We are all living in interesting and challenging times. Like everyone else in the world, we have felt the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic in our home and community. There are many people who are sick. Many people who are out of work. There are many who are truly struggling to make it from day to day. At this time, our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who are experiencing the effects of this pandemic in profound ways.
There are also many who are reaching out to their neighbors. Many who are lifting those who are down and working to help those in need.
Whoever you are and however these events are affecting your life, know that you are not alone.
I am writing this to share some of the thoughts I have been having as my family has been experiencing these challenges. I do not presume to have the answers for why all of this is happening. It is my hope that some of the things that have been helping me may also help you as you work to adapt to the challenges we are all facing.
My Mission Experience
Sixty-odd years ago I was on a farm in Canada. I went out one morning and found a currant bush that was at least six feet high. I knew that it was going all to wood. There was no sign of blossom or of fruit. So I got my pruning shears and went to work on that currant bush, and I clipped it and cut it and cut it down until there was nothing left but a little clump of stumps.
As I looked at this little clump of stumps, there seemed to be a tear on each one, and I said, “What’s the matter, currant bush? What are you crying about?”
And I thought I heard that currant bush speak. It seemed to say, “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as large as the fruit tree and the shade tree, and now you have cut me down. And all in the garden will look upon me with contempt and pity. How could you do it? I thought you were the gardener here.”
I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. If I let you go the way you want to go, you will never amount to anything. But someday, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to think back and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”
One thing I have been thinking about the last couple of weeks is an experience I had on my mission. This experience helped me understand that the Lord is the Gardener. It taught me that He has a plan for us and will put us where He needs us to be.
On my mission I had the unique opportunity to have four different mission presidents. My mission presidents were President Mackley, President Diamond, President Shimizu, and President Evans. Each of these men were great spiritual leaders. They each sought the guidance of the Lord and helped us all become better missionaries. Through the experience of having these four great men as mission presidents, I was able to learn that the Lord can do His own work. I was able to see that He will put us where He needs us to be.
My first mission president, President Mackley was always teaching us that we should constantly be inviting everyone to be baptized. I remember that on our first morning in the mission field he always had everyone sing the hymn “Who’s on the Lord’s Side, Who”. He was a fearless man and he helped us be fearless in our efforts to spread the gospel. This led to a lot of action. We were focused and we worked very hard.
At about the half-way point of my mission, we got a new mission president, President Diamond. President Diamond was a very disciplined man. He was different than President Mackley. I remember thinking at the time that it was going to be interesting to see how things would be different with a new mission president. It was exciting to have the opportunity to learn from two mission presidents as a missionary. In our first zone conference with President Diamond he taught us to use the power of the Book of Mormon. He encouraged us to seek wisdom in its pages. He taught us to use it to bring others to Jesus Christ.
Not too long after he joined us, however, President Diamond became ill and had to return home. We were all taken by surprise. At the time, President Shimizu just happened to returning home from being the mission president at the Tokyo MTC. He and his wife were visiting family in our mission. They agreed to step in as our mission president while President Diamond recovered.
President Shimizu was also a great man. He knew about missionary work and the history of missionary work in Japan. You see, he had been one of the missionaries who had opened our mission. His wife had also been a missionary in those early years of missionary work in Japan. The thing he taught us the most was to have faith in the work. Have faith in the message of the gospel and in our power to bring it to the people of Japan.
This was a timely message. You see, at the time, Japan was not an area where you saw a lot of people accept the gospel. It was often viewed as a “hard” mission. I remember being in a training meeting with President Shimizu and several branch presidencies. One of the branch presidents broke down over his frustration at trying to grow their branch. Their branch was tiny. They only had about 6 members who attended regularly. I still remember the testimony that President Shimizu bore to us all that night. He talked about how he had opened that area to the gospel. President Shimizu told us about how he had gone out with his companion with the express goal of finding someone to teach who could be a branch president. He taught us about showing forth true faith in the Lord.
Eventually, the word came that President Diamond would not be returning to the mission. President Shimizu would stay until a new mission president would be called. My last mission president was President Evans. I only had the opportunity to work with President Evans for a couple of months. He was full of vision and the Spirit. Those last months of my mission were great. My companion and I gave away dozens of copies of the Book of Mormon. We had more lesson appointments than I had had at any other time in my mission. We were excited and saw the work moving forward.
Through this experience I was able to see the hand of the Lord at work. At none of these times did I feel that any of my mission presidents were doing anything incorrect. They all led by the Spirit and did their best to fulfill their callings. They each steered our mission in subtle but distinct ways. It felt like the Lord was picking up our mission from off of one path and gently, but firmly placing it on another. Each mission president played their part in this change and in the end, the mission was where the Lord needed it to be.
The Lord Is At The Helm
Don’t worry. The Lord is at the helm. This is his church. He has made provisions for it to go forward under any set of circumstances that might face it.
Why did I take the time to tell you all of this? It is to let you know that I know that the Lord is at the helm. This is the Lord’s church, this is the Lord’s work, we are all His children. When times of trial come, it is natural to feel the fear of uncertainty. We can trust that the Lord is in charge. He is doing what He needs to do to put us where He needs us to be.
