I'll Like You Forever, and Love you For Always -- By Lindsay Kendrick

My Friend, "Adam"

This past summer, I had the wonderful and unique experience to be a cast member at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. This beautiful pageant takes place upon the sacred Hill Cumorah and relays stories of the Book of Mormon to thousands upon thousands of people during the month of July. Not only is the spirit of the performance touching for all who attend—both member and non-member alike—but it is even more powerful after the crowds have long gone home. Every night, after performance, our entire cast of about 500 valiant members of Christ’s church would gather together and sing The Song of Cumorah. This touching song reads:

 

If you have felt a change in your heart

And sung the song of redeeming love,

Then come unto Jesus, our Savior

Sin and death are swallowed up in Christ.

Jesus light and life of the world.

Jesus light and life of the world.

If you have felt the change in your heart,

And sung the song of redeeming love,

Then come unto Jesus our Savior:

Come unto,

Come unto Him!

 

As members of the Pageant, we were told to live our lives as missionaries. We were to help bring the Spirit to others so that they could feel that change in their heart and sing that song of redeeming love. There are steps that must be taken to get to this point, however. It is my testimony that as we come unto Christ, remember what that felt like, and then share it with others that we will be able to live our lives so much more like our Father in Heaven and will have His spirit to be with us.

 

The last three lines of The Song of Cumorah all have the same message, “Come Unto Christ.” We must do this in order to have a mighty change of heart and sing the song of redeeming love. When we approach Christ, He will fill us with love, encouragement, and forgiveness. If we do not approach Christ, if we do not try to repent of our sins to feel the mighty change of hear, then we will feel empty and alone. In Mosiah we read, “Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever” [1]. And later we find, “And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you” [2]. The only aspect of life keeping us in our sins and from our Savior is our own pride, our own unwillingness, our own hardheartedness. Life could be so much happier if we had the faith to always place our trust in God, and let Christ—who has already paid for all of our sins—take our hurt, pain, and sin away from off our shoulders. There is a famous Mormonad from the New Era that says, “When you can’t stand it, kneel” [3]. When we come unto Christ, he will allows us to feel that mighty change of heart and know of Him. We will be able to stand all the trials that come our way.

 

I have seen, firsthand, this change of heart take place in someone who has fallen away from Christ. I have seen someone sing the song of redeeming love. Growing up, I had a very near and dear friend named **Adam (name has been changed with permission). Adam and I were never more than friends but we were very and extremely close. Adam lived 45 minutes from my house and went to a different school and church ward, but was in my same stake. Six months before we began high school, something about Adam started to feel different. He was becoming very bitter and angry along with many other depressing emotions. After eight long months of trying to figure out what was happening to my beloved friend, all emotions erupted on one massive night. During this night, my Adam, my beloved friend, informed me that he no longer believed in the Church, the Book of Mormon, and not even Christ or God. He wanted to know; he’d been praying for a feeling of the spirit that would testify that this was the true gospel…but it never came. He said he never felt it. He had told me he figured there was no point in giving up other things in life for the gospel if he didn’t even believe it, so he began breaking every single commandment he could think of. He didn’t want to change—he actually liked the way his life was now. My heart was so heavy for him. I couldn’t think of anything to say to him that would change his mind, when I realized it wasn’t my place. It was not my place to judge him for his acts and feelings. The only thing I could do was to be there for him. After I hadn’t replied for nearly five minutes, Adam began to softly cry. Through his tears he asked with real sincerity, “Do you hate me now Lindz?” With tears streming down my face as well, I threw my arms around him and said “Of course not Adam. We always say ‘I’ll like your forever and love you for always.’ And I still mean it.” However, we both knew that things from that moment on had changed. He didn’t have to be a member to be my friend, but he was no longer the friend I had known—he began to change so much. However, he knew my standards and did not want to tear me down. Adam and I never lost touch, but we certainly were not as close as we had once been. We did different things on the weekend and hung out with different people. We just never had the time. Almost three years later, Adam asked me to get ice cream with him one night. It had been almost four months since we had last seen each other. It was August—senior year was about to begin and our summer was about to end. Adam seemed very different. Over the past three years Adam had delved deeper into a life that I knew he would not like at the end. After getting kicked out of school for drugs and alcohol, he had done home school the last semester of his junior year. He had informed me that night at ice cream that he was going back to school for senior year and was going to try again. This raised hope inside of me. We began talking about the last four years and everything that had happened. It got very quiet like it did that emotional night all those years ago. Adam informed me that he had gone to EFY that past June—something I had no idea he had done. He just smiled at my look of shock and asked if I wanted to hear an incredible story. He explained that when he got to EFY he wanted to leave right then—it was no place for him, he felt. However, he decided to stick it out. And not only was Adam going to finish the week, but he was going to study and study hard. He started to feel happier, he explained, but he didn’t think anything of it really. At least, he didn’t think anything of it until the Testimony Meeting at the end of the week. He sat there and heard all the kids bear their testimonies as he always had done when he attended church sporadically over the years. But this time, he not only heard, but he listened. Near the end of the meeting, Adam was overcome by a feeling of warmth and love. He said he felt like someone was hugging him, but he knew no one in the room was even touching him. He then thought in his mind “God, if you’re there, I want to know. I want to remember. I really do.” And to his heartfelt desire came the soft-spoken reply “You never really forgot.” Adam again said, “I want to know,” to which came the reply “You always have.” Adam told me he had never felt that way before in his life. He was so excited. This 17 year old who didn’t even want to go to EFY, let alone stay a whole week, then decided that he never wanted to leave. Adam had a change of heart that week at EFY. By the time he and I had gone to ice cream, he had already stopped drinking and was trying to quit smoking. He was cleaning up his language and studying his scriptures. He was my Adam as I had grown up with him. He was happy. I was happy for him. We shared the most tender embrace I could remember us having. He whispered in my ear, “I will like you forever, Lindz, and love you for always.”

