Expert Level: Teaching So That A Child Can Understand | Pres. Susan H. Porter | "'Here Am I, Send Me'"

So she was married to Elder Bruce D. Porter.

If her last name sounds familiar, that's why.

He was a General Authority 70.

I say was because he unfortunately passed away.

They have four kids, and she supported Bruce through many years of health challenges, including kidney failure, which required three separate transplants.

I can't even imagine that.

After the first two failed, their son donated a kidney to his father, and it was successful.

And

that allowed them to continue their service.

They've lived many places around the world, including Germany and Russia.

They had to come back in between those two service opportunities for a time for him to get his treatment.

While serving in Moscow, Bruce contracted pneumonia.

He was flown to Utah and passed away in a hospital in Utah in December 2016.

That's not easy on anybody.

It doesn't matter how strong your faith is.

It doesn't matter your testimony.

That helps a lot to give you perspective, but it's still something that President Porter had to suffer through.

One thing I found remarkable about this woman is when Come Follow Me was introduced a few years later, Susan got together with all the other single sisters in her ward to study Come Follow Me monthly together.

She specifically said, OK, who is single and doesn't have kids at home? Basically, who's alone? And let's team up and let's do this together.

So they studied together.

They supported one another.

And my favorite part is they all would sit together at church on a single pew.

And she says it was the funnest row in the chapel.

She's gotten the experience of, you know, the unwanted experience of finding out what it means to be a widow and to support her fellow sisters who are in that position.

Church calling-wise, after that, she served on the Relief Society General Advisory Council for a few years, and then as a counselor in the Primary General Presidency, and then as president until she was released this past April.