Friday, April 27, 2018
24 Angels Who Visited Joseph Smith
“He was visited constantly by angels,” Elder George Q. Cannon said
of Joseph Smith. “These various angels, the heads of dispensations, . . .
ministered unto him. . . . He had vision after vision in order that his mind
might be fully saturated with a knowledge of the things of God, and that he
might comprehend the high and holy calling that God had bestowed upon
him” (Journal of Discourses, 23:362). Historical records of early
Latter-day Saints, Doctrine and Covenants, and early Church documents reveal
that Joseph Smith's visions and visits by heavenly messengers are too numerous
to count.
Here are are some of those heavenly messengers that helped teach
Joseph Smith the truths of the gospel:
1. Adam
2. Abraham
Father Adam appeared to the Prophet in a vision recorded in
D&C 137, along with Abraham and Joseph's brother Alvin.
3. Seth
4. Enoch
5. Isaac
6. Jacob
John Taylor taught that Joseph received visitations from numerous
Biblical figures, including Seth, Enoch, Isaac, and Jacob.
7. Raphael
8. Gabriel (Noah)
In D&C 128, the angels Raphael and Gabriel appeared to
instruct the Prophet Joseph.
9. Moses
10. Elias
11. Elijah
In 1836, Moses, Elias and Elijah appeared to Joseph and Oliver
Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple to restore keys.
12. John the Baptist
13. Peter
14. James
15. John (and possibly other New Testament Apostles, according to
John Taylor—JD, 21:94)
John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John all appeared to restore
the priesthoods to Joseph.
16. Paul (perhaps, judging from Joseph Smith’s thorough
description of him in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.
180)
17. Nephi
18. Mormon
Orson Pratt commented that Joseph often received visits from Nephi
and Mormon, among other scriptural figures.
19. Alma (perhaps, as well as other Book of Mormon prophets,
according to George Q. Cannon—JD, 13:47)
20. The three Nephites (and possibly other Nephite Apostles,
according to John Taylor—JD, 21:94)
21. Moroni
22. Unnamed angels at a meeting on January 21, 1836
23. Many angels at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, March
27, 1836
24. Many angels, not specifically identified, as noted in Doctrine
and Covenants 128:20-21. That scripture notes the voices (meaning visits) of
Moroni, Michael, and Peter, James, and John. It also speaks of “the voice of
Gabriel, and of Raphael, and of divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the
present time, all declaring their dispensations, their rights, their keys,
their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood;
giving line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little.”
(Thanks to The Mormon Book of
Lists for help in collecting these! Information from History of the
Church, 1:39-41, 2:381, 428; D&C 27:12-13, 110:11-16, 128:20-21; JD, 13:47,
17:374, 21:94; and Andrus, Joseph Smith, the Man and the Seer, p. 95. Photo
from iStock.)
Friday, April 20, 2018
Quote by Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Many living witnesses can testify to the
literal fulfillment of these scriptural assurances of the resurrection. Many,
including some in my own extended family, have seen
a departed loved one in vision or personal appearance and have witnessed their
restoration in “proper and perfect frame” in the prime of life. Whether these
were manifestations of persons already resurrected or of righteous spirits
awaiting an assured resurrection, the reality and nature of the resurrection of
mortals is evident. What a comfort to know that all who have been disadvantaged
in life from birth defects, from mortal injuries, from disease, or from the
natural deterioration of old age will be resurrected in “proper and perfect
frame.” Dallin H. Oaks Ensign May 2000
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/05/resurrection.p1?lang=eng
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Thursday, January 4, 2018
When Angles Speak by Catherine Keddington Arveseth
When Angels Speak
"I put the last of my grocery cart items on the conveyor belt and nudged my cart forward. As the cashier scanned my stack of necessities, I watched the bagger swiftly fill bags and then my cart, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see another shopper had joined the line. She began unloading her cart, and without thinking, I turned for a better look. I recognized the woman immediately as a friend of my Mother’s.
