Jared's thoughts from the funeral

! witnessed many tender moments between he and his eternal companion. It took every ounce of my strength to hold in my emotions and not to break down in front of them. Such love and devotion. A real storybook love story.

Leonard had surgery on my last day. Kristen and I waited together hoping beyond hope for some sort of good news. While waiting, we discussed many things. Among them was the impact Leonard's death can have on others and that never left me.

Thank you everyone for your kind words. My heart swells with joy to think that so many have been impacted by Leonard's passing. Below is the talk I gave at the request of my dear friend. May we all honor his life and change as a result of his death.

As I look out on all of you, I realize that besides the Lortons and maybe a few others, I don’t think I know any of you. By way of introduction, my name is Jared Moon. I have traveled from Danville, Virginia to join all you in honoring the life of this good man, Leonard Lorton. Some of you may be wondering what does a short, fat guy with a full head of hair from Danville, Virginia have in common with a tall, generally slender, bald guy from Phoenix, Arizona? Well, a lot.

My friendship with Leonard spans over twenty-seven years. We grew up together in northern Virginia. Oh, the memories we have shared. From being the only two people to fail the swim test at our first Scout camp to refining our skills as “sandwich artists” while working at Subway. From sharing lockers in high school—one locker for our books and the other to store our vast supply of candy (you can guess which one got more use)—to preparing for and leaving on our missions within a week of each other: he to Budapest, Hungry and I to Jackson, Mississippi. And of course, the hours upon hours upon hours of basketball. The name of Leonard Lorton, along with his brother David, will always be associated with the Moon family.

Leonard and Kristen have given me a distinct honor by asking me to speak today. It is my desire to share a special message. My message today is to tell you…no, it is to TESTIFY to you that your husband, your father, your son, your brother, your uncle, and our friend did not, I repeat, DID NOT cease to exist sometime after two o’clock last Tuesday afternoon. Everything that made Leonard the person he was continues to live!!

His personality, his dry sense of humor (Oh, I think I could spend all day telling and listening stories of his sense of humor.), his experiences, his memories, his intellect (Leonard has a great mind! We used to debate for hours about politics. And since HE was the one to change HIS views to be more in line with mine, I think its safe to say...I won that debate!!), his capacity to love and be loved, his kindness, and his concern for others. Everything that made Leonard, Leonard continues to live this very second.

All that happened on Tuesday afternoon was his spirit and his physical body separated. Much like taking off a glove from your hand. The glove loses all indications of life. It no longer emanates the illusion of acting for itself. Rather it sits there…motionless. Only to be act upon by some outside force. In essence, the glove lost its very soul.

But the hand continues to have animation and life!! It still has the same grip in a handshake. It still has the same skill with hammer or saw. It can still write, paint and play the guitar. Despite all appearances to the contrary, it was the hand which gave life to the glove. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

And so it is with Leonard. His spirit gave life to his physical body. His body lays here motionless, lifeless. Leonard is not in this casket!! While, his spirit—which retains everything that made Leonard, Leonard—continues to live. Only now he free from many of the toils and sorrows of mortal life.

The ancient prophet Alma declared:

“That the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.” (Alma 40:12)

Leonard no longer feels the physical pain. Gone is the suffering of this terrible, terrible sickness. It is cliche to say that he is in a better place. But he really is. As the scripture says, he has been “taken home to the God who gave him life.” (Alma 40:11).

That’s part one of my message today, that Leonard continues to live. Part two is the other side of that same coin. Just as Leonard did not cease to exist at his physical death, he did not suddenly spring into existence at his physical birth. He lived before he came here to earth. In fact, all of us did!

Every man and woman who has ever lived on earth, who does now live on earth, and who will ever live on earth are literal spirits sons and daughters of God. He is literally our Father in Heaven and we are literally his children.

In our pre-mortal existence, Leonard and all of humankind lived as spirits with our Father in Heaven. We each were separate and distinct spirit personages. We had consciousness, volition, and moral agency. We developed talents, strengths, and capacities. We associated with each other and with our Father in Heaven.

But there came a point where we could not progress any further. Similar to a grown child still living with his parents, it was time for us to spread our wings and leave our heavenly home. But before coming to earth, we were told that we would be required to walk by faith. We would not have a full knowledge of what we did and who we were in the life before. A veil of forgetfulness would be placed over our minds, causing us, in the words of the Apostle Paul, to “see through a glass, darkly.” (1 Cor. 13:12).

So, why is this information, this knowledge so important, so vital in times like this? In a word, perspective. If this life were all there is to our existence, then today really would be a day of sorrow. Leonard’s death would truly be a tragedy of tremendous proportions. There would be no comfort to ANYWHERE here. Much less to Kristen, Carter and Kirby.

But the truth of the matter is that this life—Leonard’s life—is an eternal journey reaching far back into the pre-mortal past and will continue on into the never ending future for eternities to come.

A modern day Apostle of Jesus Christ, Elder Body K. Packer, put it this way:

“There are three parts to [our Father in Heaven’s] plan. [We] are in the second or the middle part, the one in which [we] will be tested by temptation, by trials, perhaps by tragedy.

