CASTLE DALE, Utah — “Faith always points forward,” said President Jeffrey R. Holland, speaking at the Saturday, Jan. 27, funeral service for a young woman in Emery County, Utah, who died in an accident.
Take the memories and lessons — “the embers” from the fire of life — and with faith look forward to “the promises that God has given,” said the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Kirsten Kate Beagley, 18, died Saturday, Jan. 20, while tubing with friends in Huntington Canyon. President Holland, who did not know Kirsten or her family, heard about the accident from news reports and felt strongly he should attend the funeral. He suspected hundreds of her peers from Emery High School might be asking, “How and why could this happen?”
To those young people, and the hundreds more attending the funeral, President Holland spoke with deliberateness.
“Let me encourage all of you to avoid saying ‘what if’ or ‘would have’ or ‘should have’ or ‘could have,’” President Holland said. “In the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can celebrate and look forward and know all is well.”
President Holland, whose beloved wife, Sister Patricia Holland, died in July after 60 years of marriage, added, “That is what I have been asked to do these past six months.”
It is impossible to face loss without grief, he said. It is all right to cry and to remember. It would not be a fitting tribute to “a sister or a daughter or a friend” not to mourn her temporary loss, he added. “Tears are the price we pay for love in this world.”
Loss and grief are part of the mortal experience, he said. They should not be a reason to question faith.
“If anyone in this room thinks that the righteous are going to be spared the same tribulations and the same tests that all the rest of us will face, then we have not understood the plan of salvation. Sometimes the righteous are called on to set the example for others.”
Just look to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, he said. Suffering is “almost all He knew.”
“We do not have any scriptures that say He laughed, though we believe He did. We believe He was wonderfully well-rounded, with a majestic personality,” said President Holland. “But we do have scriptures that say He wept.”
God loves broken hearts, President Holland continued. The children of Israel are under covenant to sacrifice, and the righteous sacrifice with a broken heart.
“Christ died of a broken heart,” said President Holland, adding: “I am an old man, and my heart has been broken recently. The Beagleys are young and wonderful, and their hearts are broken now. And all of us are going to get a chance to show an acceptable sacrifice unto God.”
A broken heart is healed when it is offered to “a Father in Heaven, who restores it and makes it all perfect.”
“We get our hearts back,” President Holland said. “We get Kirsten back. We get lost limbs back. We get everything back, and we get it better. We are resurrected perfectly.”
Looking to the capacity congregation gathered in the Castle Dale Utah Stake Center, President Holland called funerals “serious business.”
One shouldn’t think that because something untoward happens that “God does not love you. … Bad things, unfortunate things, can happen to good people,” he said. “They are part of the universal quest for godhood, and part of our destiny.”
So “we will share our tears,” he added, and move forward with “confidence in the plan of salvation.”
“I leave my witness and an apostolic blessing with you that this is the work of Almighty God.”
Many of those participating in the funeral wore pink in honor of Kirsten, a high school senior who was a drill team captain and member of her school’s seminary council.
Also offering funeral remarks were Kirsten’s friends Rinny Leroy and Boston Huntington, who spoke of her smile, contagious laugh and open arms.
Kirsten’s sisters, Clarissa Beagley and Jannika Hills, spoke of the support the family has received since the accident.
Clarissa Beagley said having Kirsten as a sister was “a tender mercy,” or a wonderful gift she did not even know she needed.
John Doria, Kirsten’s seminary teacher, recalled a recent interaction when Kirsten spoke to him because she was worried about another student.
A family friend, President Bruce Yost, first counselor in the Castle Dale Utah Stake presidency, spoke of feeling the Savior’s peace. “I am so thankful we can have peace during this hard time,” he said.
Kirsten’s parents, Kyle and Janell Beagley, stood at the pulpit together to offer their testimonies and gratitude for all in attendance. “Kirsten’s influence has reached distances and hearts we never expected,” Kyle Beagley said.
He also shared notes the family found on Kirsten’s phone, testifying of the power of prayer and scripture study and her sure knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.