Dan R. Olsen Jr.
Dan R. Olsen Jr.
801-422-7655
olsen [at] cs.byu.edu
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3336 TMCB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
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things I know
There are many things about this life, our life before and our life after that I do not know or understand. However, through the power of prayer, these are a few things that I do know to be true.

1. I know that there is a God who is our Father, we are his children and he loves us very much.

2. Though I do not know the mechanisms, I do know that through his Son, Jesus Christ, he created this world and all the life on it so that we, his children, would have a place to grow, learn and make choices for ourselves.

3. I know that this life is designed to give each of us the individual challenges that we need most. As a consequence, much of this life is not really fair, but our Father has provided an opportunity for every one of his children to eventually learn, know and choose for themselves if they did not receive such opportunity in this life.

4. I know that our Father understands that many of our choices will be mistakes that we must learn from. To help us recover from our mistakes he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself so that we might repent and become clean from our errors, if we so choose.

5. I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, personally understands the pains, frustrations, sorrows, temptations and adversities that we each individually face. I do not understand how he does this, but I know that he does.

6. I know that to help us choose well, our Father and his Son have provided prophets, apostles, scriptures, a church and most importantly the Holy Spirit to guide us back to him, if we choose to listen. I know that these are available, not just in the distant past, but here and now.

7. I know that God hears and answers prayers, in his own time and according to what he knows is in our eternal best interest.

8. I know that the family, based on a marriage of complete fidelity between a man and a woman, is the fundamental unit of eternity. Though some families may fall short in this life, a loving God has provided the means for repair in this life or in eternity, for those who choose to follow him