"In mortality, we are like actors who enter a theater just as the curtain goes up on the second act. We have missed act 1. The production has many plots and subplots that interweave, making it difficult to figure out who relates to whom and what relates to what, who are the heroes and who are the villains. It is further complicated because we are not just spectators; we are members of the cast, on stage, in the middle of it all!

“Remember this! The line, ‘And they all lived happily ever after’ is never written into the second act. That line belongs in the third act, when the mysteries are solved, [all questions are answered,]and everything is put right.

“Until you have a broad perspective of the eternal nature of this great drama, you won’t make much sense out of the inequities in life. Some are born with so little and others with so much. Some are born in poverty, with handicaps, with pain, with suffering. Some experience premature death, even innocent children.

“Do not suppose that God willfully causes that which, for his own purposes, he permits. When you know the plan and purpose of it all, even these things will manifest a loving Father in Heaven.”

Which leads me to the third part of my message. There is help, there is hope, there is relief, and there is rescue from the pains and sorrow grief of our mortal lives. Our Father in Heaven provided us with a Savior to be a Light to the world.

Now, there are some here who are searching for understanding, who are searching for peace. I testify that Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of understanding. He is the ultimate source of peace.

His teachings stand as the formula for happiness and peace in this life. His messages as contained in the scriptures are timely as well as timeless. They are a treasure of wisdom and divine direction for our lives. Most importantly, Jesus did what no other person could do, He performed his infinite atonement on our behalf. (Robert L. Millet)

In the words of Isaiah, He is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3, 5). In giving us a glimpse of what He endured, the Lord indicates that His “suffering caused [Him], even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed from every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit….” (D&C 19:18). It was a physical, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional agony of such magnitude we may never fully know.

Truly,
No dream or prophet’s vision,
Of our dear Savior’s mission,
Could show his full submission,
To such pain.

The suffering endured by the Savior cannot be measured into some quantifiable sum or be reduced into a mathematical equation. (Elder Tad Callister) But the scriptures do give us some indication of what He suffered for.

Within the world of Christianity, it is universally understood that Christ paid the price for our sins. And as a result, His followers can obtain sweet forgiveness of their sins. I testify that Leonard believed this! He often sought for and obtained forgiveness of his sins throughout his life.

But the Book of Mormon tells us that the Savior suffered for so much more. The ancient prophet, Alma, proclaimed that, in addition to our sins, the Savior also suffered for our pains, our sicknesses and our infirmities. (Alma 7:11-12). In other words, the Savior voluntarily took upon himself not only the cumulative burden of all sin and transgression, but also the cumulative burden of all depression, all loneliness, all sorrow, all mental, emotional, and physical hurt, and all weakness of every kind that has or will ever afflict mankind. (Elder Tad Callister).

He knows the depths of sorrow caused by the unexpected death of a loved one. He underwent the agonizing pain of cancer. He is intimate with all the horrendous travesties and human suffering caused by war throughout the centuries. He knows of the cries of every child who has ever suffered as a result of abuse, neglect, hunger, famine, disease and pestilence. (Elder Tad Callister).

Brothers and sisters, he felt YOUR sorrows. YOUR grief. YOUR loneliness. YOUR pains. Every time you have been hurt, every time you had reason to cry, every time your heart has ached, HE FELT THAT!!

He suffered that “his bowels may be filled with mercy…that he may know …how to succor his people.” (Alma 7:12). The ancient prophet, Abinadi, taught that the purpose of His suffering to gain the “power to make intercession for [us]…having bowels of mercy, being filled with compassion towards [all men].” (Mosiah 15:8-9). He fully comprehends all human suffering. Truly, Christ “descended below all things,” (D&C 88:6) in order to “draw all men unto [him].” (3 Nephi 27:14).

I would like to conclude with a passage from the 15th chapter of John that has helped me during the last week. There, the Savior tells us that the Father is the Husbandman, the Vinedresser. The Savior is the Vine. And we are the branches. The Vinedresser chooses the manner in which He will purge the branches. Why? The Savior tells us, “every branch that beareth fruit, he [the Father] purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (John 15:2). (Robert L. Millet).

Leonard’s life brought forth much fruit. Now, I do not know why the cells in Leonard’s body turned cancerous and claimed his mortal life. But I am CONVINCED that at least one of the reasons is so his death will bring forth even more fruit.

And that starts with everyone here. People who knew Leonard, people who loved Leonard. You can decide here and now to be a better person than are.

I submit to you that the best way to honor this good man’s life, the greatest service you can render to his wife and children is to decide to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. So in 5 or 10 years down the road, you can look back on this day and realize THAT is when I started to be more patient with my children, THAT is when I started to be a more considerate spouse, THAT is when I started to exercise more kindness, THAT is when I started to have greater compassion for my fellow men. In short, Leonard’s death made me want to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I testify that God is real. He is our Eternal Father in Heaven. I testify that the man known as Jesus of Nazareth is the only begotten Son of God. He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He beckons all to come unto him and have eternal life. I testify that Leonard Lorton lives. He continues to be the person everyone here knew and loved. He continues to feel your love. And he continues to love each of you. It is my prayer that we all will honor his life and change as result of his death. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.