!, 285-300. On pages 296-298, the Guggenheims offer
accounts in which animals appear to respond to visits from the dead;$several
such cases appear throughout Bayless, Apparitions and Survival of Death.
[Sally Taylor.] On page 290???, they illustrate the apparently greater
openness of children to “after-death communications.” $Bayless, Apparitions
and Survival of Death, 84, 185, reports two cases in which a deceased
mother appears to return to check on or comfort a child. [Gus.]
The Miracles I Witnessed as My Daughter was Dying By Eileen V. Wilcox
The Miracles I Witnessed as My
Daughter Was Dying
By Eileen V. Wilcox · July 14, 2019
As
members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we are told that we are entitled to
miracles if we live righteously and have faith. In Moroni 7:37 we read: “For it
is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear
and minister unto men.”
When
our 21-year-old daughter had a horrific reaction that caused her incredible
pain and suffering, and ultimately lead to her death a few years later, we did
not always recognize the miracles around us. Sometimes we take for granted many
of the blessings in our lives. As you read Julene’s story, it is my hope that
you will recognize the miracles in your own life and see how small acts of
kindness you do may be a miracle and a blessing in someone else’s life—more
than you can even imagine.
Julene
had such a zest for life—and so much enthusiasm for doing even ordinary things.
The summer and fall of 1997 was the happiest time of her life. In almost every
aspect of her life, her fondest dreams were coming true. She had wonderful
performing opportunities singing and playing banjo in Bluegrass bands, both in
Rexburg, Idaho and on tour in Europe. She had been accepted into the top choir
at BYU. But best of all, she had just become engaged to her true love,
Scott. Yet on October 12, 1997, life changed for Julene—and for our whole
family – in an instant.
Julene
was suffering from a sore throat and suspected she might have strep throat. She
went to a doctor and, without testing, he prescribed Amoxicillin. After only
two capsules of this brand of penicillin, she experienced a life-threatening
toxic reaction that caused huge blisters and skin loss over 70 percent of her
body as well as damage to her internal organs. This reaction, Toxic Epidermal
Necrolysis, is rare and was not correctly diagnosed in the first three trips
made to the local hospital. Eventually, she was flown to the nearest burn
center, and we were told how serious this condition was. There theytold us
there was a chance she would not survive the night.WE PRAYED FOR A MIRACLE, and
so did our family, our friends, and many we did not even know. Though we didn’t
get the miracle of complete recovery we were hoping for, I’ve been able to
identify at least 21 miracles that came during this ordeal for our family. I
will detail some of them in this article.
Because
the pain from such extensive skin loss is so excruciating, Julene was placed in
an induced coma. That meant she had to be intubated and placed on a ventilator.
The doctors at the burn center explained that it was necessary to remove the
damaged skin—and they even shaved off her gorgeous thick blonde hair. Perhaps
the first miracle we saw was the incredible advances in modern medicine. Her
body was coated with Bacitracin, an antiseptic gel, and covered with a plastic
film that had recently been developed to save burn patients. Without these and
many other medical advances, Julene would not have lived through the first few
weeks of this reaction.
There
were serious complications many times during the first six weeks. Because
Julene’s lungs were so damaged, the ventilator forced air into her lungs at
quite a high pressure. I was told on Sunday morning, December 7, that she had a
pneumothorax—a break or hole in the lung. The air that was forced into her
lungs was escaping into the chest area. They made holes under her arms and
suctioned the escaped air out of her chest cavity. They explained that this was
a life-threatening situation if the lungs did not seal very soon.
After
the first two weeks, my husband and I had to switch off being with Julene so
that we could take care of our family and attend to work and Church duties. My
husband was with our family in Rexburg that Sunday, but I felt strongly that
Julene needed a blessing. I went to the sacrament meeting held in the hospital
and asked the branch president to give Julene a blessing to seal her lungs. He
gave me a look that showed he felt overwhelmed and said: “I don’t know if I can
do that.” We discussed things for a few minutes, and he promised he would
come back later.
