A lot to be Encourage about

Thoughts on my 61 days on quarantine.

Elder Holland said Latter-day Saints can learn much from looking back to past turmoil. One such time in the Church was “much more wrenching than anything we are facing now.”

Latter-day Saints in both Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri, were suffering great persecution. Apostasy was beginning in the former location and mobs had driven the Saints from their homes in the latter. In both places, the members had lost homes, farms, livestock, and personal possessions.

In that wretched circumstance, the Lord sent a message to them in a revelation given to Joseph Smith in Kirtland on December 16–17, 1833:

“Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God.

“Zion shall not be moved out of her place. . . .

“They . . . shall . . . come to their inheritances, they and their children, with songs of everlasting joy” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:16–18).

“Songs of everlasting joy” in the middle of such tribulation? “Yes! And why not? There is a lot to be joyful about as we refine our faith, trust more in the Lord, and see the miracle of His deliverance,” said Elder Holland.

There are repeated declarations in the scriptures where we have the Lord’s promises He “will be with us in all of our circumstances—good, bad, and otherwise.” For example, Alma said, “I have been supported under trials . . . of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions . . . I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me” (Alma 36:27).

That reassurance can be a source of hope and encouragement, said Elder Holland. “Whatever else happens, we will never be separated from the Savior’s love and His companionship, even if we don’t recognize it at the time.”

“The Spirit is not blocked by a virus or by national boundaries or by medical forecasts.” There are “gifts from heaven that are not limited by trouble in the land or illness in the air. . . .

“He who created this marvelous world in which we live can say to any of the elements in it, ‘This far and no farther.’ That is what He will say to this blight we are facing. In the presence of His majesty, even subatomic-sized creations must bend—if only figuratively—and each in its own way ‘confess’ that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the great Redeemer of all. Under the direction of His Father, the Savior is in charge of the destiny of this world. We are in very sure and loving hands.”

Con amor,

Vero