Do You Think You’ll See Your Brother Again?

By Wendy Jennings (as told to Leah Barton)

Utah, USA

Illustration by Allen Garns

It was late at night, I was the only cashier on duty, and there wasn’t another soul in the entire grocery store. As I wiped down the checkout counters, I began humming.

My humming quickly turned into singing. I started singing “Come, Come, Ye Saints” (Hymns, no. 30). I don’t usually sing hymns for fun, but I sang energetically until the sight of someone stopped me.

An older man approached.

“I know that song,” he said. “How do you know it?”

“It is a hymn we sing in my church,” I said.

“Are you a Mormon?”

I responded that I was.

He told me his wife had been a Latter-day Saint and had passed away from cancer in 2011. He said “Come, Come, Ye Saints” was sung at her funeral. I expressed my condolences and told him my older brother passed away in 2011 while serving a mission in Chile. We also sang that hymn at his funeral. The Spirit touched our hearts as we marveled at this “coincidence.”

“So do you think you’ll see your brother again?” he asked.

I had asked myself the same question countless times. In the difficult months after my brother died, I struggled with doubts. Eventually, Heavenly Father blessed me with a sweet knowledge that families are forever. I still had questions, but I met the man’s gaze and declared, “Yes, I do!”

“You have a lot of faith,” the man said. “My wife used to say we should have ‘a perfect brightness of hope.’” I agreed and quoted the rest of 2 Nephi 31:20, that we should love God and all men, press forward, feast upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end.

“That’s it!” the man said with tears in his eyes. “That’s what she would say! How did you know that?”

I told him it was in the Book of Mormon. He asked me how he could get a copy. I told him how to do it online. The man shook my hand, thanked me by name, and left.

Having faith means we trust God even when we don’t know all the answers. I’m grateful that when I was called upon to answer that man’s question, I was able to rely on my faith in the truths I do know. My faith wasn’t perfect, but I knew it was sufficient in the Lord’s eyes.