I got a really hard email recently. One of my dear friends Sarah (name has been changed), a recent convert of the church of three years and one of the most light-filled women I know, has decided to leave our church and return to the Catholic church. 

It is a heart-wrenching situation that pulls at your heart-strings. 

I first met Sarah shortly after moving here to DC. She'd just been baptized a couple months before and her story of conversion was one of the most sensational I'd ever heard. Sarah had always been seeking the truth and that journey led her through years of searching and reading. She first came into contact with the LDS church when she was a Catholic missionary in Ecuador and through a series of events and lots of prayer, Book of Mormon scripture reading, and thought, she made one of the most courageous decisions, to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Several months later I had the privilege of attending the temple as Sarah received her endowment. It was a deeply spiritual day and all those in attendance could feel the rightness of her decision to make covenants in the temple. 

Sarah became my visiting teacher when the wards split and I was released from my calling in the Relief Society presidency. She was the most diligent visiting teacher I've ever had, always contacting me even when she was traveling in Turkey for many months at a time. Her visits were less formal than normal (just like I like). Instead of a stuffy lesson in my house, she'd take me to get frozen yogurt or we'd go to Target and wander the isles. She was always sensitive to my needs. 

Sarah taught me what true discipleship is. She reads and really studies the gospel, spending hours thinking and pondering all aspect of the Gospel. She is incredibly knowledgeable concerning the Bible and the Book of Mormon, knowing more than most members will know in their entire lifetime. 

So yesterday was a particularly hard day when I received a personal email from her telling me that after more prayer, study, and thought, that she was returning to the Catholic church. I had known something was slightly amiss when she visited me just a couple weeks ago and was no longer wearing her temple garments. But not wanting to pry or judge, I never said anything nor did I think twice about it. 

Sarah's email last night described her journey over the last several months as she's contemplated different aspects of our Gospel as well as those in Catholicism, and feeling like the Spirit was guiding her elsewhere, has decided to leave.

I couldn't sleep last night thinking about her and my heart aching for her. 

There is a painting by Carl Bloch that was recently hung at the entrance to the Celestial Room in the DC temple.

I feel very strongly that the fellow in the red robe - that is how I picture Sarah at her reunion with the Savior. 

I just hope that I will be nearby as well. 

It is situations like these that actually reaffirm my own testimony, that we have the truth, absolute divine truth, and that our church is true. I hope that the divine tentacles of pure truth with find Sarah again and bring her back. I hope that she finds peace wherever her search takes her. I hope that she will feel the Savior's embrace as she tries to sort out her beliefs and build her foundation. 

I sometimes wonder about consequences of not living up to covenants, which makes me sad, but I am also reminded that we are all covenant breakers. And as I try to remember, we all have unique circumstances so we can't make comparisons or judgments. 

We can just hope for good things to come.