I didn’t know her well. Growing up in a predominantly Mormon neighborhood, there were just a handful of families that were not LDS. Hers was one of them. But my mother had a way of making those families some of her closest friends. I remembered how much my Mom cared about this woman. I remembered going with my Mom once or twice to take dinner to her when she was not well. I remembered my Mom reminding us to be kind to her children.
Should I say hello? The thought dangled in my mind.
She’ll never remember me. Or recognize me… It’s been over twenty years since we’ve seen each other.
The cashier announced the total of my purchase, so I inserted my card for payment and tried to dismiss the idea.
But the idea didn’t leave.
Maybe I should say something.
And then I felt it. A touch on my shoulder. My right shoulder. As if my mother were standing next to me, her hand gently brushing against my clothing.
Then I heard her voice. There was no mistaking it.
“You need to say hello to her,” she said. “You need to tell her that I love her.”
The cashier handed me my receipt and I hesitated, knowing it was now or never.
Reluctantly, I turned back to the woman behind me and spoke her name. Before I could make my excuse that she would never remember me, her hand was on my arm and she was saying my own name.
“Catherine. I was so sorry to hear about your Mom. It was so sad.” There was genuine sorrow in her eyes and in her words.
“Thank you,” I said. “We really miss her.”
“She was a great lady. She never judged me. There was never any judgement. No judgement at all.”
“I know,” I said. “She was good at that. I actually wondered if I should say something to you and when I hesitated, it was like she tapped me on the shoulder and told me to say hello, because she wanted me to tell you how much she loves you.”
Her face softened and so did her smile.
“She was kind to me. And you and your brother did more for us than you know.”
There was not time to say much more. I asked about her children. We swapped brief details and then again in the parking lot, we talked for a couple more minutes, about her family, how everyone was doing. It was a happy conversation and the connection was easy, unrestrained, and seemed to fill us both.
We said goodbye and I finished putting my groceries into the back of my car then climbed in and started the ignition. A glowing warmth and gratitude settled around me.
If I could have seen my Mother’s spirit with my very eyes, in all its shimmering essence, I would not have known with more surety that she was sitting next to me in the passenger seat than I did in that moment. So I spoke out loud.
“I did it Mom. I did what you asked me to do. I was your voice.”
And then I cried. And together we made the drive home.
Days later I was telling my friend Kara about the experience. How my mother’s words had felt so similar to the Holy Ghost when He speaks to me. The same kind of knowing and fire and peace. All at once. And yet it wasn’t the Holy Ghost. It was my Mother. She was the messenger.
Kara pulled out her Book of Mormon and reminded me of this verse in 2 Nephi 32. I’ve read it dozens of times. So many times. And never before had it made so much sense. One phrase rang out with perfect clarity.
“Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Since my Mother passed away, I’d been trying to figure out this new place of communication with her. I was trying to differentiate between her voice and the voice of the Spirit. And now I understood.
By the power of the Holy Ghost, I could discern her voice. Her message. And through the Holy Ghost, she was given means to communicate. This is the pattern angels use. This is how they speak.
They do speak. And when they do, similar to the Holy Ghost, they have a message for us. Instruction, illumination, a truth to confirm, a warning, a witness, and sometimes, simple but matchless comfort.
Kirt Harmon
In this season of angels, when we speak of angelic annunciations and angels filling the skies over shepherd’s fields – this season in which we hang angels on Christmas trees, place their art on our walls, I can no longer think of them as distant floating figures. The word angel has personal, even tangible meaning to me now. They are family. Joseph F. Smith taught us this. Loved ones who care about us. And they are thick around us. Speaking to us, walking next to us, teaching us.
President Ezra Taft Benson said,
“Visitors, seen and unseen, from the world beyond, are often close to us… There is no veil to the Lord.” (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.35)
No veil to the Lord. How often do we consider His perspective? How he views this mingling of worlds?