That
evening I drove back to Rexburg before the branch president returned. I was
very concerned but not distraught; I felt certain he would bless Julene as he
said he would.
On
Monday morning, the doctor called from the burn center and told me the result
of her morning chest X-Ray. Through our faith and that of this devoted branch
president, we were blessed with a miracle – her lungs had sealed!
On
December 26, 1997, after two and a half months in an induced coma, Julene was
allowed to regain consciousness. Her lungs and her eyes were still terribly
damaged, and her body was incredibly weak. She had to learn to stand and walk,
and to use her hands and arms again. But because her need for oxygen was so
great, these activities were incredibly difficult. And to add to her
discouragement, her recent engagement and reservation in the Oakland Temple had
been cancelled. Her fiancé, who had been to visit almost every night, was
encouraged to move ahead with his life and gradually quit visiting.
Then
came a day when we were blessed with the miracle of music. A young man named
Glenn had come around to sing to patients on several Sundays. Careful not to
offend, he had previously sung folk songs. But on a Sunday in February, when
Julene was terribly discouraged and dejected, Glenn came to sing for her. He
started with the Primary hymn written by Janice Kapp Perry. It starts: Heavenly
Father, are you really there? Do you hear and answer every child’s prayer?
Tears ran down Julene’s face, because she must have wondered those very
thoughts. She was comforted particularly by verse 2:
Pray, he is there
Speak, he is list’ning.
You are his child;
His love now surrounds you.
He hears your prayer;
He loves the children.
Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of heav’n.
Speak, he is list’ning.
You are his child;
His love now surrounds you.
He hears your prayer;
He loves the children.
Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of heav’n.
A Child’s Prayer © 1984 Janice Kapp Perry. Used by Permission.
Who
would have thought that just singing a Primary song at a time of need would be
a miracle in someone’s life?
After
over five months in the burn center, Julene was transferred to a rehabilitation
center. Here, there were many angels who ministered to her needs, and one was
in the form of a visiting teacher! I’m sure that many of the visiting teachers
who were assigned to visit the rehab center did not feel that their work would
be significant. However, this sister (whose name I’ve forgotten) took time to get
to know Julene, had compassion for the overwhelming odds she faced, helped
wheel her out to the rose gardens, and had her ward fast and pray for Julene.
That fast meeting was attended by Sister Olivia King of the Relief Society
General Board. Sister King became like a sister to Julene. She invited the
General Relief Society President, Mary Ellen Smoot, to visit Julene. It was a
beautiful event! Sister Smoot said: “You will probably use your experiences to
help others someday. You might have a position like I have.” Although Julene
never had the privilege of speaking of her experiences during her earthly
sojourn, many were inspired by her faith, bravery, and perseverance, and now by
her published story.
After
eight months of hospitalization in Salt Lake, Julene returned home on
June 10, 1998. Although there were many difficulties with caring for her at
home, there were miracles of tender mercies and the Lord’s watchful care. One
afternoon I was preparing to give Julene a dose of medicine from an inhaler. I
heard a voice—if not aloud—in my mind saying: “Don’t give her that medicine, it
is hurting her.” I thought back about the two doses I had given her earlier in
the day and realized that she had had a very difficult time immediately after I
administered the medicine to her. After sharing this with her doctor, he agreed
that we should not continue, and her difficulties caused by the inhaler were
resolved.
An even
more dramatic incident that shows the Lord’s watchful care occurred as we
returned from a medical visit to Salt Lake City. She continued to need a huge
amount of oxygen. We had exchanged one of our tanks for a hospital tank. On the
way home, Julene chose not to make a rest stop that we usually made. We had
considered trading to the second tank of oxygen because we were running low,
but decided we could get home without the change. As we arrived home, our
respiratory therapist met us with a full tank of oxygen—the huge tank that we
kept in the garage. He immediately changed Julene to this tank and said: “The
tank you are on is completely empty.” And looking at the alternate tank,
he continued: “And the valve on this tank is wrong—you could not have used it.”
