October 18th- Death of a friend from the mission

    On Tuesday night, I came home and checked my phone to see awful an unexpected news of the death of a sister serving in my mission. She slipped and fell off a 300-foot cliff while hiking in Switzerland with 5 other missionaries. This whole past week has been a somber week. I have spent time crying, time listening to hymns, time reaching out to missionaries still out in the field that were especially close with her, time reaching out to members who got to know her well, time praying and fasting, time reaching out to friends who have already come home from the mission, and lots of time especially reflecting on my testimony in the plan of salvation. I feel hurt and broken and confused about the death of my friend who was just our serving her whole heart out, so sweet and full of life, so young with so much life left in her. I also recognized though how much worse all of those feelings would be if I had no faith in Christ, and that He is the resurrection. Because of Him, Annabelle Nielsen will rise again and we can see her again. Death is not the end, it is just a part of our travels back to living with our father in heaven. I Knew I had a testimony in this, but it doesn’t quite feel real until you experience something like death of a friend that you realize that this NEED to be true. In the mixture of so many emotions, I still do feel peace. I know that God has a plan for us and am trying my hardest to trust that this is for the best, even though as mortals we cannot quite comprehend that right now. Trials are hard, especially ones like this, but I am grateful that it has brought me closer to Christ and given me yet an even bigger gratitude for his dying sacrifice he made for us many years ago. Through Christ, all things are possible.