I made my scripture study this month about angels. In almost precise verbiage, here are their capabilites.
They can stand by us, come to us, go before us, speak to us in dreams, speak by the word of the Lord, speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, talk with God, talk with us, carry us, tell us not to fear, testify, bear us up, have charge over us, minister to us after great temptation, stay with us through the night.
As I write these words, a new death is fresh in our family. Last night my Dad’s brother, Richard, passed away. Cancer commandeered his body at a tragically rapid rate in recent weeks, and his going was sooner than expected.
Sweet Richard. Always kind. Always gentle. How my Dad loved this comrade from his childhood. His oldest brother.
I wept for my Dad. He has experienced so much loss this year.
But then I thought of those who had likely come to carry Richard home. The Grandmother I adore, the devoted Grandfather I never met, Richard’s daughter Fiona, and my own Mother. Surely she would have been there. And once again, I felt that spark of her feet touching the earth, the sensation of air moving as she passed by.
I didn’t hear her speak, but I knew she was near."
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Miracles After Sandy Hook: How an LDS Family Has Felt Heaven's Presence After Their Daughter's Murder
Miracles After Sandy Hook: How an LDS
Family Has Felt Heaven's Presence After Their Daughter's Murder
http://www.ldsliving.com/Miracles-After-Sandy-Hook-How-an-LDS-Family-Has-Felt-Heaven-s-Presence-After-Their-Daughter-s-Murder/s/87120?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email
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.
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza methodically pulled a green
utility vest over his black shirt, black fatigues, and black canvas belt and
slid black fingerless gloves over his emaciated knuckles. He grabbed a pair of
sunglasses and his mother’s Bushmaster semi-automatic assault rifle along with
magazines and two handguns. Before leaving his house in Newtown, Connecticut,
the 20-year-old crept into his mother’s bedroom, shooting her four times in the
head with a .22 caliber Savage rifle. Then, with the assault rifle and pistols
in hand, he stole his mother’s 2010 Honda Civic and drove three miles to the
school he had attended just 10 years earlier—Sandy Hook Elementary.
Once at the door, Lanza used the assault rifle to shoot his way
through the plate glass window and into the building. It was just after 9:30
a.m. Sandy Hook principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, vice principal Natalie
Hammond, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach rushed into the hallway to
investigate the noise. Lanza turned his high-powered rifle on the three women,
killing Hochsprung and Sherlach and injuring Hammond. Hammond lay motionless on
the ground even as additional gunfire struck her, waiting until Lanza
disappeared before dragging herself into a nearby room, using her own body to
barricade the door.
At 9:35:39 a.m., the police received a terrifying call reporting a
shooter roaming the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary. At 9:38:15 a.m., the first
police officers arrived at Sandy Hook, knowing nothing more than the first few
disjointed reports they received over the phone. Inside the school, Lanza made
his way into two classrooms of first graders. In classroom 8, Lanza murdered
substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau, behavioral therapist Rachel D’Avino (who
had only worked at the school one week), and more than a dozen 6 and 7-year-old
children who were huddled together, hiding. Only one girl survived.
In classroom 10, Lanza fatally shot first-grade teacher Victoria
Leigh Soto when she stepped in his path, attempting to shield her students with
her body. Lanza opened fire on the children hidden around the room, reloading
and continuing even after his gun jammed. In that classroom, Lanza killed five
students and two adults. The body of Anne Marie Murphy, a teacher’s aide who
worked with special needs students, was later found covering the body of a
6-year-old boy she had attempted to save from the attack. After his murderous
rampage, Lanza picked up his Glock and fired one round into the hallway before
putting the pistol to his head and pulling the trigger.
In just under four and a half minutes, the deadliest elementary or
secondary school shooting in U.S. history had ended. In all, Lanza fired 154
shots from his rifle and two from his Glock, killing 20 children and six school
employees in a heinous and sickening act of violence.
