The Happy Prince

My Dad is my hero ,when I was a little girl he always found ways to teach me the gospel in way that I would be able to understand. I love to hear how from an early age he was prepared to hear the message of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel. When my Dad was a little boy he wasn’t a member of our church he lived in New Zealand and spent a lot of time staying at his grandparents house. His grandparents were also not Mormon but had a very strong belief in heavenly father and Jesus Christ and prayed regularly. When my dad used to stay with them he used to listen to the story of "The Happy Prince” and even as a small child it touched him so deeply that it caused him to cry every time that he heard it. So I have been thinking about my family a lot since I have started my mission because I am going to be finding people just like my young parents. I am not sure if this is the exact version but here it is!

The Happy Prince

“One cold night a little swallow flew over the city where a beautiful statue stood. The swallow’s friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had not because he was in love with the most beautiful reed. The other swallows had told him that his love was ridiculous because the reed had no money and too many relations, and she was always flirting with the wind.

While he was flying he saw the statue. It was covered by thin leaves of fine gold; for eyes he had two sapphires and a large red ruby glowed on his sword. When the prince whom the statue was made after he died he did not know what tears were - he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed. The court used to call him the Happy Prince, and when he died the Town Councilors decided to build the statue, which was set up so high that he could see everything in the city.

The swallow decided to sleep on the statue’s feet, but just when he was putting his head under his wings, he felt a drop of water, and then another. When he looked up he realized that the Happy Prince was crying because he could see the misery and ugliness of his own city. So the Happy Prince asked the swallow to be his messenger. Through a small window the Happy Prince could see a very poor seamstress who was embroidering passion flowers on a satin gown, and he could also see her ill boy. They had no food to eat, so the Happy Prince told the swallow to take out the ruby from his sword and give it to them.

The following night the Happy Prince saw a man in a cold garret trying out to finish a play, but he was too cold to write, so the Happy Prince asked the swallow to take out a sapphire from his eyes and give it to him in order to buy wood. The following day, he saw a match-girl whose matches had fallen in the gutter, whose father would hit her if she did not bring home some money. In order to help her, the Happy Prince asked the swallow to pluck the sapphire from his other eye to give to the girl. As a result of this action he became blind and the swallow had to fly over the city in order to tell him what he had seen. He saw two children crying of hunger and a lot of poverty, so the Happy Prince decided to take out all the golden leaves so as to give them to the poor children.

At last the swallow realised that he would die because of the cold winter, and he decided to stay with the Happy Prince. The Prince asked the swallow to kiss his lips as he loved him, and once the swallow did so he fell down at the Prince's feet. At that moment a crack sounded inside the statue as the Prince's heart broke.
Early the next morning, the Mayor saw the statue but, as it was not beautiful, he decided it was no longer useful, so he decided to pull it down. The statue was melted in a furnace and reused. The broken lead heart, however, did not melt, and so it was thrown away on a dust-heap alongside the dead swallow, the Prince's final friend.

However, an angel charged by God to find "the two most precious things in the city" returned with the dead bird and the Prince's broken heart. God approved of the angel's choice, and decreed that both the swallow and the Prince would live happily in His presence forever.”

The end

My dad told me that he later found out why the story had touched him so deeply. Jesus Christ is the happy prince. The literal Son of God our King who would have never felt any sorrow or pain if had remained in our Fathers kingdom but instead he came to earth and sacrificed everything even his life for us, for me. Such an awesome sacrifice brings tears to my eyes and makes me thankful for such a merciful Savior and such a loving Heavenly Father to prepare a way that I could be made clean again through Christ atoning sacrifice .