"Be of Good Cheer"

I teach the four-year-olds at church.

I didn't always love it---trying to teach a bunch of little kids can be like herding cats sometimes---but I've learned that I can be a good teacher even if I don't get through my whole lesson. My most important job is to help these kids feel the love of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sometimes that means sitting in a circle telling stories of Jesus. Other times, it means listening to a child talk about how she fell off her bike that week and banged her knee. And there are times it means folding six paper airplanes and having an airplane-throwing contest.

Usually, it means doing a bit of all three.

Today I was supposed to teach about Paul the Apostle's journey to Rome. The lesson manual suggested several excellent principles I could share with the class. There's the fact Paul was a faithful missionary despite being thrown in jail for teaching about Jesus; Jesus' visit to Paul in jail to comfort him; Paul's warning to the Roman centurion not to try sailing to Rome at the late time of year and, when the centurion cast off anyway, the resulting shipwreck; Paul's subsequent instructions to the centurion and soldiers to get everyone to safety and how the Romans' obedience saved their lives.

My normal tactic is to prepare a story or activity about every principle recommended by the manual. But today, I felt impressed to focus only on one: Jesus' visit to Paul.

It's interesting to note that Paul had already suffered many trials while preaching of Jesus. He had been stoned, beaten and imprisoned. Up until this point, each time Paul entered into dangerous circumstances he was delivered in some way. In other words, God took him out of the dangerous circumstance.

But this time was different. When Paul made the decision to return to Jerusalem, he seemed to know his days of freedom were numbered. If I understand correctly, Paul remained in Roman custody until his execution around 64 A.D.

This time, Paul wasn't going to be delivered from danger. Instead, his role was to testify of Jesus Christ in Rome, just as he had testified in many other places. While he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, Jesus visited him during the night. He told Paul, "Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." (Acts 23:11)

That phrase, "Be of good cheer," stuck in my mind. I realized I'd read it multiple times in the scriptures:

• When Jesus healed a man sick of the palsy, He said: "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. ... Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house." (Matthew 9:2 and 6)
• When Jesus walked on water, He said: "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." (Matthew 14:27)
• When Jesus was explaining to His apostles that He was about to die, He said: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
• When Nephi (of Third Nephi) was praying the night before all the Christians were scheduled to be executed by the unbelievers, Jesus told him: "Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets." (3 Nephi 1:13)
• In 1831, when missionaries were called to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus told them, "And now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you." (D&C 61:36)
• In 1832, when Joseph Smith was praying about how to run certain affairs in the church, Jesus told him, "Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along." (D&C 78:18)

I felt I needed to focus on those words in my class, so I put information about each "Be of good cheer" story into a bag and had each child pick a paper one by one. I summarized each story and had the children say the words "Be of good cheer" with me. They seemed to like holding up their pictures of smiley faces and saying, "Be of good cheer!"

I love being with those little kids. They help me to be of good cheer, with their happy smiles, energy, and cute comments.

There are hard things in the world. There's a lot of confusion and sometimes even willful rebellion. But even when things seem dark, we can remember the gospel of Jesus Christ and be of good cheer. As Jesus told the Nephites when He visited them as our resurrected Savior:

Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me ... 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;

Therefore, if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

--- 3 Nephi 27:13-14, 21-22

My friend Casey

It was one of the first days of January 2018 when I found out that my childhood friend Casey passed away on December 31, 2017. I couldn't bring myself to blog about it then, but I always meant to write a post about him someday.

Casey was a great friend. We grew up across the street from each other. He was five months older than me, but we were in the same grade at school. He was a Christmas baby---his birthday is December 25.

We played together a lot as kids. One of our favorite things to do was make believe we were characters from Star Wars. I was usually the voice, narrating the story as we jumped on his trampoline. We built snow forts together in winter and rode bikes together in summer. He invited me to go fishing and four-wheeling with his family several times. He wanted to be a chef when he grew up, and we cooked together a few times. I still remember the look on his face when I showed him he could bake a potato in the microwave. We were in a few community plays together, took a drawing class together, and played together in the junior high school band for one year.

I have so many good memories of us when we were younger. In junior high school, we started to hang out with different people and began drifting apart. We still hung out occasionally, but not nearly as often. Casey had ADHD, and he struggled in school more than I did. Since I was taking as many honors classes as I could, that meant we weren't in the same classes at school anymore. Pretty soon, the only time I knew I could count on seeing him was on our walk to and from the bus stop.

I don't like losing touch with people, and I remember being upset that we were growing apart but not really knowing what to do about it. It was so much easier to just hang out with my other friends. It seemed like we had more in common and they were more available. I still tried to hang out with Casey sometimes, but we'd grown out of make-believe and it felt harder to find things to do.

Going to high school made it even harder to maintain our friendship. He went to the local high school. I went to a public charter school that gave me an opportunity to earn my associate's degree and my high school diploma simultaneously. Our schedules were radically different, and we lost that precious time walking to and from the bus stop. I still cared about him, but we rarely spent time together.

Finally, I came up with what seemed like the perfect excuse to hang out, and in our junior year, I asked him if he would take me to my school prom. He said yes.

I looked forward to that night so much. We went out to dinner and then got on the freeway to go to the dance. He asked if I'd ever broken 100 mph in a car before. I said no, and with a wide smile, he gave me that experience. When we arrived at the dance, however, he started to feel sick to his stomach. We never even went in; we had to turn around and go home. As he stopped in my driveway, he turned to me and said regretfully, "Let's do this again sometime---but next time, let's maybe not go to prom."

We never did go on another date. That was the year Casey dropped out of school. The next years of his life included a pattern of drug abuse. He'd be drug-free for a while, then relapse. He was booked into the county jail a few times on charges of possession of illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia. The first time he was incarcerated, he tried to call me. At the time, I was on my way to a college class. When I heard that an inmate wanted to talk to me, I got kind of freaked out and hung up before the voice recording could tell me who it was. I didn't realize until later that the call was probably from Casey.

He never tried to call me again, but we wrote letters. My roommates were a little alarmed the first time I got a letter postmarked from the county jail, but they got used to it.

I wanted to help Casey, but I didn't know how. His mom was already sending him to rehab. The only thing I could think of to do was share my beliefs with him. He grew up Catholic, so we had a lot of beliefs in common. The most important one was a belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

When Casey's older brother Jake died, my heart broke for him. Casey worshipped Jake, and because he was in jail at the time I don't think he was allowed to go to Jake's funeral.

Casey came to visit me once after he got out of jail. We talked for a few minutes about life. He told me about his girlfriend at the time. We promised each other we'd stay in touch, but it was hard to follow through on that promise when I went on my mission.

We didn't talk at all while I was in El Salvador. I don't think I had his email address, and he probably didn't have mine. After my mission, I wrote him a couple times when he was in jail. I watched his house, hoping he would come home. I asked his mom how he was doing whenever I saw her outside. Once, I ran joyfully across the street, only to realize I had mistaken his younger brother Ryan for him.

By December 2017, it had been a long time since I'd talked with Casey, or even any of his family members. Clayton and I had just had our first wedding anniversary. Life was busy, and I no longer lived near Casey's house. I regret that we grew so far apart during junior high school, but find some comfort in knowing how I tried to keep our friendship alive. At the very least, Casey knew I cared.

I think about him often. He was a wonderful person who faced devastating challenges in life. I blame addiction for the overdose that took his life. My heart goes out to anyone who struggles with addiction or who loves someone struggling with addiction.

I don't believe this life is the end. I'll see Casey again. And when I see him, I believe he'll be free from his addiction. Jesus Christ is his Savior, just like He is mine. And just like He is yours.