All the new missionaries are asked to take a turn speaking in the mission devotional held every monday morning. We are asked to take just 3 minutes and talk about ourselves and how the gospel has blessed our lives. Here is my turn.
My name is Karen Wellman and this is only a three minute talk so I’m going to spend my time on a few pivotal events. The first of these events was really a culmination of many years of hoping and praying when I was sealed to my parents, my two brothers, and my sister in the Arizona Mesa Temple when I was 18 years old. My father was raised in an inactive family and my mother was not a member when they married. I saw the great difference the gospel made in our family when my mother joined the church and later my father became active. The gospel made our family so much better. Now when we are all together we talk non-stop and the discussion always comes back to the gospel.
Another of these pivotal events was when I was married to Bruce Wellman in the same temple just a few months later and we started our life together. However imperfectly we traveled that journey, both of us started out sincerely grateful to our Father in Heaven for having found each other and for the privilege of making temple covenants that could bind us together for eternity. I still have cards and notes Bruce wrote back then that speak of his desire to be a good husband and father and build a forever family.
Together we made the decision to start our family right away and keep the children coming. We had ten children in the next 20 years and now have 30 grandchildren with 2 more on the way. I know not everyone has that choice and I don’t know why that particular blessing came to us, but I’m so grateful that it did. My favorite calling is being a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. My idea of heaven includes having all these people I love close by for eternity with no one missing from our circle.
Fourteen years ago there was another pivotal event when my dad died of cancer and Bruce and I rushed up to Lakeside, Arizona to be with my mother and siblings. Bruce stopped going to church seven years earlier but when my mother asked for a priesthood blessing he couldn’t refuse her, so he stood in with my brothers. During that prayer he heard a voice asking him how much longer he was going to hurt his family. When we returned to our home, Bruce went to see our bishop and asked what he needed to do to come back. He did everything he was asked to do. This was a time of great happiness and thanks-giving for all of us despite my dad’s death. I began looking forward to being in the temple with Bruce and our children who were married. He missed their temple marriages and this was the thing I wanted most.
Bruce was killed in an accident just 6 weeks after my father’s funeral. This is only a three minute talk, so here are some things I learned from the deaths of my dad and my husband: I know God lives. I know He hears and answers my prayers. I trust Him. I know the Comforter can comfort like nothing else can. I know I really will see Bruce again because of a witness I received shortly after his death. I know this is only possible because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that this is His church. Living the gospel and keeping the commandments makes me happy and makes my life good. When I see Bruce again I will want him to be proud of us. This has helped me realize how much I will want my Heavenly Father’s approval when I see Him again.
By nature I fall short of all that I want to be and I have to repent a lot. Nevertheless, I am a much better person because of the gospel of Jesus Christ than I would be without it and I am so very grateful for it. I can see that this mission is going to be another pivotal event for my life. I feel so blessed to be here and so privileged to serve with all of you very good people.
Love you mom.
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