 

One of the aspects that come with a change of heart is to always remember your impressions, feelings, and whisperings of the Spirit. When we remember we are blessed in all things we will be blessed with such happiness. In the scriptures we read that when we remember and seek not sin, then we will be blessed with a “happy state” and will be “blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end and they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it” [4]. The opposite of remembering is forgetting. The Lamanities, and even the Nephites, were so quick to forget the blessings and ways of the Lord. They were pushed towards pride, hatred, and sin. Alma asked the people, “…if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God?” [5]. He wanted them to remember what they had felt; to never forget their feelings when their heart was changed so mightily. And as much as it saddens me, my dear Adam has already forgotten his mighty change of heart. Within the first four months of senior year at his high school, Adam began to fall away from Christ again. He did not return to his drinking and smoked cigarettes on rare occasions. But, despite this, Adam could no longer remember the wonderful engulfing feeling he had had from the Spirit that past summer. He no longer believed. To this day, Adam claims there is not God. But deep inside him, I believe, he still hopes; he has not fully given up. We must never forget the promptings of the Spirit. They come to us for our purpose, to answer our questions, to mightily change our hearts, and to help us sing the song of redeeming love. We must remember.

 

To help us continue on the path after having a mighty change of heart, we must share the gospel and our experience with others. President David O. McKay coined the popular phrase “Every Member a Missionary” [6]. Each and every one of us has the potential to help bring others to Christ. We must share our testimonies that they may be strengthened. We are commanded to preach the gospel. In Mosiah we read, “Yea, even he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people” [7]. In D&C, the Lord explains that missionary work is so vitally important so “that the fullness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers” [8]. The Lord will not leave us alone in our mission to help spread this happiness of the gospel to others. He will bless us with what we need to say and how we are to react. We just need to have faith that we will be lead to know what to do. Nephi had this faith as he tried to obtain the brass plates from Laban and beautifully said, “And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do” [9]. The Lord will strengthen us in all we do when we are trying to do what is right. He commands us, “And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel…in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God” [10]. God wants all of His children to come back to Him and He needs us to help. He needs us to share our experiences with others and walk everyday with the Light of Christ and the Spirit of the Lord in our countenances.

 

Let us all have the desire to Come Unto Christ and sing The Song of Hill Cumorah. Let us have a mighty change of heart. Let us never forget the Lord and the whisperings and feelings of the Spirit. And let us never forget to share our testimonies with those around us. It is my testimony that Christ is there; He is there, ready and willing to take our sins upon him and strengthen and bless us. Christ will never leave us. He will not judge. He will “like us forever and love us for always.” I bear testimony that I have had a mighty change of heart, that I have been truly converted by the power of the Spirit and the promise of Moroni. I know that God is there. I know that He is waiting for me to return to him. And I hope and pray, with all my heart, that we will all meet again at that great day.

 

**Though my friend has given me permission to share some of his story, he has asked to have a different name. "Adam" is a fake name. He did, however, allow me to use a picture of him.

Works Cited:

[1] Mosiah 2:38

[2] Mosiah 4:10

[3] Mormonad. New Era, February 1995

[4] Mosiah 2:40-41

[5] Alma 5: 26-27

[6] Conference Report, April 1959. pg 122

[7] Mosiah 18:20

[8] D&C 1:23

[9] 1 Nephi 4:6

[10] D&C 42:6