Little Child Lost

Eddy Mukuna grew up in an active Latter-day Saint family that had eight sons and six daughters.

One Sunday when Eddy was five years old, his large family was headed home from sacrament meeting on the bus, and Eddy was accidentally left at the bus station. There he stood with tears streaming down his face, not knowing what to do.

Many people came up to him to see why he was crying, and he told them that his family had left him alone at the station, and he was lost. People offered to take Eddy home, but he was so young that he didn't know where he lived or how to tell anyone the way to his home. After about twenty minutes, Eddy saw his father coming through the bus station and ran to him crying. His father hugged him and told him how sorry he was that Eddy had been left at the station and how much he loved him. 

Eddy’s story is not unusual.  Many children remember well the time when they found themselves lost and alone. They can remember the kind people who offered to help and the confusion they felt. Coincidentally, most parents remember the time they discovered their child had suddenly disappeared.  “I thought he was with you” and the reply, “But I thought he was with you!”  Though the incident may be long past, everyone remembers the frantic search they conducted during that terrifying time and the blessed relief they felt when all were reunited.  Nobody involved ever forgets it, either.

Indeed, many years after young Eddy was lost in the bus station, he and most of his brothers served full-time missions, searching for Heavenly Father's lost children here on earth, helping them to realize how much their Father loves them. Such a mission reflects Elder Jose L. Alonso’s General Conference admonition:  “Brothers and sisters, there may be many who, for some reason, are lost from our sight.... If we delay, we could lose them forever.”

Eddy’s family made their reunion “forever” as well.  In January of 2012, his family was sealed in the temple.  He discovered then that the temple is the place where Heavenly Father binds families together so that there will be no lost children in the eternities. In Eddy's words, “I know that I can live with my family even after this life. The temple is a holy place...where Heavenly Father's children can receive blessings from their Father.”

 Excerpted from article submitted to the Africa Southeast Area Family History Center, May 29, 2012 and “Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time, Without Delay,” Elder Jose L. Alonso, Ensign, November 2011.

Ensign