We knew the Lord had watched over Julene, because her need for oxygen was so
great, that if she had been even a few minutes on room air, she would have
passed out and she would have suffered brain damage, if not death.
Julene
indeed felt it was a miracle when in March of 2000, Elder Robert D. Hales heard
about her situation and came to visit her while she was in LDS Hospital
awaiting a surgery. He talked with her and asked if there was anything he could
do for her. Julene asked if he would give her a blessing. He said he would be
honored to do so. When he blessed her, he assured her that the Lord loved her.
Toward the end, he stated: “If it is the Lord’s will that you continue to live
on the earth, you will get well. If it is the Lord’s will that you return to
Him, you will return to Him.”
As much
as we wanted Julene to make a full recovery, her health started to rapidly
decline after her visit with Elder Hales. Although her lungs had healed more
than they expected, her trachea was damaged to the point the doctors predicted
she would slowly and painfully suffocate. But Julene was blessed with a miracle
even in her passing. Three weeks after being with Elder Hales, he sent her a
beautiful letter. After I read it to her, I set the letter down and turned to
see that blood had filled her ventilator tubes. I tried to suction, but the
blood kept coming; she was experiencing massive hemorrhaging from her trachea.
She looked at the tubing and said: “Mom, look—there is blood in the tubes.” I
told her: “I know, and I have been suctioning, but it isn’t coming out.” Unsure
of what else to do, I leaned over and said, “I love you.” She looked at me and
answered with a phrase she had used so many times, “I love you more.” Unable to
receive air, her eyes closed and she passed on quietly—from this time of
terrible suffering into the arms of our Savior, where death and sorrow are
known no more.
It was
truly sad to have Julene leave us. After all, she was so delightful to be
around—with her positive attitude, her clever sense of humor and her amazing
musical gifts. But she left us a legacy never to be forgotten. In all her
trials and extremities, she continually called upon the Lord and had His spirit
with her.
Elder
Robert K. Dellenbach of the Seventy had watched over her from her early
admission to the burn center to speaking at her funeral. After giving her a
blessing prior to a very long and difficult eye surgery, he turned to me and
said: “The day will come that you will thank Julene for her sacrifice for you.”
I was perplexed by this statement and thought: “I will never be thankful for
this trial.” Her pain and suffering was beyond anything I even thought
possible. But yet, as I saw the faith and testimony of Julene’s five sisters
grow, I knew that as the Savior’s suffering for each of us had purpose,
Julene’s suffering also had purpose. Our family gained a greater testimony that
the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real as we were lifted and sustained again and
again through the years that Julene struggled and suffered. And as we
were comforted after her death by the peace and power of the Spirit, we felt
increased gratitude for the plan of salvation. We have a sure knowledge that,
through the power of the Atonement, we will again be with Julene. Losing Julene
has strengthened our desire to live worthily and continue in faith so that we
can join her again someday.
We have
been blessed with Julene’s presence on a few occasions. When our youngest
daughter was endowed and sealed in the Rexburg temple, we felt Julene there
with our other five daughters and their spouses. It was truly a blessing to
know that Julene was with us, and to have our whole family together again for
those few moments. In the last few years, I have felt Julene urging me to tell
her story. While I was searching through her writings to write a book about her
experiences, I know she was beside me—literally guiding me to certain pages.
Julene still lives on the other side of the veil! As Joseph Smith said, I
know she is “not far from us and know[s] and understand[s] our thoughts and
feelings” (History of the Church, 6:51–52).
A few
weeks before she died, when Julene knew her time was short, she wrote down some
of the miracles she had experienced. I had not read these pages prior to
writing her story, but I believe her testimony gives hope and understanding to
those who have lost loved ones, to those who suffer, and to all of us – because
we all need the Savior by our side. She finished by writing: “This much I do
know: The Lord loves me and is in charge of my future. If I can trust Him, all
will be well.”
You can read more of Julene’s story and the 21 miracles in my
book, One Angel and Twenty-One Miracles: An Incredible Journey of
Courage and Faith. It is available on Amazon.com at this link.
