The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

I am grateful for my wife, Sharon. I hope you could sense her goodness as she has just addressed you. She makes my life’s journey so much the better for having her at my side …My wife is a survivor. Not only has she survived 38 years married to me but she survived a night lost in the Kahana Valley. The October night she didn’t come home gave me a unique perspective. It made me realize more completely how much I love her and how much I depend on her. We learned a few practical things as well: That you should always let someone know where you are going; that it’s wise to stop hiking before it gets dark; and that the search and rescue people truly are heroes. We remain grateful to all in the community who stopped what they were doing to help find her and our two friends.Perspective is an important aspect when it comes to living a rich life.I invite each of us to listen carefully to the promptings of the spirit and to heed those promptings. Whether it be a prompting to pray more sincerely, to study the scriptures more effectively, to turn our hearts to our Savior and repent of our sins, to serve others we come in contact with, or to call a friend … I promise that as we listen the spirit will speak to our hearts.As a young boy I remember cold winter days. I grew up in New Jersey and we would occasionally have ice storms where the ice covered the trees and streets and made travel difficult. … as the sun would come up on these days it would warm my face and body. I enjoyed turning towards the sun and soaking in the warmth. I hope you can picture some scenario like this in your life. Here in Hawaii you might get that same feeling when standing by the ocean as the sun rises in the eastern sky. I can see myself closing my eyes and letting the rays of the sun sink in … feeling its warmth over my body. It is this warmth from the sun that I would like us to keep in mind as we spend a few minutes together this morning. It gives us warmth and peace and is symbolic of the warmth and peace that comes from applying the doctrine of Christ to our lives.The sun will come out tomorrow.You may recall the play Annie; it revolves around one little girl who is left at the entrance to an orphanage. She is left with a silver pendant’s half and the other half is kept by her parents so they can be identified, if they come to take her out of the shelter someday. Annie keeps a positive attitude as she experiences the difficulties of life in the orphanage. She sings the song “Tomorrow” to remind her to keep looking for the good in life. Picture this curly red headed little girl with me as I share some of the words she sings:"The sun will come out tomorrowBet your bottom dollar that tomorrowThere'll be sunJust thinkin' about tomorrowClears away the cobwebs and the sorrow 'til there's noneWhen I'm stuck with a day that's grey and lonelyI just stick up my chin and grin and say, ohThe sun will come out tomorrowSo you gotta hang on'til tomorrow, come what may!Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrowYou're only a day away!"There are many examples of those who have overcome great odds and have kept or regained a great outlook on life.Alma the younger had many if not all the good things in life. It seems he was loved by his parents, well educated, but somewhat of a problem child. His father prayed and in fact had the whole church pray for his young son Alma and for the Sons of King Mosiah who had strayed from the teachings of the Church. They did experience a remarkable change of heart, and regained a joyful outlook on life. Alma shared his experience with his son Helaman:And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.1After this experience, to Alma the sun came up a little clearer and a little brighter each day than it had before.When we served in Texas, we knew two missionaries that lived in the same circumstances … but had different attitudes. They were assigned to the same place, one right after the other. The first Elder was particularly unhappy. My wife called to check on him and asked how he was doing in his area. “Oh, Sister Lyons, it’s difficult up here. My apartment is awful, my companion is difficult and the members aren’t helpful at all.” Soon after, this Elder was transferred to another area in the mission. Concerned about the general conditions in the apartment and area, Sister Lyons called the missionary that replaced him to see how he was getting along. “Sister Lyons, I love this area. My apartment is super, my companion is great and the members are so anxious to help. Things couldn’t be better.”What changed? Which of these missionaries are we more like? Do we see the sun coming up? Today? Tomorrow? Or are we waiting for someone else to show us the sunrise?We each have opportunities to see a greater purpose in our lives, even when it may not