Things of the Heart

Thoughts on 60 days on quarantine

Elder Hollad commented, "One of those things [we need to be doing] is looking to the needs of others.  Members can find joy as they share the “things of the heart”—provide, care for, and reach out to another in ways that are consistent with the physical distance we are supposed to maintain. “It is a tremendously joyful thing to lift somebody else spiritually.”

Through ministering, the Lord makes sure every individual is cared for. At a time when physical contact is limited, members can rely on technology such as social media, email, Skype, and FaceTime, he said. “We ought to dedicate a certain part of our day to communicating with people who need a boost. Of course, we get a boost from doing that, so everyone is ‘lifted up,’ as the Savior said He was sent to earth to do.”

Elder Holland said he is trying to take advantage of his reduced travel schedule by sending notes or making phone calls, “doing the unexpected—but much-appreciated and sometimes truly needed—thing to brighten someone’s day,” he said.

There “is no particular merit in wringing our hands about the visit we cannot make or the face-to-face presence we cannot create,” he warned. “Let’s do the best we can.”

Latter-day Saints should lead the way in being “positive and optimistic, doing the things they can do and trusting the Lord for the rest.”

As the Prophet Joseph Smith said in Liberty Jail, “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (Doctrine and Covenants 123:17).

Elder Holland said this time of not being able to be with the Saints across the globe and with his Brethren “is a tremendous loss” for him personally.

“I am an Irish backslapper,” he said. “I really do love people. So I do miss being with the members.”

The other side of the coin, he added, “is how rewarding it has been for me to have a little more quiet time” to “do a little more searching of my own soul rather than somebody else’s.”

When we are engaged in society, a person’s mind is often consumed with matters of current affairs and chatty conversation, he said.

“But when we’re alone, those are times of character assessment. That’s when you think about who you really are and what really matters.” It is “a sobering exercise to be quiet, to be alone with yourself. The obvious question then is, Do you like the company you are keeping when you are the only one in the room?”

Con amor,

Vero