474. The influence of righteous grand-parents! We all hope we can be that kind of influence on our grand-children!

This is a great article telling of the influence of righteous grandparents on a young man.  We are going, in a few minutes, to the homecoming of our dear grandson who was on a mission in Taiwan, which I told about in blog # 470 a few days ago.  I will tell more about that later.  As grandparents we have a greater influence than we realize!

AndyB01

The Influence of Righteous Grandparents: the Andy Bolos Story

By Mark Albright · July 19, 2015, in Meridian Magazine
Dear Brother Albright,
I was blessed to grow up in a home with good influences around me.  My mother, although a life long member, was not active for the greater part of my life. My dad isn’t a member and my parents were divorced when I was a baby. However, I was very fortunate and blessed to have a wonderful grandpa and uncles who honored their priesthood and took me under their wings to mentor me.  I lived with my mom all my life and my grandpa was always there for me. He was a constant fixture of righteousness.  It was because of him that I was involved with the church.  Growing up I was always saying I was going to serve a mission but then there came a time in my teen years when it wasn’t so important anymore.
I stopped attending church and no longer wanted to serve a mission.  But then my beloved grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and it shook my entire world.  I didn’t know what to think or do.  I had never experienced adversity like that before.  My grandpa and I were very close and I loved and admired him so much.  He taught me how to be a man.  During this crisis of faith, I met with my grandfather alone one night.  He asked me to promise him that I would serve a full-time mission.  Because of my respect and love for him, I promised him that I would.  Just three weeks later he passed away.
I didn’t have a strong testimony but after my loss and the funeral, I knew that there was something else after death. I gained a stronger testimony of the Plan of Salvation.  But it wasn’t until I entered the MTC in Provo, Utah, that I gained a strong witness of the Book of Mormon.  It was during the first few nights of the overwhelming atmosphere of being in the MTC, surrounded by hundreds of other young missionaries, when I realized I needed to know if the Book of Mormon was true.
I took Moroni’s challenge and sincerely prayed to know for myself.  I received an answer that very night and I couldn’t believe that the Lord had heard and answered my personal prayer with all the challenges in the world.  I will never forget that night on my knees when the answer came.  I am so grateful for my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  It has gotten me to where I am today.  A wise missionary once told me it’s not what gets you on a mission, but what keeps you on a mission that counts!
Since that time I have enjoyed many sacred experiences that are special to me which have strengthened my testimony.  I am so grateful for my grandpa’s inspired discussion shortly before his death when he asked me to promise to serve a mission.  I am so grateful for a testimony built on the foundation established over the years by my amazing grandfather.
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s Church, and that the Book of Mormon is true.  I am so blessed and am so grateful for the spirit in my life to reveal truths to me!  I am grateful that after my mission that I was able to fall in love with a beautiful and righteous young woman and be sealed in the Temple for Eternity.
With love,
Andreas K. Bolos
AndyB02


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

155. Anthony Jansen Van Sallee, son of the Pirate King, and a character himself!

Image
                 ANTHONY JANSEN VAN SALLEE, 1607-1676                              by Hazel Van Dyke Roberts, PH.D.   I'm using the historical writing of Hazel Roberts, as she did a lot of research on it.  Anthony was the son of the Pirate King, Jan Jansen, told about in the last entry, # 154.  This is about an interesting part of early New England History.  New Amsterdam became the city New York when the English conquered the Dutch in 1664.       Anthony Jansen Van Salee was a unique, interesting, and  important figure in the early history of New Amsterdam,  He has been found to be the most unusual and interesting figure in the New Amsterdam records . Contentious and obviously a nuisance to them, he was treated by the authorities with the respect due to a person of importance.  It is speculated that Anthony’s ...
Read more

2008. President and Sister Nelson and the Restoration of Identity By Patrick D. Degn · May 23, 2022

Image
  President and Sister Nelson and the Restoration of Identity  By  Patrick D. Degn  · May 23, 2022 “No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God’s hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods.” [1] May 15 marked the anniversary of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood and two landmark addresses from our beloved Prophet and Sister Nelson. [2]  To say Sister Wendy Nelson “hit it out of the park” would be simplistic at best. However, after hearing President Nelson’s address, it seems to me Sister Nelson’s most evocative question encompasses everything President Nelson taught that evening. Indeed, what President Nelson’s discourse accomplished, gave us a vision of heaven, clarity on the unity of the Godhead, and a renewed vision of our identity. President and Sister Nelson were nothing short of prophetic. In providing such an analysis and gushing review, I...
Read more

66. Colorful ancestor, John Lowe Butler, Bodyguard to Joseph Smith

Image
My second great grandfather on my mother's side lived quite an amazing life.  He had many health problems in his life, and yet he became strong enough to be one of the Prophet Joseph Smith's bodyguards in the last years of the Prophet's life.  His Gallitan, Missouri, fight incident is well known in Church  history.          John Lowe Butler, was born Apr, 8, 1808, in  Kentucky, to James and Charity Lowe Butler.  He was not a healthy child.  When he was seven years old he was stricken with inflammatory rheumatism which spread over his body from his toes to his fingertips.  This disease returned once or twice a year until he was 20.  When he was 19, the pain settled in his left side and his thigh and his arm began to fail him.  John became so frail that his mother could carry him about in her arms.  In spite of his long, continued illness, he stood six feet tall when he was 22. His extensive autobiography shows...
Read more