The Unthinkable
Alissa Parker awakened to two blue eyes staring at her, just
inches from her own. Her 6-year-old, Emilie, had crawled into bed, taking her
husband, Robbie’s, place as he headed into work as a physician’s assistant at
Danbury Hospital. The two went to Emilie’s room where she put on a fashion show
before picking out her ensemble— a pink shirt with a ruffled pink skirt and
pink leggings. It was a crisp winter morning as Alissa dropped Emilie off at
the bus stop. Not long after, she received a phone call. An automated voice
told her there had been a shooting at her daughter’s school. With shaking
hands, Alissa raced to Sandy Hook Elementary.
Evacuated children congregated around the firehouse, reuniting
with their families. Alissa couldn’t find Emilie anywhere. While Robbie was
trapped at the hospital, which had been placed on lockdown, Alissa waited for
hours to learn any new information, her heart filling with sickening fear that
increased by the moment.
In the afternoon, an officer announced the unthinkable: 20
children had been murdered. But none of the names of the victims were released.
Robbie arrived shortly after, and the two were together at 3:30 p.m. when
Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy arrived to confirm the worst fears of every
parent still waiting to be reunited with their son or daughter: all of their
children had died.
Signs of Love
Confusion, shock, overwhelming emptiness, loss—so many emotions
broke over the Parkers in that moment. When Alissa and Robbie reached their
car, wondering how they would tell their two other little girls, Madeline and
Samantha, that their sister was not returning home, Robbie suggested they
pray together.
The prayer was simple but poignant. They needed God’s help, love,
and compassion because they were now broken and lost. Immediately, a peace and
love flooded Alissa and Robbie, reassuring them that God would not abandon
them. “Looking back, that was such a vital, pivotal time for us,” Robbie says.
“Even though it lasted just a fleeting second, [there was] this warmth and this
comfort and this understanding of ‘I’m here for you,’ and it was gone. Then
going home and having to talk to the girls and having all these tough things
happen, I knew I had that one moment that I could look back on, that I
could carry with me.”
During this time of darkness, thousands reached out to the
Parkers, demonstrating that goodness and light still existed in a world they
felt was shattered and dim.
“The first thing everyone wanted to do was to help, to serve, to
do something,” Nancy Hintze, Alissa’s visiting teacher, recalls.
During this time when media vans still flooded Newtown, triggering
ongoing memories of the tragedy, Hintze quietly delivered meals from ward
members to the Parker home, the stake silently covered the expenses for the
funeral, and the ward created three Christmas trees filled with angels donated
by those who wanted to show their love for the Parkers.
“It was amazing to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ really acts
in your life. It got away from all the repetitive motion that we can find in
the Church and [moved to] people bearing one another’s burdens and the love
that the gospel brings into your life,” Robbie says. “That was one of the few
times in my life where I thought, ‘This is what the gospel is. . . . This is
really what living a Christlike life means in the flesh.’ It was such a
beautiful thing.”
More small miracles followed. Days after the shooting, a truck
pulled in front of the Parker home and a small family business owner went to
work, filling the Parker’s heating-oil tank with $500 of oil. Bins of gifts,
paintings, letters, and other donations from complete strangers filled a
warehouse set aside for the families of the Sandy Hook victims.
One of the most moving displays of love came unexpectedly while
Emilie’s body was being transported to Utah for her burial. “I hated the idea
of Emilie being alone or being treated like freight or cargo,” Robbie
remembers. His and Alissa’s anxiety was soothed, however, when they arrived at
the funeral home and learned that Emilie hadn’t been alone during the journey.
“When we approached the entrance [to the funeral home], it was lined with
flowers and stuffed animals and cards,” Alissa remembers.
The Parkers learned the gifts had all arrived with Emilie. The
crews from U.S. Airways who helped transport Emilie’s body left small gifts and
cards behind, letting the family know she was cared for every step of the way.
