I met Regis Carlus for the first time in 1995 in France. He was not a member of the Church. His daughter, Charlotte, was being sealed in the Bern Switzerland Temple the next day, and he had written, asking if he could stop by my office to meet me. He had heard that I often inquired about him, and he was perplexed as to why.
I knew and admired his two young adult children, Charlotte and Morgan, who had been baptized a few years earlier in 1991 while I was serving as president of the France Bordeaux Mission. After meeting Charlotte and Morgan, my wife, Kathy, and I were amazed at their goodness.
Morgan wrote me recently about his baptism and making covenants, saying: “Before [I found the gospel], I was an 18-year-old atheist, yearning for real happiness but not knowing where to find it. The Holy Ghost touched my heart so strongly that I didn’t want to disappoint my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s why I have kept my baptism and temple covenants and have worked to be someone who honors those covenants.”
For Charlotte, her decision to live a life consistent with God’s law began even before joining the Church. Many years later, her daughter Amélie told me that when Charlotte was a teenager, “she felt different from her friends. Her friends drank alcohol, smoked, and did not keep the law of chastity, but Charlotte did not feel the desire to do any of these things.”
Regardless of their circumstances, when the opportunity came, Morgan and Charlotte chose to make covenants with the Lord and have been transformed because of it.
Following their baptism, Charlotte went to the United States for a master’s degree in language and literature and was endowed in the temple. Morgan served a mission in England.
I marveled that these two college-age students were so willing to follow the Savior. And I had hoped to hear that their parents would follow their example.
After being called as a General Authority and assigned to serve in the Europe/Mediterranean Area Presidency, I received Mr. Carlus’s request to meet and hoped that he would follow his children into the restored gospel.
Read the full article on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.