Mi Familia Eterna

Today was our primary program at church. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it is a program where the children get up in front of all the congregation (very brave!) and have short parts to share things that they learned throughout the year and sing songs that are related to the same themes. This year we learned all about families. It was funny because the Sunbeams (the youngest children) all memorized their parts and said them clearly and without hesitation. The older children did well too.

At the very end of the program, a few families were asked to go up front and sing “Las familias pueden ser eternas” (Families Can Be Together Forever, but we go to a Spanish ward). We were one of the families asked to sing it. When it came time for us to sing, the girls and I were all up in the choir seats already. I motioned for Robin to join us so he came up. He had moved down from the stand to watch the program, but wasn’t sitting with Alex. He had been sitting all alone in a pew. I motioned for him to come up, but he wouldn’t. He had already told me that he wouldn’t come up, but I had hoped that if I motioned for him in front of everyone, he’d decide to come up. He didn’t. So we sang the song about Heavenly Father giving us a family and that we could be together for eternity.




I know it’s silly, but as we were singing, I was just so sad that my whole family wasn’t there together. Alex was off by himself and I could see him, but there wasn’t anything I could do to bring him. It brought tears to my eyes. After we got to the car, I told Alex that I was sad that he chose not to sing with us and we were incomplete up there. He said, “You were?” I asked him how he felt down there. I expected him to say, “Comfortable”, but instead he said, “Lonely”.

I hope and pray that my whole family (husband, children, parents, siblings, in-laws…) can be together for eternity because of our choices and decisions in this life. I know that if even one person is missing, I will miss him or her