Later, the Parkers learned from a friend who had been onboard the plane that
flew Emilie to Salt Lake City that the pilot had asked everyone to remain
seated and silent as they unloaded the body of a victim from Sandy Hook. Nearly
100 airline employees lined the tarmac, paying respect as the tiny casket was
unloaded and carried away.
“That was incredibly powerful to me. It was such a beautiful moment
of respect that they showed for what happened to my daughter and the life that
she had,” Alissa says. “I had been dreading the idea of her being shipped, but
they changed that narrative for me. They made it instead of something really
cold and dark to be something incredibly beautiful and touching.”
Pain and Peace
The funeral. The first Christmas
without Emilie. Returning home. All were difficult transitions for the Parkers
that were coupled with a brutal sense of finality.
“There is this part about being a
member of the Church that makes us feel like when someone dies, we
automatically have to be okay and comfortable with the fact that we know where
they are and we understand the plan of salvation and therefore the rest should
be easier,” Alissa shares. But she knows firsthand that is not always the case.
“After Emilie passed away, it was
very hard for me to attend church. I didn’t want to sit in sacrament meeting
surrounded by whole families that reminded me mine was broken. I didn’t want to
hear the silver linings; they didn’t seem to help,” Alissa says. But one day,
Madeline’s Primary teacher, Terri Burley, whose son had been hit and
killed by a drunk driver while he was serving a mission in Argentina, offered a
piece of counsel she and her husband personally received from Elder Holland
during their journey to forgive the man who killed their son: “Elder
Holland spoke tenderly about our broken hearts. He said, ‘It’s okay to be sad.
A piece of your heart is missing. It’s missing because it belongs to your son,
and he holds it until you are reunited with him.’”
Turley reminded the Parkers to
“keep a tender and sensitive heart toward the Lord because He stands ready and
willing to give all that He has. Bitterness tends to shut the conduit between heaven
and earth.”
In order to give Robbie and Alissa
time to heal emotionally and spiritually, Turley watched Madeline and Samantha
one day a week for a year—an experience she says blessed her family’s life as
much as it did the Parkers.
“It was the sweetest experience to
have those little angels in my home,” Turley says. “My son Jeffrey has special
needs. . . . He had changed after our other son passed away. It was like a
little park or a little flame [had been] extinguished. Those little girls
brought it back.”
She continues, sharing a
particularly special moment she had with Madeline: “Madeline was sitting on my
lap in Primary, and she was crying [about Emilie] and laid her little head on
my shoulder. I was comforting her, and I whispered in her ear, ‘ I have a son
up in heaven, too. I wonder if they are friends.’ Madeline stopped. She turned
her body and looked straight at my face and said, ‘Sister Turley, don’t you
worry, because your son is going to be resurrected and you will get to have him
back, so don’t be sad.’ I thought, ‘That is the sweetest thing I have ever
heard.’ Here I am trying to comfort her, and her first thought is to comfort
me.”
Quickly, Turley realized that her
interaction with the Parkers was healing her as well. She says, “I was becoming
more and more whole myself.”
An Uncomfortable Prompting
In the months following Emilie’s
death, Alissa ached to feel her daughter near. Searching for that moment,
Alissa and Robbie attended the temple. But while in the celestial room, Alissa
received inspiration she had not anticipated.
“My whole life I’ve heard of all
these amazing experiences of people at the temple and feeling connected to
those on the other side and I thought, ‘This is where I’m going to be able to
feel closest to Emilie,’” Alissa recalls. “I’m anticipating this moment,
waiting to feel her, and only thinking about her, and instead I hear a voice in
my head that says, ‘You need to meet with the shooter’s father.’” But how could
she meet with the father of the man who had murdered her daughter? A man who
had killed 20 children in cold blood? The thought was strange and
uncomfortable, but it persisted.
