Day 65

"Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them" (3 Nephi 18:32).

My grandpa comes from a pioneer family.  He was born and raised in Heber, Utah as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  At age 17 he left home and joined the army.  After leaving, he never went back to church.  Somehow, my dad and twin brother made it back into the church even though their parents never went to church (which was a blessing for my family).  Fast forward to my lifetime--the only time my grandpa would ever come to church is if one of us asked him to because we were performing or giving a talk.  Every night my dad would go over and read the scriptures with Grandpa (he never ever gave up on grandpa).  Still, we couldn't get him to come back to church.

Recently, my Grandpa had a heart attack in which he very well could've died.  It was scary and he was in the ICU for a long time (or what seemed like a long time).  Miraculously, he made it out and is now back at home.  Anyway, while he was in the hospital my dad told me that Grandpa wanted to start coming back to church.  He has had a complete change of heart.  I'm not quite sure when the "a-ha" moment was for him, but all I know is that it is truly a miracle that he has come around again.  I don't like to admit it, but I almost thought that my grandpa would move to the next life without having come back to church.  It made me sad, but I wasn't sure that there was much I could do about it because it was ultimately his decision.  However, the Lord knows and loves all his children and it is never ever too late to turn around.  It took Grandpa until he was 85 to come back to church; proving that it is never too late to begin again and to turn to the Lord.  He is patiently waiting with open arms.

So back to the scripture at the top.  Today in Book of Mormon class we were learning about Christ's appearance to the Nephites.  One of the scriptures that we studied was this one.  The principle in it is that even if someone falls away or sins we should never give up on them.  We need to help them and love them and welcome them because you never know when they might turn around.

Grandpa doesn't really like to take pictures,
but I caught him when we were in Hokkaido!