Niky,

Your grandpa and Joey, and probably your own identity as an individual person, are really important to you, aren't they? I think that our associations with the people (and animals too) that we love are really important to most people, and we want those ties to extend beyond this life. At some level, lesser or greater, a lot of people do have a hope and belief that we will continue after we die and still be able to be with those that we love, even if they belong to a religion that doesn't teach that. It seems to me that it would be really hard to believe or to be told by a spiritual leader that we won't continue as ourselves and won't be able to be together with our loved ones. That just feels so tragic to me.

One of my central beliefs is we are eternal beings. I believe that we existed, as ourselves, before we were born and we will continue on after this life is over. In fact, death is more like another birth in that it begins the next phase of our existance. This life is very short, but very important, in terms of our eternal lives. And the relationships that we form during this life (or continue from our previous existance) are also essential. We come to this life (1) to obtain a physical body, (2) to gain experience, and part of what we accomplish during this life is to develop ties to people who will be part of our eternal families.

If you want to know more, you are more than welcome to PM me. You can also find information if you look at www.mormon.org (there are questions like yours, and answers to those questions - here's a page about families: http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,1146-1,00.html )

As for animals, that has always been a little less clear to me, and something that I have worried about because I love my pets very much too. People have similar beliefs about animals, and express them as in the Rainbow Bridge story (which is based on Scandinavian mythology, btw). While animals may have different purposes in life than people do, and we don't know as much about their eternal progression, I do believe that animals are eternal beings as much as we are, and that the love between us will go on and we will be able to be with those that we love, no matter how many legs they have, in the next life.

Rap