Once they reached the car, Alissa
told Robbie they needed to meet with Adam Lanza’s father, Peter.
arrangements were made, and Alissa and Robbie prepared the message they
wanted to share: that Peter should release his son’s medical information to
help others understand what led to the shooting.
During the meeting, the Parkers
quickly learned that Peter Lanza, who had been estranged from his son for
years, had already released his son’s medical records. He, too, longed to know
what happened to his son.
The discussion “opened up this
floodgate, and he just started to tell us everything he was trying to make
sense of,” Alissa recalls. The Parkers learned of Adam Lanza’s constant battle
with mental illness, of his struggles with Asperger’s, anxiety, OCD, anorexia,
and possibly even schizophrenia.
“For me, that conversation was the
first time where I had a chink in my armor broken off about looking at [Adam]
as a person and seeing him as somebody,” Robbie says. “That was the first time
I gained any sort of sympathy or empathy, which was really weird to feel
because I felt very comfortable with the anger I had toward him.”
Alissa adds, “It was a real
turning point for me as far as seeing him through different eyes. Up to that
point, he had just been this monster to me. And that changed just a little, in
that moment. Heavenly Father helped me see the man who murdered my daughter
through His eyes. For me, forgiveness isn’t just this one moment where you
decide that you’re done and you’ve forgiven someone and it’s over. It’s a
process; it’s these small moments that lead you to find that forgiveness.
That’s what it was for me. This was the first moment where I can identify that
softening, that change.”
Feeling
Forgiveness
Forgiveness and peace, however, still didn’t
come easily or immediately for the Parkers. “Hating Adam Lanza felt good. But I
could see now that hate and anger were limiting me from moving forward,” Alissa
writes in her new book, An Unseen Angel.
“The more I read, researched, and learned everything I could about
the shooter and his history, the more questions surfaced to which I would never
find answers. . . . I finally came to the conclusion that I would never
know. I would never fathom what was in his heart. But God could. God knew how
to hold him accountable. God knew how to judge him. That burden was not for me
to carry; rather, it was for me to lay down at God’s feet. . . . As I made this
decision, a burden so deep and so heavy it had nearly crushed me was physically
lifted from me. My heart burned with a joy so powerful it brought me to tears.”
As their sadness, anger, and hatred gradually
faded, Robbie and Alissa were able to feel Emilie’s presence near. “My heart
needed to heal in order to feel her again,” Alissa says. “It wasn’t until my
heart had softened that those moments where I could have her be with me became
available. They were small, short, beautiful, intensely euphoric moments that I
wanted to hold onto with all of my might, but yet, somehow it would probably
overwhelm me.”
Alissa
continues, “I mostly feel Emilie around her sisters. It’s just such a sweet
thing to think that she is still their big sister and loves them and is with
them.” The first time Alissa felt Emilie was Easter morning. “Come, Thou Fount
of Every Blessing” was playing on the stereo and Alissa was overwhelmed with
thoughts of what was missing from their family celebration: Emilie’s Easter
basket, her excitement over a new fancy dress, her smile, her hugs.
But as Madeline and Samantha twirled to the
music, Alissa was enveloped by a sense of warmth, peace, and comfort. Alissa
writes:
“I knew that Emilie was there dancing with her sisters as they had
done so many times before. In that moment, I was blessed to finally feel all
the happiness of those memories again, all the joy and the laughter without the
pain of loss. Emilie was giving me the chance to see that our family would
always be connected, through time and eternity. . . . For that moment, we were
all there as a family, tied together eternally by the redeeming love of Jesus
Christ. The feeling faded quickly, but even after it left, I knew I had been
changed forever, lit with a new light of hope.”
Finding
God
Despite the darkness and pain that came from
losing Emilie, the Parkers have found their relationship with their Heavenly
Father growing stronger and more complete as they learn to rely on His grace
and forgiveness, understanding His love with new depth. “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,” Robbie recalls. “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.”
