Armies of Helaman

On Sunday afternoon, I experienced a sweet moment with Eliot. Grant had left for a church assignment, so it was just me and Eliot, getting dinner together and enjoying a peaceful afternoon. I had some music playing in the background, and as I scooped Eliot up to get him a snack, I realized the song that was playing was a piano solo version of "The Armies of Helaman." In that moment I felt the great strength of my little son and the missionary we hope he will someday be. And I felt the strength of all of the other little "warriors" in my life that make up a part of the modern-day Armies of Helaman.

As many of you know, Eliot has a little "twin" cousin, Michael, who was born within the hour that Eliot was born. The experience of expecting our little boys together was quite spiritually significant for me and my oldest sister, Sherri. But to have them literally come to us from heaven, practically hand in hand, has led us to believe that there is a special connection between those two little boys. I can't wait for the day when we can dress them up in oversized suit jackets and put their daddies' name tags on them and take pictures of them as our future little missionaries. And I await with even greater anticipation the day when Elder Dickinson and Elder Wiltbank will serve missions, simultaneously we hope, just as they entered their mission into mortality together. And they, along with all the other swarm of baby boys that seem to have come into the world within the last little while -- Jackson, Bryce, Benson, Charlie, Jack, Trevor, Cole, Lach, Crew, Morgen, Zayne, Everett -- and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head -- that will go out someday as a powerful force for good in a world that desperately needs them. They WILL bring the world our Savior's truth.

When I was pregnant, I expressed somewhat bashfully to an aunt that I was a little disappointed that my first wasn't the sweet little girl I'd always dreamed of. My aunt wisely assured me that my heart would change forever once I held that little future missionary in my arms for the first time. And my heart did and has changed forever. I am so proud to have that little future missionary in my life. I feel the strength of his spirit. I now watch and reverence with greater appreciation the deacons and priests as they attend to their sacrament duties each week in church. As I am blessed by the priesthood power that Grant holds and uses righteously in our home, I am in awe that my son will possess and bless with that same power someday. As will all of those other sweet little members of the Armies of Helaman.

Thank heaven for little boys.