Pure Relief!

I just want to share something that makes my heart jump with hope and excitement. I was thinking about this yesterday and I didn't exactly notice until then how happy I was from this little piece of information.

On Trek (a year and a half ago) I had three brothers; Austin, Alex, and Tanner. I think Tanner was the one I was closest to, so I got to know him kinda well. We never really got to know where he stood in the church. He knew a lot about it, we just weren't sure if he'd gotten a testimony of it yet.

A few months after Trek, I saw him at school. I can't explain how sad I was when I saw him. He'd dyed his very long hair black, he had piercings, and he was hanging out with the wrong friends. It's a sad thing to think that he had such HUGE possibilities.

I haven't seen Tanner since our last Trek reunion which was about two weeks after Trek. A couple weeks ago, we had a Dance Festival kick-off. After it I was looking around and was surprised to see Tanner! A gigantic wave of hope, happiness, and relief went over me, and I almost started crying. Tanner was dressed in Sunday clothes, he didn't have his piercings anymore, he had a missionary haircut, and his hair was back to blonde. He looked so happy too. I just can't explain how joyful that made me, how relieved I was that people can make such huge changes like that. It was absolutely amazing seeing him overcome that.