“They Remembered Me,” Ensign, April 2020
Digital Only: Latter-day Saint Voices
They Remembered Me
Photograph by Jerry L. Garns
When I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I found out that many things in my life would have to change. One of those things was partaking of the sacrament bread. Ingesting even a small amount of gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye) can make a celiac patient ill for weeks.
On Sundays, I give a piece of gluten-free bread to the teachers and priests who prepare the sacrament. My family and I sit in the same place in the chapel each week so that the deacons will always be able to find us and bring me my gluten-free bread.
One Sunday the bishop asked the ward choir to sit on the stand rather than in the congregation. I took my place in the choir and settled in for the meeting. It wasn’t until we began to sing the sacrament hymn that I realized that the deacons might not know where to find me. I wanted to partake of the sacrament so badly, but I didn’t know how to alert the deacons to where I was in the chapel without disrupting the meeting. Would they see me? Would they remember my special need?
I watched as a deacon came to my row. He saw me and whispered that he didn’t know where my gluten-free bread was. The rest of the congregation received the bread, and the deacons returned to the sacrament table. I figured there was nothing I could do at that point. Then I saw the deacons whispering among themselves. One deacon took a tray, came into the choir seats, and offered my gluten-free bread to me.
I am grateful for the young Aaronic Priesthood holders in my ward and for their diligence in making sure I could partake of the sacrament. As I took the sacrament that day, a scripture came into my mind: “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:4).
The Savior is aware of all of us. No matter how forgotten I may sometimes feel, I know the Savior will never forget me. Every soul is valuable to Him. Even through a meek 12-year-old deacon, He can always find the one.