Hal (May 12, 1941 - January 29, 2019)

Today Derek and I went to the funeral of a friend in our ward.  He had an awful disease called Progressive Supranuclear Palsey the whole time we knew him (about 5 years).  When we first met him he could still speak, but the disease quickly took that ability away.  He shared his testimony in Sacrament Meeting twice by typing his testimony into an ipad and having the ipad read it into the microphone while he stood at the pulpit.  Those were really special testimony meetings as His sincere testimony of Christ prompted others to share their testimonies of Christ as well.  His wife Maudie is my friend who has included me in some of her musical adventures.  She took really good care of Hal.  She loves him very much.

On the back of the program at his funeral today was Hal's testimony.  I want to record it here:

This is a picture of a drawing done by our very
talented friend Stephen Pemberton

My faith in Jesus Christ is strong.  My prayer is that each of us will nurture our faith in Christ.  We must reach out and take his hand.  He will lift us as he lifted Peter.  He will walk with us and strengthen us.  He will send the Holy Ghost to guide us and comfort us.  He will share our burdens and make them bearable.  He will share our pain and help us to endure.  He will give us understanding in the face of death or sickness.  This I promise in the name of Jesus Christ.

Taken from a talk given by Hal Smith January 2009