“Sometimes people want to ask ‘Where is God in
all of this?’” Hintze says. “It [is] very easy to see and dwell and live in the
darkness. . . . [However,] if you want to be in the light, you have to look for
it, you have to work for it, you have to be diligent, but it is always there,
and that is where we will find God. It is a choice we have to make to seek it
out. Alissa and Robbie have made that choice over and over again.”
Safe and
Sound
Since Emilie’s passing, the Parkers have used
their personal experience to become advocates for school safety and art
therapy.
Along with Michele Gay, another mother who lost
her daughter during the Sandy Hook shooting, Alissa established Safe and Sound
Schools, a nonprofit that seeks to empower communities to build safer schools.
In addition to providing customizable programs, podcasts, materials, and
resources, Safe and Sound Schools helps create school safety councils, allowing
students the chance to improve their school’s safety with innovative solutions.
In addition, the Parkers have established a
nonprofit focusing on supporting local art communities and helping children who
have suffered trauma, neglect, or abuse through art therapy. The organization,
Art Connection, was inspired by Emilie, who was a prolific artist and used
pictures to record her feelings and bring light and joy to others.
“[This experience] has changed us. It has made
us better, and it has inspired us to do things that we otherwise wouldn’t have
done,” Robbie says. He recalls a message one woman shared with him. “She said,
‘Isn’t it amazing how God won’t waste an opportunity?’ For anyone else who is
going through whatever it is that they’re going through, if they can look at it
with that same mentality, that this is an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted.
As hard and as difficult as it might be, it shouldn’t be wasted because God’s
not going to waste it.”
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Returned Missionary Miraculously Survives Vicious Knife Attack: "There Were Angels There Helping"
byJake Healey | Oct. 01, 2015
Editor’s Note: The following story contains mature subject matter and descriptions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.
The night of Tuesday, September 22, was like any other.
It was half past 11:00 in Salt Lake City, where Breann (“Bre”) Lasley had recently moved into a duplex with her younger sister, Kayli. Bre and Kayli stayed up talking for a while (Kayli had just returned from a date), then retired to their rooms. After brushing her teeth, Bre played some calming music on her computer to end the day. But exactly 38 seconds into Paul Cardall’s arrangement of “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer,” she slammed her laptop shut. The music stopped.
A man was at her window.
What Bre didn’t know at the time was that eight days prior, Robert Richard Berger had been released from the Utah State Prison after 14 years of incarceration. She was also unaware that he’d just been chased away from her neighbor’s house after an unsuccessful break-in attempt.
What she did know was that he was on his way into her bedroom, and that he was too strong for her to keep out.
As Berger forced his way in, Bre wasn’t sure if the whole thing was a joke. After all, she and her sister had just moved in a few days earlier, and they didn’t know many people in the neighborhood. Maybe this was somebody’s sick idea of a prank.
But the violence with which Berger handled Bre quickly dispelled any possibility of a joke. She began to scream.
Before long, Kayli ran upstairs to her sister’s room, where she began striking Berger in an attempt to loosen his grip on her sister. The two girls, fueled by rage and adrenaline, defended one another against his increasingly violent attack.
The struggle made its way to the top of the stairs, where Berger viciously kicked Kayli. She flew to the bottom of the staircase without touching a single step on the way down, and her head went through the wall. Doctors would later tell her she was lucky to be alive.
Berger attempted to push Bre down the stairs as well, but she maintained a grip on him, so they went down together. At the bottom of the stairwell, Bre frantically called the police, but Berger hung up her phone. As he and Bre fought, Kayli called the police. Both sisters frantically shouted their address until Berger began choking Kayli.
Bre tackled Berger into the laundry room, but he got on top of her and began beating her even more intensely than before. That’s when Kayli’s attention was drawn to a metal rack hanging on the wall. She ripped it down and struck Berger several times in the back with it.
That’s when Bre saw the knife.
