Why the righteous are not spared tribulation, President Holland explains at funeral of Latter-day Saint teen
‘Let me encourage all of you to avoid saying “what if” or “would have” or “should have” or “could have.” Faith always points forward,’ he tells grieving teens after accident
CASTLE DALE, Utah — “Faith always points forward,” said President Jeffrey R. Holland, speaking at the Saturday, Jan. 27, funeral service for a young woman in Emery County, Utah, who died in an accident.
Take the memories and lessons — “the embers” from the fire of life — and with faith look forward to “the promises that God has given,” said the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks during the service for Kirsten Beagley at the Castle Dale Stake Center in Castle Dale, Utah, on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024.
Adam Fondren, for the Deseret News
Kirsten Kate Beagley, 18, died Saturday, Jan. 20, while tubing with friends in Huntington Canyon. President Holland, who did not know Kirsten or her family, heard about the accident from news reports and felt strongly he should attend the funeral. He suspected hundreds of her peers from Emery High School might be asking, “How and why could this happen?”
To those young people, and the hundreds more attending the funeral, President Holland spoke with deliberateness.
“Let me encourage all of you to avoid saying ‘what if’ or ‘would have’ or ‘should have’ or ‘could have,’” President Holland said. “In the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can celebrate and look forward and know all is well.
President Holland, whose beloved wife, Sister Patricia Holland, died in July after 60 years of marriage, added, “That is what I have been asked to do these past six months.”
It is impossible to face loss without grief, he said. It is all right to cry and to remember. It would not be a fitting tribute to “a sister or a daughter or a friend” not to mourn her temporary loss, he added. “Tears are the price we pay for love in this world.”
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