be apparent to others.President Monson shared a wonderful poem that carries a powerful reminder of our purpose, called This Little Place:“'Father, where shall I work today?'And my love flowed warm and free.Then he pointed out a tiny spotAnd said, 'Tend that for me.'I answered quickly, 'Oh no, not that!Why, no one would ever see,No matter how well my work was done.Not that little place for me.'And the word he spoke, it was not stern; … 'Art thou working for them or for me?Nazareth was a little place,And so was Galilee.'”Years ago, after moving to a home in Murray Utah a kind neighbor brought over a box of tulip bulbs that were surplus from the abundant crop they had recently thinned. We were excited to add them to our new landscape and worked hard that fall to get them all planted. The wintry weather arrived early that year and although we planted many of them the ground froze before we got all the bulbs snuggly settled in the rich soil. Several of the bulbs were left in the cardboard box and abandoned in the garage forgotten through the long winter.As spring came we noticed the planted bulbs pushing up green shoots through the newly thawed ground. We could hardly wait for them to bloom. It was not until then that we remembered the other bulbs, the ones that never got planted. We felt bad that the spring display of bright colorful tulips would be less than what it could have been. We found the box with the unplanted bulbs in the back corner of the garage while rummaging for gardening tools. My wife took the box to the garbage can planning to throw out the deserted bulbs but to her surprise she saw that they were also sending up shoots. These tender little plants were doing their best to fulfill the measure of their creation under much less than ideal circumstances. The other tulips had been nurtured beneath the soil while these little bulbs were doing their best to push out their blooms without the benefit of dirt or sun in a cold dark garage. We took these brave little bulbs and immediately planted them in the same flower beds as the others. In a matter of weeks, they had caught up to those previously planted bulbs and by the time they bloomed you couldn’t tell them apart. Since God made it possible for tulips to bloom under less than ideal conditions, imagine how infinitely greater He has endowed each of us with the capacity to progress and prosper through difficult life situations.We can blossom where we are planted. President Hinckley was so good at reminding us to keep moving forward and to recognize the silver linings in the clouds. He shared these words of Jenkins Lloyd Jones clipped from a column in the Deseret News some years ago:“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.“Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.“The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”2Another wonderful example of finding purpose in life is Helen Keller Helen was born in Alabama in 1880. She suffered an illness that left her both deaf and blind before her 2nd birthday. She was extremely intelligent and became frustrated as she tried to understand and make sense of her surroundings. When Helen felt the moving lips of family members and realized that they used their mouths to speak, “she flew into a rage because she was unable to join in the conversation.” By the time Helen was six, her need to communicate and her frustration grew so intense that her “outbursts occurred daily, sometimes hourly.” Helen’s parents hired a teacher for their daughter, a woman named Anne Sullivan. Anne had struggled with her own serious hardships and understood Helen’s infirmities. At age five, Anne had contracted a disease that caused painful scarring of the cornea and left her mostly blind. When Anne was eight, her mother died; her father abandoned her and her younger brother, Jimmie; and they were sent to a “poor house,” where conditions were so deplorable that Jimmie died after only three months. Through her own dogged persistence, Anne gained entry to the Perkins School for the Blind and vision impaired, where she succeeded brilliantly. A surgical operation gave her improved vision so that she was able to read print. When Helen Keller’s father contacted the Perkins School seeking someone to become a teacher for his daughter, Anne Sullivan was selected. It was not a pleasant experience at the beginning. Helen “hit, pinched and kicked her teacher and knocked out one of her teeth. Anne finally gained control by moving with Helen into a small cottage on the Kellers’ property. Through patience and firm consistency, she finally won the child’s heart and trust.” To help Helen learn words, Anne would spell the names of familiar objects with her finger on the palm of Helen’s hand. “Helen enjoyed this ‘finger play,’ but she didn’t understand until the famous moment when Anne spelled ‘w-a-t-e-r’ while pumping water