Sad news

As I've linked in the title, our oldest apostle, Joseph B. Wirthlin has shuffled off this mortal coil.

He was 91. His wife died almost three years ago ... so, on the one hand, it's awesome that they're reunited and all ...

But, dang it! I really LIKE Wirthlin. Because he's all sweet and nice and I like him!!

And I know that I'm being completely selfish (and I'll continue to be, so don't try and tell me that I'm not. I've accepted this fact), but I get SAD when people die ... because I don't want them to leave me. And I MISS them.

I mean, I know that we'll all be ressurected and all. But I still get sad. I'm still sad about President Hinckley (I LOVED that cute, wonderful old man), and conference just doesn't seem the same without Elder Neal A. Maxwell and his extensive vocabulary.

And, hell, I get all teary-eyed and verklempt with how much I miss my Pop-pop and Grandma Darlene.

I do have a testimony of the ressurection -- that death is not the end of existence, of love, of family or other relationships.  I know this. I have faith in this knowledge. It gives me hope.

But it still totally bums me out. Because I hate having to say goodbye for a period of time. (Hell, I get all sad when my friends move away ... and they're still alive!!)

So, yeah. I'm going to miss Elder Wirthlin and his conference talks. I'm glad that he's back with his wife and that he went easily at the end of a long and full life ... and that he had some family there. I'm glad that he was able to continue living life up to the last.

But I don't have to be happy that I don't get to see him in General Conferences anymore, right?

(Maybe this is because of how I tend to "adopt" friends as psuedo-family. I think of a good deal of my school teachers as almost-aunts and -uncles ... President Hinckley was practically a grandfather/father figure ... President Monson has taken on that mantle ... and the apostles are rather like uncle-figures, too.  Is this messed up or just ... I don't know. It's how I seem to work, anyway. Maybe this is why I just don't get racism and crap like that ... under it all, we are all the family of the human race, children of God ... why can't we just get that through our heads and start treating each other like it, dammit?)

(*sigh* For a post where I talk about faith, tesitmony, and the church, I sure swear a lot. Why is that? Discuss.)