Tyler Graff, our grandson

The passing of our grandson, Tyler:

A few have asked why I haven't blogged for the last few weeks.  I was unsure if I should blog this or not, but have decided that this is a part of our mission, it has affected all of our missionaries in the Trujillo Mission. It has certainly affected the Marler Family.

You may remember at our Multi Zone conferences, I talked about the Parable of the Sliver (La Parabola de la Astil). Our daughter Kim, Tyler's mom, gave me the idea, as she had used the sliver in a lesson with her Young Women Class at Church).   I had pictures of my grandson, Tyler, and pictures of his hand.  He was out playing and got a sliver in his hand and I used this message to talk about the importance of keeping bad thoughts and sinful ways out of our life.  That we need to keep our heads and hearts clean and pure, so that we don't fester, like a hand with a sliver.  

Our message was that the only way to prevent festering is to stay away from sin, bad thoughts, etc.  But we are not perfect and sometimes we make wrong choices, like playing with wood and getting a sliver under our skin, we have to take it out.  

The only way to remove sin from our lives is through repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of his atoning sacrifice, we are able to cast our sins, our burdens, our hurts and our short-cominging upon the Lord, and he will sustain us and forgive us, if we try to sin no more. 

From this lesson, our missionaries came to love Tyler, they saw pictures of him and asked regularly about him.  They came closer to the Savior, and they desired to be better missionaries. 

Then just a few weeks later, on April 18th, Tyler fell into a swimming pool.  We received a call from our son, Tyler's uncle, telling us what happened.  Our missionaries received a message to join us in prayer for Tyler and his family.  Tyler wasn't doing well, and we decided that I needed to be with our family.  

I was home to be with Tyler and his parents for a few hours on Easter Sunday, before he passed away. To hold Tyler in my arms one more time. Many family members were there with us, our three other daughters, two of our sisters and their husbands,  and most of the Graff family.  

Our daughter, Kim with Tyler a few months ago…one of the few times he stayed still for a picture…He was always active, playing, and trying to keep up with his older brother and sister

Our hearts are heavy, we have felt sadness, but we have also felt hope and joy.  Our faith teaches that families are eternal.  That if we follow God's plan for us, that we can all be together, as a family for eternity.  This gives us great comfort.  We know little Tyler is now with our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Children are perfect in Christ and his atonement.  He is also with many loving members of our family, who have passed on before,  who are now caring for him, and teaching him.  Tyler will be looking over us, one of the angels who will protect us.  We love him so very much, and always will.  

Tyler, Riley and A.J. outside the San Diego Temple where their parents were sealed together for all eternity.

I have only been back for one day, but the missionaries I have spoken to tell me that because of Tyler, they are working harder.  They want to do their best.  We are already seeing the fruits of there labors. They now, more fully understand the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that they share with the world, and the importance of the great Plan of Salvation.  

A message from President Marler:

During the last two weeks, many wonderful things have happened here in the mission. I have shared the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with many people.  This message is one of hope, of love and of the Saviors redeeming sacrifice for us.  Interestingly enough, a little over 2000 years ago, on Thursday of this same week, Jesus Christ plead with His Father that the cup might pass from him as he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Father did not answer that prayer, even though His heart must have been breaking as ours was.  On Friday, 2000 years later, we plead with the Father that he might grant us a miracle and let Tyler live.  The Father, again, did not answer the prayer in the way we had hoped.  On Easter Sunday, little Tyler passed away.  Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on that first Easter Day, Christ lived again, and because of that, Tyler will too.  We know that this time apart is but a short one in the eyes of the Lord, and we will all be with Tyler again.

Kim and Arnie, A.J. Riley and Tyler
a forever family

Welcome China and India

This will be a different type of blog entry, and I hope you will enjoy this.  Over the last month we have had 5,000 people read our blog from various countries in the world.

From South America we have readers from Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Colombia.

From Central America we have readers from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador.

We have readers from Canada, the United States, France, Spain, Germany, The United Kingdom, Sweden (thanks Jennie), Russia, Serbia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the Ukraine, Indonesia, Australia and Belgium.  There are also 25 people from China and 34 from India that read our blog each week.

Many of the people from these countries have probably heard about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but in some countries the Church does not have a large presence.  We welcome the people of all nations to look at our blog and to enjoy the photos of our missionaries.  They enjoy sharing their mission experience with you, and we hope you will learn a little about the Gospel of Jesus Christ as you read our blog.

We have included a link or two for you, so you can learn a little bit about the Church of Jesus Christ, and have some of your questions answered.  We would also like to share a bit about our faith.

We are a Christian faith.  We believe in God, the Eternal Father; in His son, Jesus Christ; and in the Holy Ghost.  We believe all three are Gods, separate and distinct beings, yet inseparable in their purpose and their love for us.

We are Heavenly Father's spirit children and we lived with Him before we came to this earth to live with our earthly parents.  We chose to follow the plan of our Heavenly Father and to come to the earth to learn to become more like Him, so we could return home to Him one day.

Because we would not be perfect, we would fall short of being able to return to Heavenly Father.  His law says that we need to be perfect to live with Him.  Because of this, his plan included having His only begotten son in the flesh, Jesus Christ, pay the price for our sins, so we can ask forgiveness for our sins, keep the commandments of God and try to live our lives the way Christ lived His.  (we call this repentence).  It is a beautiful gift that Jesus gave us.  He was perfect, he lived a perfect life, and He willingly gave His life and took all of our pains, sins, hurts and disappointments upon Himself, so we could repent and return home to our Heavenly Father with our families.

Families are eternal.  If we accept the teachings of Christ and follow the path He has set for us, we can receive rich blessings from our Heavenly Father.  These great blessings are found in the Temples of the Lord that are now in many countries of the world.  In temples we are given great gifts from Heavenly Father that help us in our daily walk, and help us to know how to return home.  Families are bound together for all eternity in the temple.   Here is a picture of our eternal family:

This is a picture of our family on the day our daughter was married in the San Diego Temple

This pictures includes our parents and some of our brothers and sisters and their families as well…we love our "Forever Family"

Jesus organized His Church while he was on the earth, it was called the Church of Christ.  After His death and the death of his Apostles, the Church was changed by the votes of the Nicene Council in the year 325 after Christ.  Many churches were formed, just as there are in the world today.  In 1820 a young man, Joseph Smith prayed to determine which church he should join.  God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, and told him to wait and not join any of them, because the true church of Christ was no longer upon the earth. 

Later, God called Joseph to be a prophet, like the prophets of the Old Testament.  Through Joseph Smith the Church of Jesus Christ was once again restored to the earth, with all of the original principles, teachings and organizations.  That Church is on the earth today. It is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We invite all to come unto Christ, unto His teachings,  

and receive all of the great blessings He has for you.  

The message of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, this is His Church upon the earth, in these the Latter-days (or last days before His coming again).  We love Jesus Christ, we testify He lives, He loves us, He is our Savior and He has redeemed us from our sins and short-comings.  

This is the reason we all serve,

Love,

 the 242 missionaries of the Trujillo Peru Mission