by Brujo Bear and LJ Nisse
So many of our Latter Day Prophets have told us how the computer and other modern-day technologies will be used to reach seemingly lost souls. With all of the smut that is made readily available on the Internet, it is sometimes hard for us to see where the good can come from. This is a true story of two lost souls who found each other as well as the Church on the Internet.
Both LuJane and Bear had endured the dilemma of being a single parent in the Church. They both agree that after enjoying the blessings of the Church with their complete families, they felt like an outsider when they tried to remain active as single parents.
LuJane went through a bitter divorce twelve-plus years ago. She found herself forced to become a working mother with three young children and finding time to adequately participate in church activity seemed impossible. She struggled for about seven years before inactivity eventually became the norm in her daily life.
Bear suffered the pains of divorce while his two grown sons were on their missions. He struggled to raise his adopted 13 year old son as a single parent. When he lost Neal in a tragedy he soon became completely inactive.
Both LuJane and Bear held to only two principles of the gospel - - they both searched their scriptures and prayed unceasingly, and with a little help from the internet their efforts were rewarded.
Bear had been surfing the Net July 11, 1996, looking for information to use in a magazine article he was writing. He accidently landed at "LDS Friends Worldwide." For reasons unknown to himself, he bookmarked the site and went on researching his article, returning to the site a few hours later. That's when, he says, he received the second testimony of his life. The first was when he prayed on the Book of Mormon, and the second when he saw LuJane's personal, he was overcome by the same Spirit.
"I had no intention of finding a wife and children again. I had no intention of fighting my way back to activity in the Church," he says. "I just happened upon LuJane's personal and immediately knew that she was the one -- the only one -- for me." LuJane was quite surprised to get her first e-mail from Bear as she received it just as she was done posting her personal. "It was as if he was just waiting for me to post it so he could contact me," she says in her soft, authoritative voice.
"I had three teenagers and three adopted young boys, the youngest being only three years old. I had basically given up looking for a worthy priesthood holder who would be willing to take on a family of six kids and a headstrong wife who doesn't want to give up her newspaper business and extremely active lifestyle. To add to my excitement, Bear turned out to be an excellent writer and would be a major asset to the newspaper! His work as a freelance writer didn't tie him down to his residence in Arizona and he had no problems with babysitting while I published the newspaper." A few more miracles occurred that helped LuJane see their relationship as a blessing from above. One of those miracles occurred while she was shopping for a wedding ring. Bear had bought a very unusual wedding band for her in Arizona. He could only purchase the woman's ring because the man's ring was missing.
The very first jewelry store LuJane went into and the very first ring she saw was the male ring matching hers. The woman's ring in the set was MISSING! These rings, the very rings that brought the spirit and testimony to LuJane with such force, became the wedding rings uniting the two together forever.
After a two week visit by Bear in which much time was spent in family prayer and scripture searching, Bear and LuJane were wed at the Potlatch, Idaho Branch August 8 and are now looking forward to their sealing in the Seattle Temple hopefully next April.
Let no man or woman disclaim the words of the Prophets. Modern- day technology IS leading many lost souls back into Heavenly Father's blessings and Internet services such as LDS Friends Worldwide are His tools to bring about miracles like Bear and LuJane have experienced.
Just ask Bear or LuJane if this isn't so.