You may also visit my blog at https://oneangelandtwentyonemiracles.com/,
which details more miracles that happened as I wrote and published the book.
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Advice from a Temple Sealer by Danielle B. Wagner
Advice from a Temple Sealer That Changed
My Experience in the Temple
One evening while performing proxy sealings in the temple, the
sealer interrupted the flow of names and ordinances in beautifully unexpected
ways.
Everything about my time in the temple that night had been
ordinary and typical up to that point. I was at the temple at my ordinary time
on a typical weekday. As usual, my brain fogged over as I tried to fight away
the fatigue setting in and focus on the words buzzing around the calm, quiet,
and comfortable room.
But then, the first pause came in the flow of temple work as our
sealer stopped to ask a rhetorical question. Throughout the evening, he
continued to pause and ask questions about the words he spake, their meaning,
and how they applied to us, allowing us to ponder as he then continued on with
the work.
Each of these questions provided moments of reflection and wonder,
but what I remember the most about that night in the temple is the advice and
promise the sealer gave to us in parting.
He told us that if we wanted to make our next trip to the temple
more meaningful, to peer beyond the veil and truly experience something divine,
then we needed to make the endowment a continual conversation.
The next time we received one of those blue or pink temple cards,
we needed to concentrate long and hard on that name printed in black at the
top. We needed to understand that name represents a living soul, one of our
brothers and sisters. The sealer told us that if we wanted to deepen our temple
experience, we needed to thank the person on that card for allowing us to be in
the temple performing their work. We needed to tell them at every step,
"This is for you." We needed to speak and feel their name at every
turn, to truly converse with those on the other side of the veil. If we did,
the temple would become more meaningful to us.
That simple advice transformed how I experience the temple. Before
that night, I would often study the names on my card, the dates, and the places
and would think over what was occurring in history during that time. I would
imagine what the person had lived through, the sacrifices and hardships they
may have faced. I did this to draw some kind of connection to those black lines
on a flimsy piece of paper, to put some life into that simple name. But it
hadn't occurred to me that I didn't need to imagine or force a connection. They
were present. Angels were near and I could communicate with them.
In addition, his advice transformed the way I think of the temple.
Because of the way I heard friends or family talk about needing time in the
temple or taking their questions to the temple, I assumed the temple was a
place for us—a place set apart, built, consecrated, and designed for me to
receive answers from heaven. How many times have I visited the temple wondering
what I could gain or learn from the experience, not what I could give? How many
times are my thoughts focused inward in the temple, on my own problems and
questions, instead of outward and upward?
But now, after recent experiences, I know the temple is infinitely
more than that. The temple is about eternal family. It is about bonds, service,
peace, and Christlike love. It is about following Jesus Christ. It is about
forgetting ourselves and being wrapped up in the whole human family. It is
about allowing God to shape us into saviors as we play a small part in
extending the work of salvation and exaltation to others.
The next time I attended the temple, I remembered the advice that
the temple sealer gave me. During that session, I spoke to angels. I thanked
the person whose name I carried for allowing me, as flawed as I am, to
represent her in this sacred work. I told her I loved her and that I hoped she
would accept this wonderful gift of the endowment. I repeated her name with
every gesture and uttered word, saying, "This is for you."
And in return, I felt more awake and more filled with love and
light than I had in the temple since I first received my endowment. In return,
I felt six simple words whispered to me—words I had heard before when my
Savior spoke them directly to me. Only this time, they didn't
capture my relationship with my Redeemer. Instead, they captured my
relationship with one of my glorious, eternal sister. In truth, they capture my
relationship with all of our Heavenly Parents' children: "I know you. You
know me."
We've known each other for longer than any of us can fathom, and
we will all be family for a long time yet. While we might forget about that in
the world, treating each other as strangers, acquaintances, or even enemies, in
the temple we gain a glimpse into our true, shared, divine nature. In the
temple, we come to realize that we all at times must act as saviors and in turn
have the humility to be saved because it is only with each other that we can
inherit eternal life. In fact, it is only because of each other that eternal
life will be worth living.
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