Sob Fest 2006

We had the best Relief Society lesson yesterday. There was not a dry eye in the whole room. You should have seen the looks from the men that came into the room after!! They were a little scared to come into a room full of teary eyed women!
Our lesson was taken from Elder Holland's Conference address entitled "Broken Things to Mend". The teacher first talked about her own experiences and discussed parts of Elder Holland's talk. Here are a few of my favorite quotes. He says, "Alma's testimony is my testimony: "I do know," he says, "that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions." He also said, "I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burdens of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches, and our despair. And lastly, "There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that come unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds strength, as the hymn says, "beyond [his] own." I loved how the teacher presented the lesson. I think we often go through life thinking of our own problems, and not remembering that everyone in this life has problems too. To illustrate this point, the teacher asked 4 ladies from our ward to talk about some trials that they have had in their lives, and how they were given strength through Christ. I was one of these ladies that was chosen. I thought I would share my story here. 3 1/2 years ago, my husband had just finished his Master's Degree and gotten a new job. We sold our house, and moved to a new town so he could start his new job. We purchased a new home and moved in. A little less than a month after we moved into our home we found out that my husband had colon cancer. We were devestated. He was only 30! They wanted to operate on him quickly so that the cancer would hopefully not spread. This really complicated our life because I was 8 months pregnant at the time. So we could schedule his surgery earlier, I was induced and we had our beautiful daughter. 6 days later my husband had a bowel resection to remove the cancer from his colon. While doing the surgery, they took sample tissues from the surrounding organs and lymph nodes, to determine if the cancer had spread. It unfortunately had spread into his lymph system, and he would need 6 months of chemotherapy. It was an extremely hard time for us. I spoke in relief society about the contrast between what the doctors told us, and the feelings we had after my husband received a few blessings. Our doctor is a wonderful doctor, and also extremely blunt. He layed all the possibilities on us (reoccurance, cancer spreading to other organs, chemotherapy, radiation, not being able to have more children, death). After leaving the doctor's office we both felt tremendously low and weighed down. I wept as I drove home from the heavy weight that had just been placed upon us. Shortly after, my husband received two wonderful blessings, one from his father, and one from our bishop. These blessing were so wonderful. They lifted our fears, and gave us so much comfort. Just as Elder Holland said, our burden was lifted, and we knew everything would be okay, and we were able to find the strength to do all that we needed to do. The other ladies shared their stories of hardships as well. One was widowed at the age of 32 with 7 children, and told of her struggles to raise her family, and to get remarried. Another woman in our ward shared her sorrows of being single, and so badly wanting to be married and have a family of her own. She just turned 40 this year, and she says it has been so hard to look around our ward and see the families and all the babies and not have that for herself, she often leaves church because she can't handle it. Another woman told of her difficulties of having children. She was told she only had 1 % chance of ever having her own child. After 5 years of trying, she finally became pregnant. Her pregnancy was horrible. She was bedridden for the first 3 months with a feeding tube the entire time, completely sick and unable to do anything. She is currently pregnant again. This pregnancy has been worse. She was on a feeding tube for 6 months, and just recently had an emergency blood transfusion. She says the hardest part is watching everyday as her family or friends take her little boy away and listening to him cry for his mom. It breaks her heart because she is too sick to even hold him. She said there were days when she just prayed that she would have the strength to walk down the stairs to be with her little boy. All these stories just broke my heart. We all have so many trials and struggles in our lives. All of them are different, but we can all be strengthened by the Savior. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:28-29.