I have a thought just for those who – well, who might be still haunted by the mistakes of their past:

Years ago, a man was asked to serve as bishop. One night in the middle of the night, he was awakened by the doorbell. Standing there at his door was one of the young men that he knew very well.

“I have to talk to you, Bishop,” he said. “I’ve just done something serious [and] I can’t go home.”

Well, he was right. It was serious. He had committed a terrible sin. For the rest of the night this young man and his good bishop talked. Was it possible to repent, he wondered? Was there still hope? Well, among other things, this young man was assured that he could repent, and that there ‘was’ still hope. It would be difficult, but ‘yes,’ he could come back.

The young man went home, and over the course of the next year did all he could to make his peace with those he had wronged, and with the Lord.

About a year later, five young men from that area left on missions. The bishop was there to send them all out. The ‘young man in the middle of the night’ was one of the five.

As each of them returned, they married and settled down to the business of life. So close was this bishop to these young men that he kept track of them. He remembered their names, the names of their wives, and even some of their children. He knew them very well. But for some strange reason, as time wore on, he couldn’t remember which of them had come to his door that night. Now, this bothered him. He wondered if his memory was failing. He tried and tried to remember – it just wouldn’t come.

Then one evening years later, he went out for a walk. As he moved along the shadowy streets deep in thought, he suddenly realized he was standing in front of a house where one of those five young men had lived. The ‘young man in the middle of the night’ again popped into his mind, and again he tried to remember which of them it had been. But again, the memory simply wouldn’t come.

Then, something inexplicable but very real happened: A voice came into his mind that said, “Don’t you understand, my son? I have forgotten that. Why should you remember?”

“I was chagrined,” he said. “I have never wondered about it again.”

He concludes his telling of the story with these words, “… all lost sheep should note this one last thing. The Lord really meant it when He said, ‘‘…he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.’” (D&C 58:42)

And so He does.