MM: The Souls of Animals

I love animals. I always have.

One of my favorite truths that we're taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that everything is a creation of our Heavenly Father.

We believe that every living thing has a soul. If you want to read further on teaching of the church concerning this, there is an article about it called "The Gospel and Animals." I took a lot of my sources from this article.

One of Grig's and my favorite stories about Joseph Smith, the first president of the church, happened during the Zion’s Camp expedition in 1834, an incident occurred that allowed a practical application of concern for animal life. As related by the Prophet Joseph Smith in his history:

“In pitching my tent we found three massasaugas or prairie rattlesnakes, which the brethren were about to kill, but I said, ‘Let them alone—don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose his venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition, and continue to make war upon it? Men must become harmless, before the brute creation; and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child can play with the serpent in safety.’ The brethren took the serpents carefully on sticks and carried them across the creek. I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of any kind during our journey unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves from hunger.” (Documentary History of the Church, vol. 2, pp. 71–72.)

He goes on to state concerning the resurrection of animals:

“Says one, ‘I cannot believe in the salvation of beasts.’ Any man who would tell you this could not be, would tell you that the revelations are not true. John heard the words of the beast giving glory to God, and understood them. God who made the beasts could understand every language spoken by them. The beasts were four of the most noble animals that filled the measure of their creation, and had been saved from other worlds, because they were perfect. They were like angels in their sphere. We are not told where they came from, and I do not know; but they were seen and heard by John praising and glorifying God.” (DHC, vol. 5, pp. 343–44.)  

This is especially applicable and comforting to me today.

Dakota isn't doing well. After a lot of prayer and thought, we've decided it is time to put her down. The vet will be here soon to do so.  It's been a difficult few months, but I know that Dakota will be happier when she's free of her mortal pain.

I just know her spirit's going to be running laps in joy and that she'll be waiting on the other side for the time when we join her.

While revising the Bible, the Prophet desired further understanding concerning the four beasts mentioned in Revelation 4:6 [Rev. 4:6]. Section 77 of the Doctrine and Covenants contained the response from the Lord. The answer revealed that “heaven, the paradise of God,” contained beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air, and “every other creature which God has created.” (D&C 77:2.)

I know that animals have souls and that God loves each and everyone of them. I know we will be accountable for how to treat the animals and people under our care.

Family Zoo Trip

Last weekend we went to the zoo. I was supposed to blog about this yesterday, but it was a little busy, so I'm going to skip the review this week and talk about the zoo instead.

It was Grig's birthday over the weekend, so we decided to go and visit the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake.

They are having a dinosaur exhibit right now, so we thought he'd really enjoy that.

He really did.

We had some pretty great experiences while we were there. It seemed like a lot of animals came out just as we walked up. 

We decided that since we still only have one kid, and he's still free, we might as well spend a little extra money and let him ride on the carousel and the train. The carousel was an interesting adventure. He was really excited about it when we were in line. Then, when it was our turn, he ran straight for the okapi and eagerly climbed on board. 

However, not even two seconds later, he suddenly turned into a sad, clingy mess. For some reason, he did NOT want to be on the carousel and he began to cry as I tried to convince him to sit on the animal. 

He screamed and cried until the ride started. As the carousel began to move, he sat very still, and slowly a smile crept over his tear-streaked face. The second time around, he began to wave to the crowd and by the end, he didn't want to get off and couldn't stop talking about how he "rode it." Luckily, we caught the whole trip on video.

Another funny experience was when we were looking at different dinosaurs. He loved the tyrannosaurus rex.

 The dinosaurs were animatronics. They moved, and one of them even spit water. That one, for some reason, terrified Kevin. He did not even want to look at it. He thought it was scary! However, as we walked away, he couldn't stop talking about it. He really had a love/hate relationship with it. Every time we came near it, he grew excited, but as soon as we got too close, he became frightened. Unfortunately, we didn't get any video of that for some reason. 

The third funny experience was when we met an old friend from a couple of years (2013) ago. I don't know if you remember this from our video Lion Spit and Otter Friends, but here is a picture to remind you:

 As soon as Kevin saw this otter, he ran up to it and gave it a hug. Here he is with his otter friend now.

Wow, he sure has grown! 

The best part came later. Kevin was running through a hollow log, when a bunch of kids walked up and began to play with the otter statue. With concern on his face, Kevin ran toward them and watched them in horror. Then he turned around and said, "My otter!"

It was really cute, and it made us laugh. Sometimes it's hard to share. 

We saw quite a few cute animals. This ape made us laugh. He kept pulling his lip up with the fence. 

 This sand cat was super cute too. I don't know if you can get much cuter than this.

I think it's traditional to take a picture drinking out of this lion, so we made sure we got pictures of all of us. 

Unfortunately, the water was pretty nasty. Kevin sure enjoyed drinking out of the lion's mouth though.

Kevin loved the train ride too. He sure enjoyed finally seeing some lions (that you couldn't see from the front of the enclosure). He also liked closer views of the giraffes and zebras. They also take you back into this 'old western' area that has tee-pees, log cabins, horses, and a bunch of other stuff. He loved the train. 

 He enjoyed digging up dinosaur bones with his dad. He also chastized a cousin of the ankylosaurus for trying to eat him. We kept telling him it was a plant-eater, but he insisted on shaking his finger at it and saying, "Bad dinosaur. Don't eat Kevin."

We laughed pretty hard about that too.

He also was confused when his mother pretended that polar bear cubs were eating her.

We had a great time, and it was really fun to spend time together as a family. Kevin loved the dinosaurs and the animals. He kept pulling on our hands and saying, "Let's go!" as we'd run from one to the next. 

Just before we left, we stopped by the wolf enclosure to see if we could spot one. The big white male was fully visible. 

He sure is beautiful. He thought about howling for us too as sirens wailed in the distance, but changed his mind. Then more people came, and he skedaddled. It was fun to get a good look at him though. 

As a family outing, it was a success, and our marriage is stronger than ever!

Hooray!