A letter to Christine

Dear Christine,

The Roman Philosopher, Cicero, was known to have said, "Friendship makes prosperity more brilliant,and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it."

Tonight, many of us gathered together to prove this true, as we joined in showing our support for you and your  battle with breast cancer and upcoming surgery.

It was pink, pink, pink. Everyone wore their pink in support for you. 

It was so fun when a random man in the restaurant was wearing a pink shirt and asked why he hadn't been invited to the party. One of our waitresses even had a hot pink "scrunchie" in her hair.

The food was good...the company was better. There was so much love being offered up for you...it was almost tangible. 

That must be why another random man wanted to join in the love-fest photo shoot. :)

It was so neat to see so many sisters band together and show their support for you, Christine. It was amazing to see your cheerful countenance and the positive attitude you radiated. You are such an example of strength, faith, and determination.

There were even more that wanted to be there, but couldn't due to travel or other time commitments.

We hope that you know that you can count on your RS Sisters to help carry this burden.

This is not a fight you are facing alone. May you feel this burden lifted as you experience the power of our collective prayers, the love in our hearts, and the service of our hands.

Not only do you have your family, friends, and RS sisters cheering you on...you also have the unfailing strength of your Heavenly friends that you can draw upon.

The following is an except from a talk given by President Ezra Taft Benson: click here for the full talk.

"God loves us, he's watching us, he wants us to succeed, and we'll know someday that he has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us. If we only knew that there are heavenly hosts pulling for us—friends in heaven, whom we can't remember now, who yearn for our victory.

I close with this last true story, as it was given by Bob Richards in his book Life's Higher Goals. It always touches my heart and it may touch yours. Lou Little tells this story about his greatest football team. They were on their way to the conference championship—one last game. He had a boy on his squad who had not quite been able to make the team for four straight years. 

Just before the game—three days before—Lou was given a telegram to give to this boy that informed him his only living relative had just died. The boy looked at the telegram and said, 'Coach, I'll be back for Saturday's game.' The morning of the game he came up to his coach and said, 'Lou, I want you to put me in this game. I know I haven't made the first team yet, but let me in for this kickoff. I'll prove to you that I'm worthy of it.'

 Well, Lou could see that the boy was emotionally upset, and he made all kinds of excuses, but finally he thought, 'Well, he can't do much harm on the kickoff, so I'll put the boy in.'

The roar of the crowd followed the kickoff. The opposing quarterback took the ball on the goal line, moved up, and on the seven-yard line there was a tremendous tackle. The boy had dropped him in his tracks. On the next play Lou left him in. He made the next tackle; he was in on the next tackle; you couldn't move him out of there. He made practically every tackle that day—terrific down field blocking. He was the reason why Columbia won the championship. 

Afterwards, all the guys were pounding him on the back. When they were all done, Lou Little went up to the boy and said, 'Son, I don't understand it. Today you were an all-American. I've never seen you play like this in four straight years. What happened?'

And the boy looked up at his coach and said, 'Coach, you knew my dad died, didn't you?'
'Yes, I handed you the telegram.'
He said, 'You knew he was blind, didn't you?'
'Yes, I've seen you walk him around the campus many times.'
He said, 'Coach, today is the first football game my dad ever saw me play.'

 It makes a difference, friends, when those unseen eyes are watching."

They are watching.
You can do this, Christine, and we will each be here to help you through it.

Much Love,

Your RS Sisters