As I have seen all the changes that have happened recently because of COVID-19 I can’t help but feel that the Lord is trying to put us where we need to be. These changes feel a lot like the changes that occurred during my mission. It may be that the Lord is us collectively from one path to place us more firmly on His path.
We can all have faith that the Lord is at the helm. As President Hinckley said, this is His church. This is the Lord’s work and it will not be frustrated.
Over the last few weeks I have been pondering on how these changes may be placing us more firmly on the path of the gospel. While I don’t presume to know all things, I do know how these changes are affecting my family. I want to share them in the hopes that they might reinforce your faith as they have reinforced mine at this challenging time.
Good, Better, Best
We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.
As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far greater value may make it the best choice of all.
Consider how we use our time in the choices we make in viewing television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or reading books or magazines. Of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain interesting information. But not everything of that sort is worth the portion of our life we give to obtain it. Some things are better, and others are best. When the Lord told us to seek learning, He said, “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom” (D&C 88:118; emphasis added).
It is interesting to see how much the dynamics of our family have changed over the last few weeks. Things have surely changed as all the extra things that we used to fill our time have been stripped away. Gone are the extracurricular activities. No more extra meetings and rushed mornings. Gone are so many of the distractions that were part of what we called “normal life”.
With the removal of all of those things, our family has found something somewhat new, free time. We have found the time to study the gospel together. We have spent time going on walks together, cooking and eating together, doing puzzles and playing games together. In short, we have found so much more time to simply be together.
As you may have experienced, this is not without its challenges. Like many others, we are still adjusting to the changes. But it has been a great blessing to have more time to focus on my family.
How have these changes helped you and your family draw closer together? Have they helped you focus more fully on the things that are truly best instead of so many things that are only good?
The Power of Personal Worship
The new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum has the potential to unleash the power of families, as each family follows through conscientiously and carefully to transform their home into a sanctuary of faith. I promise that as you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, over time your Sabbath days will truly be a delight. Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior’s teachings, and the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease. Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining.
Who would have thought, when it was announced that the Church was moving to a “home-centered, church supported” curriculum that this approach would be so profoundly vital so soon. We now find ourselves needing to truly worship the Lord in meaningful ways within the walls of our own homes.
In our home, this is still an ongoing effort. I am not going to pretend that we are flawless in our daily study of the Come Follow Me lessons. We do our best and we are pretty consistent. With the temporary removal of Sunday church services we have found greater opportunities to learn and discuss the gospel together.
Taking the time to learn and live the gospel together has started to become a greater blessing in our home. We have been forced to take the initiative in worship and in living the gospel. This has helped us to really worship on Sundays instead of just attending church meetings. We have had opportunities to really reach out and minister to others instead of just “ministering” because it was an assignment. We have found ourselves calling on the Lord in faith for the strength to tackle our challenges.
As I said, we are far from perfect in these efforts. As we have done our best to study as a family, we have seen these changes beginning to bless our family. Maybe you have seen such blessings in your family as well. How has the opportunity to learn and worship together helped your family? What blessings do you see it bringing into your lives? How has it made your personal and family worship more meaningful?
I Will Go Where You Want Me To Go
It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle’s front
My Lord will have need of me.
But if, by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I’ll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
I’ll go where you want me to go.
Like many of you, our family has seen the recent effects of changes that have been made regarding the missionaries in the Church. We have seen missions plans and calls be delayed or changed. Relatives brought home from missions early with the hopes of being reassigned. We have seen faith in the face of the uncertainty of it all.
As I have watched these changes, my heart goes out to these many faithful Elders and Sisters who have grown to love the people they were teaching and serving. Reflecting back on my time as a missionary, I can imagine how heartbreaking it must be for them to be called home early and potentially reassigned to serve somewhere else.
With all of these changes and challenges, we can have faith that wherever we serve, however we serve, and whoever we serve, this is the Lord’s work. He will place us where we need to be. It may not be on the mountain high or over the stormy sea, but it will be exactly where the Lord needs us to be.
I believe that whenever we show our faith and serve with diligence the Lord will perform miracles and will work to achieve His purposes through us. He can make each of us into powerful disciples anywhere and in any circumstances so long as we are faithful and diligent in our efforts to serve.
When we have faith and serve diligently, we can learn that it is not important where we serve, but it is only important how we serve. In saying this, I am not trying to be preachy or in any way suggest that I have this all figured out. Having faith and serving diligently requires a lot of hard work. It is challenging. By its very nature, it requires us to trust in the Lord without knowing what will happen.
What I do know is that when I have had faith and done my best to serve diligently, the Lord has always given me the help I needed to bless others despite my inadequacies. I know that this is a blessing we can all have when we do our best to serve where the Lord has asked us to serve.
Have Faith And Trust In The Lord
Yes, you face challenges. But so does every generation. These are our days, and we need to be faithful, not faithless. I testify that the Lord knows about our challenges, and He is preparing us to meet them.
Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.
We are certainly living in challenging times. It is likely that our challenges will continue. May we each trust in the Lord. He is truly at the helm. He is guiding His church and will be active in each of our lives if we will let Him.
It is my hope and prayer that we can each have faith. May you be able gain the Spirit more fully in your life as you find ways to worship the Lord daily. May we all find ways to better love and serve each other. It is my faith that as we do these things, the Lord will help us in all of our trials.
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