This memorial service is a celebration of Emma’s life, an opportunity for the friends and family of Emma to come together to hear about her life and reflect on the impact her life had on each one of us. It is also a time for each one of us to reflect upon our own lives and our relationship to God, our Heavenly Father and how his love for us can bring us joy and happiness in this life and in the life to come.
There have been and will be more tears shed today. In the 42nd section of the Doctrine and Covenants we read:
Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die….
And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them.
We love Emma and so we weep for the loss of her presence from our lives but I know that her death was sweet to her because of the way that she lived her life.
The reason each one of us is here today is that we were drawn to Emma. We were drawn to her because of her wonderful spirit and the beauty of her character.
Last weekend as all her family gathered around her in the living room of her home, we watched a video that Shenna and her husband Brian had made over 10 years ago showing photographs of Emma and Ted in their early youth, then again in the time when they first met and began dating. As the video continued it showed photos of their wedding, soon it showed photos documenting the addition of each of their three daughters to their family and then the addition of three son in laws and then lastly the addition of many of her grandchildren. During this 20 minute video presentation we were together with Emma as her life literally flashed before our eyes. When it ended there were tears in the eyes of many who were present. It was such a sweet moment. Now I want you to hold onto that visual image as I will come back to it.
I have to tell you that Emma was a beautiful girl and a beautiful young women when she was married. She was tall and slim. She had long beautiful blonde hair and high cheekbones and wonderful blue eyes.
As I watched the advancement of the years on this video I could see that as time changed her physical beauty that this same passage of time increased her inner beauty. While Ted may have initially been attracted to Emma’s outer beauty what Ted came to find most attractive is the beauty of her soul. And while each one of use may have initially been attracted to her for different reasons we all remained close to her because of the way she made us feel when we were with her.
Let me tell you why Emma had this inner beauty. She had it because of two things, she knew who she was and she knew the purpose of this life.
I would like to elaborate on this.
Emma knew that each one of us is a spirit child of God our Heavenly Father. She knew that we had all existed with God before this life and that we wanted to become like him. To allow his spirit children to become like him, Heavenly Father organized the creation of this wonderful earth so each of his spirit children could be born into this mortal life. The great truth in this teaching is that we are all brothers and sisters and we each left our Heavenly Fathers presence to come to this life for the purpose of becoming more like him.
Emma knew that each one of us came to this earthly life to be able to receive a physical body. (She must have been in the front of the line when they were giving out looks and brains because she had plenty of both of them). This physical body is key for us to become like our Heavenly Father.
Emma also knew that each one of us had been given our agency to choose for ourselves and that we would be tested to see if we would use this agency to choose good or to choose evil. We don’t often think that each day we are choosing for evil or for good but we are. Jesus taught, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all they mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Matt 22: 37-39)
When we are following these two great commandments, we are choosing for good. When we don’t, we are using the agency our Heavenly Father gave us to choose for evil. It is really that simple.
How do we show our love for God? Jesus taught, “If you love me, keep my commandments”. If we don’t know Gods commandments we can not keep them, each of us has the responsibility to seek out God’s commandments. We can seek out God’s will for us thru prayer and thru study of sacred scripture. We may find him prompting us with the whisperings of the spirit in our daily interactions with others, in the words of a hymn, in the questions of a child. I would like to encourage you to take special note to the words of the song that we will be singing at the close of this service. (As I have love You) They are very precious.
How do we show our love for our neighbor? Jesus taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan that we are to seek out others and render service unto them, indeed he taught
…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me. (Matt 25:40).
Our Heavenly Father is a god of Love. He loves us and desires us to love him and our spirit brothers and sisters in return. Because love is the great commandment, it became the center of all and everything Emma did with her own family, in her Church callings, and in her community organizations. Emma knew that love could fix anything, (sometimes it also took some cleverness, which Emma had in great supply, but love was always the key). It is the power that initiates friendship, supports tolerance, creates civility, produces respect and bonds friends and families together.
Her love was based on her desire to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. If we truly understand this purpose of life it clears confusion we might have and puts our priorities in the correct order. (Speaking of priorities there is nothing like the death of a loved one to help us organize our priorities). When our priorities are in order we find that making right choices becomes a joy rather than a burden. Emma demonstrated this principle time and again in her life. She did not just talk the talk but she actually walked the walk by letting her love of God and her neighbor be the guide of not only what she ought to do but what she did in fact do.
Emma would be the first one to admit she was not perfect in all her decisions (much as we would like to think otherwise), but she also had great faith in the power of repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ to be forgiven for our sins and shortcomings. She knew as the scripture in today’s program states: that God so loved the world (there is that principle of love again) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life. (John 3:16) What a great promise!
Besides obtaining a physical body and proving to God how we would use our God granted agency, another purpose of this life is to prepare to return again to our Heavenly Father’s presence. This cannot be achieved without death for without death the purpose of this life would be thwarted. Many of us fear death because we do not understand its purpose. Emma did not fear death. She knew it to be the step that released her spirit from her body so that it could return to our Heavenly Father.
Emma knew that her body would be left behind but that some day her spirit and a glorified and perfected body would again be joined together and that this was made possible as part of the earthly mission of Jesus Christ. She knew that Jesus Christ was her personal Savior and that he had died on the cross and was resurrected three days later and taught that all people will be resurrected. The scriptures teach (1Cor
Emma also had a firm conviction that Jesus Christ was her redeemer and that thru faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost that she could repent and be forgiven of sin. By this means she could seek to follow Jesus’ final command at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:45) Here Christ is reminding us again of the purpose of this life which is to become like our Heavenly Father. When we think of that challenge we may say it is impossible. But remember that all things are possible thru Christ, in order for these supreme blessings to be effective in our lives; we should first do our part. The prophet Nephi taught “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. (2Ne24:23) Let me emphasize the phrase, after all we can do. Emma never did anything half way. If she was going to put effort into something it was going to be her best effort. If we follow that example and put forth our very best effort today to love God and our neighbor and try to improve our efforts tomorrow, in this way we are working towards becoming like our Heavenly Father.
Jesus is our savior. He saves us from death so that we might be resurrected and live forever. Jesus is our redeemer, he redeems us from our sins so that we might work to perfect ourselves so that we might be judged worthy to not only live forever but to live forever with our Heavenly Father in the heaven that he has prepared for us.
When the doctors met with Emma and explained to her that her illness was terminal, her reaction was one of calm. The doctor had to ask her if she understood what he had said and what it meant. Emma then responded, “I know I love (here is that word again) my family and I know that my family loves me, I look forward to seeing …. She then went on to list several individuals by name.” I have no doubt whatsoever that at this time Emma is rejoicing in a great reunion with her family and friends who had gone on before her. Well may Emma say as the apostle Paul said…“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
Let me now bring you back to that image of Emma with all her family around her in her living room (a room filled with many of the beautiful creations that she had made with her hands and with her heart). At that point in time it became very clear to me that the most beautiful creation Emma could ever make was her family and that as her family we have a responsibility to follow her example and to make our own lives as beautiful on the inside as hers was. As we do so we also might look forward with an eye of faith to a great re-union with her again.
True joy can be experienced in this life and the next. This is a joy that can last forever as we recognize our relationship to our Heavenly Father as his spirit children and follow the teachings of his Son Jesus Christ to love God by keeping his commandments and love our neighbors as ourselves.
I testify to the truthfulness of this message in the name of our Savoir and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen
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