- As students returned to Utah Valley University again, the Utah Valley Institute held a special devotional.
- A Latter-day Saint leader emphasized Jesus Christ's healing and the idea of peacemaking.
- After the devotional, students were able to interact with the therapists to learn coping strategies.
Utah Valley University student Grayson Harter hadn’t felt peace in the week since the campus murder of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10.
“I feel like I spend more time at UVU than I do at home and I never expected anything like this,“ he said. ”It happened at the center of campus and definitely shook things up quite a bit for all of us."
So the 25-year-old junior in construction management took work off Wednesday and found his way to a pew in search of meaning and direction as the campus finally reopened for classes.
While some students spent time between classes reverently visiting the courtyard where a sniper shot and killed Kirk, Harter and a few hundred others found hope and renewed purpose at a special one-hour devotional in the chapel of the Utah Valley Institute on campus.
“If you are feeling that you have a broken heart today, if you feel you have some gaping wounds, I testify that we believe in a Savior whose hands are stretched out far beyond the pain and the sorrow that we are experiencing,” said Brother Sean R. Dixon, second counselor in the Young Men General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The message resonated with Harter, who is from Temecula, California.
“It was really powerful,” he said. “It brought the spirit and just made me reflect and realize that Christ really does heal. Leaving today, I feel at peace, and I haven’t felt that this week, really, if I’m being honest.”
Brother Dixon also visited the courtyard in Wednesday morning’s pleasant fall sunshine and said he felt a sense of reverence.
“It’s amazing how in the wake of tragedy, often the greatest feeling that comes into our heart is a feeling of love. And I feel that feeling for each one of you today,” said Brother Dixon, a former director of the Utah Valley Institute.
“In response to a horrific act of evil, we find the Lord comes and makes his presence known, and that there is a reverence on this campus has everything to do with the fact that you are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.
Students filled the institute’s chapel and dozens of chairs in the overflow area and the gymnasium behind the chapel. Brother Dixon asked the Utah Valley Singers to perform because the strongest way he feels the Holy Ghost is through music.
The choir sang “My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Me” and “Testimony (I Know That My Redeemer Lives).”
Students could be heard crying during the closing prayer after the audience and choir sang “It Is Well With My Soul.”
After the devotional, students ate nachos and had the opportunity to speak with therapists from Latter-day Saint Family Services to learn some coping tools.
The young adults who attended the devotional had evident support in many signs posted across campus. One sign made of Dixie cups in a chain link fence across the street bore a message from someone at Brigham Young University (the “Y”), which lies four miles east on University Parkway:
“1 town 1 heart — Y."
“This has been eye-opening for me to remember we have to pay attention to how we’re treating other people, especially people who are not like you,” said Missy Dixon, 24, a junior from Eagle Mountain majoring in public relations. “That’s where conflicts can arise, and differences actually make it beautiful.”
She said she cried when she saw the sign from BYU, which sometimes feels like a rival in sports.
“At the same time, we are still one community,” she said.
Brother Dixon quoted BYU President Shane Reese, who on Tuesday said at a devotional on his campus “the answer to darkness is light. The answer to evil is Christ.”
“The answer to what is happening around the world and in your life — the things that are difficult — is Jesus Christ," Brother Dixon said. “The goal of this life — God’s purpose — is that we can become like him."
Brother Dixon quoted the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and Latter-day Saints leaders.
He also issued three invitations to Latter-day Saint students.
The first was to bring those people feeling socially isolated or angry or tired to Jesus Christ.
“If those people (include) you, then the invitation is to come unto Christ,” he said. “If those people in your life are other people, bring them to the Savior, because the Savior is the healer. We’re not the healers. We don’t have the capacity to heal people. We’re the people who can bring people to the Savior so that he can heal them.”
He gave the students a minute of reflection to write down what they felt impressed to do to invite others to Christ.
“If you do the thing the Spirit invited you to do today, you will find peace in its wake,” said Brother Dixon, who is also the director of the church’s Utah South Institute Region.
The second invitation came from years of teachings from President Russell M. Nelson about Jesus Christ and peacemaking and included another full minute of reflection.
“His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade and inspire, no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers,” President Nelson said in 2023.
Brother Dixon noted that President Nelson once more called for peacemakers in an essay in Time Magazine for his 101st birthday just five days before Kirk’s assassination.
The church’s statement condemning violence after Kirk’s death was, therefore, not reactive, Brother Dixon said. Instead, “it was the culmination of what the Lord has been teaching us through his prophet for years.”
“How can you be a peacemaker?” Brother Dixon asked in making his second invitation. “What is the Lord teaching you today, through his prophet and through the Holy Ghost, about how you specifically can be more of a peacemaker in your own individual circumstances?”
The Utah Valley Institute is open to all young, college-age adults. “Connect with the Savior. Connect with friends. Connect with relevant topics,” its website says.
The university and the institute will continue to help students, faculty and staff process what several students sensitively referred to as “the incident.”
- On Friday at 4 p.m., UVU President Astrid Tuminez will lead a Unity Vigil at the UCCU Center on campus.
- On Sunday at 6 p.m., the institute will host a previously scheduled devotional with Elder Steven D. Shumway, a General Authority Seventy.
- On Wednesday, Sept. 24, the institute will host the first of five weekly workshops titled “Peacemakers Needed.” The curriculum was developed by Paul Lambert of BYU’s Wheatley Institute in conjunction with the church’s Seminaries and Institutes programs.
The workshop is designed to provide skills to those who naturally feel overwhelmed by what’s online today, Brother Dixon said.
“His capacity to bring comfort and to heal is infinite,” Brother Dixon said. “There is nobody in this room that is outside the reach of the ability of Jesus Christ to heal, thanks to the atoning sacrifice he made, and I love him for that, and I’m grateful for what he did.”
“The tomb is empty,” he added at the end of the devotional. “Our Savior lives. He’s not just a person from the history books, but he is alive and well, anxious to bless and help each one of you.”
