Dear
y'all,
This will be quite a
short weekly, I suppose, for very little occurred of much significance. My
companion became ill last Sunday, and has had bad nausea all week,
necessitating that we stay in quite a lot.
At the inception of
his sickness, we joked that he might have the Coronavirus. On Thursday, when we
were told to go to the hospital to get him tested for it, it was still a joke.
On Thursday, when church services were suspended, it was no longer a joke (he
doesn't have the coronavirus, incidentally).
The strange thing
about being a missionary is that news trickles to me sometimes very slowly.
Thus, I still have no idea to what extent covid19 has spread, or the impact it
is having, beyond the church's announcements. However, it is certain that we
are living in turbulent times.
The encouraging thing
is that turbulent times do not, and cannot, halt the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It
is true, it is eternal, and it is unchanging. Yes, our normal services have been
suspended. But when Christ first instituted the sacrament, it was not in a
church building, in Jerusalem or in America (although the American service was
definitely a large gathering!). It is encouraging that "where two or three
are gathered", we have a promise of the Lord's presence. The ministering
program of the church continues full force, allowing each member to rejoice in
the fellowship and love of their fellow saints. Come Follow Me provides a guide
for home study.
There is no doubt in
my mind that the Lord has prepared His people and His Church for this day, and
that additional preparations are continuing for the trials ahead. I wonder if
this is not just a taste of what is planned for the world, a swelling of the
seed of faith, so that when we are tested again we may look back and be
encouraged by the success and miracles we see in this experience.
Stay happy, stay safe,
stay healthy. Continue on the covenant path! I recently have been pondering a
comment made my President Nelson at one of the seminars for New Mission
Presidents. After they held a sacrament meeting, he stood and remarked that we
often talk about the sacrament as a renewal of our covenants. This being a true
statement, he made the point that it is incomplete, and that as we partake of
the Lord's Supper, we also make, each week, a new and additional covenant to
follow Him and take His name upon us. Another source from which I was reading
referred even to our prayers as a kind of covenant that we make with the
Father.
So make and keep
covenants! In this, there is safety, in this, there is peace.
Elder DeFord
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