This post has been sitting in my queue for quite some time. Although I feel it isn't ready, Austin had a team mate pass away and I'd like to share these thoughts with him:
If I were to die early, I'd want my wife and my kids to know how deeply I love them. They are my reason to live, work, and be a good man. That I will watch over them from the other side. (In a non-creepy sort of way) When my grandmother passed, she was simply gone for about 3 months. Then I felt her presence again in my life until I entered the MTC, then it felt as though she moved on to other things. She was big into temple work. If someone on the other side pushes missionary and temple work, there must be some truth to it.
There have been several deaths in my life where I have continued to feel their presence until they were buried. I feel there is a space of time sometimes granted to us right after we pass. A time allotted where we are allowed to interact more with our loved ones until our body is buried or our affairs in order. In those interactions, I've felt and noticed that our agency is still not taken from us. That our individual truth, remains so. Which is why I imagine missionary work is still so needed on the other side.
If I am able to, I'd like to donate my organs to someone in need of them. Not medical science, just to be an organ donor. These eyes have seen some of the most beautiful things the earth has to offer. I would love for nothing more than for them to allow another being to experience the same. I have taken good care of my organs and am in relatively good health. I've always donated blood. Over 8 gallons worth.
The love we build here has to have boundless value on the other side. How could it not? It's one of the few things of intricate value we can take with us.
We each have a spirit body in which our conciseness resides. Every one of us are an eternal being. This spirit body essentially drives our physical bodies. Because we are eternal beings, we can't be killed. Those who attempt it are just putting themselves in the next phase of our eternal existence before they are ready for that next step. I'd like to think that the love and atonement of Christ will have a redeeming affect on those I know who have chosen to leave this mortal existence prematurely. But I don't know how it works, I only know that I've felt the spirit very strongly at some funerals of suicide victims. One of those times was the wonderful spirit felt at Jacob Garza's life celebration. Although he was not religious, the spirit was felt stronger at his funeral than any other I've ever attended.
The most significant and most powerful thing I've felt in my life is the calm, consistent current that is Jesus Christ. He's not loud, never overbearing and definitely not forceful. He is calm, His love is greater and more consistent than I've felt anywhere else in my time here on earth.
The gentle current that is Christ.
"My kingdom is not of this world." Over the years, I've learned my treasure is not of this realm. Let me explain, as mortals here on earth we will all die. The goal, the most important purpose can't be to attain material possessions. The most obvious reasoning is we can't take them with us. We're all going to eventually pass to the next realm. So that begs the question; what CAN we take with us? It's most certainly not something money can buy. A testimony of truth, a greater understanding, and appreciating a deeper love. But what's not always considered is, we can and do take each other to the next world. So our relationships, our love invested and freely given while here on earth has to have immense value in the life to come.
So what can we give?
To our Creator, Redeemer and to one another, we can give our love, our loyalty, our time, our patience, we can build up and help each other succeed in our endeavors. We can care for the ones we will eventually leave behind. The ways in which we can do this vary greatly. I've learned that respecting where we each are individually, and not judging based on my own timeline and understanding. After all, we are all eternal beings on an eternal path, some truths new to me, you may have learned ions ago.
Each of us is gifted talents and abilities, tools that we are to use to accomplish the goals He has set before us. Indeed that gentle, consistent, current that IS Christ will always continue to draw us to Him. The sooner we realize and stop fighting against that current, the sooner we will realize that if we swim WITH the current, we can make far more progress than we ever imagined.
The best talk ever given on suicide and mental health was given by Elder Holland.
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