ACCORDING TO ZAC

I've had a few long talks with friends and family lately about the decline in my mother's health. It's hard to see someone that taught me and supported me  be so bogged down by a terrible illness. It makes my heart hurt. Tonight a thought came to my mind that hadn't really occurred to me previously -- what is going to happen if I am still living at home when my mother passes? I feel like my dad and I are going to feel so lost inside of this place without her. I've never known this place without her watchful eye. But while that is so painful to think of my dad and I being lonely in this house, aching for her return, a sweet thought came to mind -- where she goes next will not be a painful place. She will be made whole because of the Savior's sacrifice. She will be reunited with her own mother, who she loved so much. It doesn't need to be as sad as we make it. That attitude is hard to keep continually, but I try to soak it all in when it's here, because it...

I told you all once about how I went to Kentucky . I told you about how my entire life was changed because of those two years that I dedicated to serving others. I can't believe that it has been (almost) 9 months since I returned home from that remarkable adventure. Life has presented me with challenges, but lots and lots of blessings, too. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my friends in Kentucky or something that I experienced there, but today the reality of that time of my life being over was so potent. Today I decided to clean out my closet. I removed tons of white shirts from hangers -- shirts that I wore everyday for two years as I represented Jesus Christ as a missionary. I cried thinking about how I will never have the chance to live that again, and what an intense, life altering time that was for me. My heart was full of thanks for the special blessings God saw fit to grant me -- the blessing of sending me to Kentucky, where he knew I needed those people as m...