Kirton 1st, Cave Creek, Arizona
April 2025
President Russell M. Nelson
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
50 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
Dear President Nelson,
I write to you not only as a Mother, but as a Daughter of God who is weary from the burden I carry and as One who humbly seeks discernment from my Prophet in this latter-day work.
My son Tyler is still full of light. I have never stopped believing or knowing that to be true. Like me, I know he has been created for something meaningful. But for reasons I still wrestle to understand, he has been surrounded by hardship, abandonment, and confusion. What pains me most is that the individuals who should have helped protect him left him instead. And my son, in his innocent longing, followed in his Father’s and footsteps—walking the same road, with the same people who have tried to shatter me.
I’ve fought hard to guard him from repeating those wounds, but the patterns were waiting for him no matter what we did. And now the world has placed its labels on him: SMI—seriously mentally ill where his influences behaviors belonged. They’ve given him a name and a dose, not a reason or a relationship. He has diagnoses of bipolar schizophrenia and is on the highest levels of medication. But, unlike me, after the exposure to the abuse, he has never received real treatment. He has been subdued, not healed.
Tyler has spoken in tongues, received visions, and shared spiritual impressions with others—things that echo the very Articles of Faith we declare to the world. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, and the interpretation of tongues. But when my son testifies of these gifts, people turn away. Rather than being ministered to, he has been medicated. Rather than being believed, he has been dismissed. I do not believe he is broken—I believe he is burdened. And I cannot help but wonder what might have been different if someone of General Authority had seen him through the eyes of the Spirit as I do.
President, I am not asking for you to judge what is real and what is not in my son. I am seeking wisdom on how to walk beside him in faith. I know the Lord works through the weak and the humble—and sometimes the misunderstood. But I also know that mental illness and spiritual sensitivity can become tangled, and I need guidance on how to help him find peace without extinguishing the light within him.
I have tried for so long to find him a true friend—someone besides me—someone who could stay, love, and walk with him. But in doing so, I have lost so much. I’ve watched friendships disappear, and even within my own household, the past fifteen years have been marked more by contention than compassion. The only things that have kept me going are his brothers and his stepfather, but even that support is stretched thin.
I don’t know who to turn to anymore, except to my Savior and to His Living Prophet.
And I want to testify to you—I know my Father in Heaven is true. Christ manifests Himself through the love I carry for Him. I am not lost. I am the Sister who connects the Son to our Eternal Father—even as their Daughter, and even as a Mother. I know who I am, and I know who I belong to.
President Nelson, if there is Counsel from you—or anyone entrusted under your Stewardship—who could help me continue to navigate this sacred and painful journey, I will continue to receive the blessings with an open heart. If there is a blessing I should ask for, a name I should speak with, a scripture I must return to, or a pattern I’ve missed—I will go to it. I will continue to walk whatever road brings Tyler closer to truth, peace, and purpose… with or without a Bishop as a Friend who will walk and talk with me as I requested vis-a-vis numerous times.
Thank you for your Service, your sacrifice, and your unwavering example of Faith. Please know there is a Mother in the Arizona Desert who still believes, still prays, and still hopes for light to find her Son, Tyler, again.
With love and faith,
Shimmer
K. Kirton Niner
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