over Helen’s hand. Helen later wrote:“Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! … Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.”3In a recent general conference address Elder Christofferson likened Helen’s experience to our opportunity to fulfill our divine potential: “We may be quite content with what we have done in our lives and that we simply are what we are, while our Savior comprehends a glorious potential that we perceive only “through a glass, darkly.” Each of us can experience the ecstasy of divine potential unfolding within us, much like the joy Helen Keller felt when words came to life, giving light to her soul and setting it free. Each of us can love and serve God and be empowered to bless our fellowman. “As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”4We have in Jesus Christ one who understands all of our challenges and difficulties, as we come to trust Him, He can work with us to guide and lift us. Brothers and Sisters, have we figuratively moved into a cottage with our elder brother Jesus Christ? Are we still kicking? Or are we receiving his teaching guidance willingly?Following a suspected prognosis of Multiple Sclerosis, a friend of mine hurried home from the Doctors to research the disease and find out what exactly that would mean for her future. She entered the initials into the search engine.The more she read the more devastated she became. It was a terrible disease. She felt like she couldn't stand to read any more about it. Glancing down to turn off her computer she realized that she had entered the Disease MD, Muscular Dystrophy, not MS into her search engine. She then entered MS into her computer and started reading. Although MS is also a debilitating disease her perspective was forever changed. This experience was a tender mercy for her. Since the onset of her illness she has always remained grateful that her physical challenge is Multiple Sclerosis and not Muscular Dystrophy.A few years ago, our second son was accepted into Pharmacy school pending completion of a couple of classes that he was taking on line. Pharmacy school is a competitive doctorate program and he was concerned about being accepted from the beginning. He was incredibly relieved and delighted to get in. He worked to complete his online classes but it was summer and the teachers were often on vacation and slow to correct and return his homework. To be proactive, he talked to the admissions department at the Pharmacy school to let them know that he was cutting it close on the deadline to finish the classes. He was told that as long as the classes were completed before school started he would be fine. You can appreciate how discouraged he was when a different person contacted him later and told him he had been given the wrong information. If he couldn’t submit his grades the next day he would miss the deadline, would not be admitted for that year and would have to reapply to the program again. Getting the grades submitted in twenty-four hours was impossible. There was nothing he could do to make it happen. He was devastated. His first impulse was to give up completely. Playing video games in our basement for the rest of his life may have been his fall back plan. He was terribly discouraged, it took some time to bounce back, but he didn’t quit. He finished his classes, reapplied to school and was accepted for the following year. He graduated last June and is working as a pharmacist in a Utah hospital.The sun will come up tomorrow.We recently had an opportunity to go to Kalaupapa on the Island of Molokai. A dear friend arranged the visit and helped us do some service at the meetinghouse and surrounding buildings. We cleaned, we painted, we cut branches and bushes, etc. It looked better after we were done …you could say we made a difference that day, in a small way. But going to Kalaupapa made a big difference in us.Our Heritage includes a brief summary of early church members’ experiences at Kalaupapa: “Beginning in 1866, to prevent the spread of leprosy, Hawaiian officials took people suffering from the disease to the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai. In 1873 Jonathan and Kitty Napela, who were Latter-day Saints, were banished there. Only Kitty had the disease, but Jonathan, who had been sealed to her in the Salt Lake Endowment House, would not leave her there alone. Jonathan later contracted the disfiguring disease, and when he was visited nine years later by a good friend, was hardly recognizable. For some time, he presided over the Saints on the peninsula, who by the year 1900 numbered more than 200. Church leaders did not forget the faithful members who suffered from this debilitating disease and frequently visited the branch to care for their spiritual needs”.5A returned missionary who served in Hawaii shared the following experience: “A few weeks after I