A few weeks after the devastating attack on the Grand Blanc chapel in Michigan, local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stepped into the Bloomfield Hills Stake Center to attend stake conference. But the cultural hall looked different.
Thousands of cards, letters, and pictures covered the walls, the love from those who sent them spilling out and enveloping members in comfort. While the letters came from people of all ages all around the world, a majority came from youth, many of them seminary students reaching out in love to everyone suffering in the wake of the tragedy.
“This project brought me closer to God,” says Abby Leavitt, 16-year-old seminary student and youth leader in Michigan. “I saw His hand through it all.”
A Flood of Letters
After the tragedy, seminary teacher Emily McLiver in the Grand Blanc Stake noticed on Facebook that people wanted a place to send cards and letters. She offered her address, which was soon shared far and wide. The response was incredible: mail arrived from all over the United States as well as from Canada, Guam, and other countries. She was especially touched by the letters from youth.
“The response was humbling and awe-inspiring,” Emily says. “Teenagers don’t always get credit for being empathetic, but that’s all this was—pure love and the desire to minister like Christ.” Her students opened the letters one by one, and Emily experienced the letters right alongside them. She explains:
“These kids in other states are just like you—getting up early, doing their best, and wanting to lift someone else who’s hurting. They wanted to put their hearts down on paper. Some wrote long testimonies. Some just wrote, ‘We’re praying for you.’ Every single one mattered.”
They received help to manage the volume of letters from others, including Hillary Brox, another seminary teacher from the stake, who began teaching seminary out of her home after the chapel was no longer available. Her first week back with her students was spent opening letters and having gentle conversations.
Though they worried that receiving so many sympathy messages might feel heavy over time, the students loved it every day. Teenagers in the stake connected with other youth through messages, phone numbers, and social media. “We have seriously been lifted up and carried along by our brothers and sisters all over the world,” Hillary says. “It’s been overwhelming—but in the nicest of ways.”
Display of Love at Stake Conference
Abby Leavitt, who serves on the stake youth council and as a social media specialist, led the project. Youth from across the stake helped her organize the displays, filling the cultural hall of the stake center from floor to ceiling with over 2,000 messages of love. They spent hours opening, gluing, and putting poster boards on the walls.
“After we finished setting up, the room was quiet, and the Spirit was there. I will never forget it,” Abby explains.
On Sunday morning, some local members were hesitant to enter the building, but the youth stood at the doors greeting everyone, behind them an overwhelming wall of messages. “People walked around with tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces. It was healing for everyone,” Abby says.
Her mother, Louise Leavitt, also a seminary teacher in the stake, watched the project unfold both for the youth involved and for members who came to see the displays. “We live in such a contentious world,” she says. “This was in sharp contrast—pure love for people they had never even met.”
The leadership and compassion shown by the youth who led the effort sent a powerful message: the rising generation has more strength than they know. The worldwide support helped them understand empathy across distance and to feel that they are a part of something bigger.
“Heavenly Father has prepared a different group of kids to take on a more challenging world,” Emily says. She testifies that, even though it’s a hard time to be a teenager, there is hope and peace in Jesus Christ.
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