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A few years prior to this night, Bre had serious medical problems. Blood clots had severely damaged her liver, gallbladder, and several other internal organs. Her doctor prescribed a blood thinner to stop the clotting, which worked—but a couple of months ago, he decided to take her off it unexpectedly.
If Bre had still been taking the blood thinner, this night would have been her last.
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Upon seeing the knife, Bre convinced Kayli to run outside and get help. As she sprinted up the stairs, one thought consumed her older sister’s mind:
“This is the last time I’ll ever see her.”
Berger stabbed Bre in the lower abdomen. He stabbed her again in the right thigh. Again, in the upper abdomen. He began violently and repeatedly jabbing and slashing haphazardly. Doctors would later be mystified at Bre’s close shave with death. None of the stab wounds cut through any organs or major arteries, although many came within a few centimeters.
Meanwhile, Kayli frantically ran the sidewalks, screaming for help. Luckily, a police officer was only a couple doors down, investigating Berger’s earlier break-in. She told the officer that her sister was fighting a man inside their house, and that her assailant had a knife.
As the officer ran toward the duplex, Berger was threatening to go upstairs and kill Kayli. A wounded and exhausted Bre tried to bargain for her sister’s life, offering Berger her car, computer, phone, and cash. In a fit of rage, Berger forced her back to the ground, pinned down her arms and said, “I’m going to kill you.”
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In 2009 and 2010, Bre served an LDS mission in Florianopolis, Brazil. As missionaries, she and her companion would often go door-to-door and ask people what they would say to the Savior if He were there. One woman had not been able to walk in four years, and together, she and the sister missionaries prayed for the desires of her heart. The next time Sister Lasley and her companion visited this woman, she could walk again.
Sitting there on the couch with her companion, Sister Lasley had the most powerful spiritual experience of her life. In that moment, she felt as though the Savior himself was sitting beside her. The memory of this stayed with her for years, but that feeling would not repeat itself until she needed it most.
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Berger raised the knife.
Bre braced for impact, but none came. Berger’s blow had missed. He tried again but somehow could not stab her. After six or seven failed attempts, he became increasingly angry and confused. “Why isn’t this working?!” he screamed. “Why the [expletive] isn’t this working?!”
Bre watched as the knife came inches from her stomach, her chest, her head. Horror quickly turned to peace as she once again felt the protecting presence of her Savior, just as she had years before on her mission.
She would later say it was as if a shield covered her entire body.
"I know, without a question, that we were totally protected, that there were angels there helping us," Bre said in a Deseret News interview.
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Since this night, Bre has pored over the words of Elder L. Whitney Clayton. His most recent conference address, “Choose to Believe,” has inspired her.
Elder Clayton’s talk tells the story of a young girl who miraculously walked away from a plane crash that killed her entire family. After the crash, the scared, injured, and freezing girl faced a choice—did she stay at the wreckage, where she was perhaps more assured and comfortable, or go off in search of help?
She abandoned the crash and found light. “What I just went through was traumatic, frightening, and difficult,” said Bre. “But with the Savior’s help, I know I can leave the wreck.”
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Berger’s attempts on Bre’s life momentarily ceased when a heavy pair of boots walked down the stairs. The police officer introduced himself and ordered Berger to drop his weapon.
Instead, Berger put the knife to Bre’s throat. In that moment, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for this man who was making a terrible choice. The officer issued another warning, but Berger didn’t relent. After the third and final warning, he moved to cut her throat. The officer discharged one bullet into Berger’s head, which was inches away from Bre’s. She gasped in relief and exhaustion as her attacker fell to the floor.
On Bre’s way to the emergency room, she was filled with an overwhelming desire to pray.
Now, Bre and Kayli are out of the hospital and living with their parents. After their harrowing experience, they are uncertain as to whether they want to return to their apartment. But for the time being, the two sisters are doing well recovering physically and relying on the love and strength of their family and their Savior to overcome the emotional scars from that dark night.
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