arrived in Hawaii to serve my mission, my companion, Elder Naylor, and I planned to visit Hale Mohalu, a leper hospital in Pearl City. We were going to visit a member of the Church, Joe Kekahuna.I was unnerved by the prospect of being close to someone with leprosy, a disease that has been called “death in life.”Weren’t these the people who in biblical times were forced to call out “unclean” to anyone who approached them? Was there any chance that I might contract leprosy?My companion, sensing my anxiety, explained, “To begin with, we don’t call it leprosy; we call it Hansen’s disease. Hansen’s disease isn’t as contagious as many people think. I visited the leper colony at Kalaupapa twice a month during the whole time I was on Molokai. I’m not afraid, and there’s no reason you should be.”We went to Hale Mohalu the next day. The patients we passed on the way to Joe’s room looked very normal, and I was feeling much better about the experience—until I saw Joe and all my apprehensions returned. His body was in an advanced stage of deterioration. I felt my heart would break with pity for him.I mumbled a greeting and then fell silent, not knowing what to say. Joe sensed my uncertainty, turned his sightless eyes in my direction, and began to speak to me.“Don’t feel sorry for me, elder,” he said. “I am a dying man, but I am a happy man, too. When I was young, like you, I thought I would live forever. I did bad things. I was a hard man, who would never listen to the missionaries. I liked my good time; I had no place in my life for God. This disease sent me to Molokai, to Kalaupapa, where I lived among the lepers. I found God in Kalaupapa, and I found the Church.”His voice broke with emotion as he continued, “I’m glad I have this disease. Without it, I would be the same as I was, and there would be no future for me. I would have lost everything. Learn from me, elder. Learn from Joe Kekahuna, the leper.”The returned missionary’s account ends with: Joe’s words changed my pity into feelings of gratitude. Our visit with him was very short, but his insight will stay with me forever. I learned that no matter how bad or uncertain our circumstances may be, the most important thing in life is to be close to God.”6On our visit, as we performed our service at the Church, walked the grounds, thought of the lives we had studied before we arrived, like those of Joe Kekahuna; as all of this rested upon our souls we were changed by Kalaupapa. I am still learning to appreciate Elder Mathew Cowley’s words which he shared after his visit to Kalaupapa:“I went there apprehending that I would be depressed. I left knowing that I had been exalted. I had expected that my heart, which is not too strong, would be torn with sympathy, but I went away with a feeling that it had been healed. . ..I went away . . . appreciating my friends, loving my enemies, worshiping God, and with a heart purged of all pettiness. This is a transformation for me and for it I am indebted to the . . . Saints of Kalaupapa”.7Elder Neal A. Maxwell said: “Patient endurance permits us to cling to our faith in the Lord and our faith in His timing when we are being tossed about by the surf of circumstance. Even when a seeming undertow grasps us, somehow, in the tumbling, we are being carried forward, though battered and bruised.”8As we recall turning toward the sun to receive warmth and peace during a cold winter day or from the rising sun on a beautiful ocean before us, let’s allow that memory to help us keep a positive joyful attitude in life. Likewise, as we face cold days and difficulties in our life’s challenges we can turn to our Savior to feel of his warmth and peace.For me the reason the sun will come out tomorrow is because of our Savior, Jesus Christ. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”9As King Benjamin lead his people through terrible wars and challenges he stayed focused on Christ. He taught his people of Christ and set a Christ-like example by his actions. He invited them to repent of their sins and to follow Christ. They accepted his invitation and the result was marvelous: “And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them”.10May we be willing to do our best each day, to plead for mercy and apply the atoning blood of Christ, every day. The sun that comes out each morning as well as all of nature point us to Jesus Christ. I share my witness that our Father in Heaven lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of all mankind. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.[1] Alma 36:17-21[2] Deseret News, 12 June 1973.[3] Helen Keller, The Story of My Life[4] Elder D. Todd Christofferson; Abide in Me, Oct. 2016[5] Our Heritage, Chapter 8[6] Lee G. Cantwell, January 1994 Ensign[7] The Soul of Kalaupapa, Fred E. Woods, BYU Speeches, September 2008[8] Neal A. Maxwell, April Conf. 1999[9] John 14:6[10] Mosiah 4:2-3