The last week has been busy. Learning how to adjust to the new recommendations for social distancing and still have meetings with others, has sent me on a learning refresher course and I am grateful more than ever for the things I learned while living in China.

I forgot to post last week. I definitely continued my Book of Mormon journaling, but there was a bit of a scramble to make sure our home was ready to be self-sufficient over the coming weeks. Fortunately, there was not a lot to be done other than take a good inventory of the storage that we had already acquired in response to the counsel of our church leaders over the past years. Apparently, that wasn’t the case for everyone, given the rush to the stores over the past week, but better late than never, I suppose.

In this time of uncertainty due to Covid-19, I am doing my best to stay optimistic, but also realistic, and not let fear take a dominant hold in my life. I try to post helpful things on social media and spread light. I am turning to my Heavenly Father in faith that, although I am having a hard time seeing how this situation fits into his plan, he is still in control. He is the God we can trust. He is the gardener here, and he is tending his vineyard with love. I believe that he will work all these things for the good of them that love him. These are things I know.

I also know that I have covenanted to mourn with those who mourn, and right now my heart is breaking for the Italian people. Northern Italy is being decimated by C19. People are dying so fast they don’t have time to bury them. The crematoriums are running 24 hrs a day. They can’t have funerals. Their beloved family members are dying and they are unable to treat many of them in the hospital. I pray that God will comfort them and that people in the rest of the world will wake up and heed their warnings, that their deaths might not be in vain. Yet even still, in Italy there are people who take a casual attitude and defy their leaders guidelines by going out unnecessarily and behaving as though they are invincible.

I pray that people here will wake up and heed the warnings given by people on our watch towers – our doctors, and nurses, and our government leaders. I pray that we might not suffer as Italy is. I pray that nations and companies will see beyond political and commercial differences and work together to fight this horrible disease. I pray that people will have the courage to listen to counsel and stay home.

I pray that the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers and that the young will sacrifice pleasures now to save the lives of the old or sick. I pray that the old, who are not afraid of death, will exercise caution and have mercy on all of our caregivers. I pray for doctors, and nurses, and people who help with sanitation. They are facing, or about to face, a marathon of intense physical and mental proportions. We all are. I hope that through this trial, we will rise and discover that we can be better than we are. That we will find within ourselves a new faith and strength that will enable us to endure and to help others endure also.

We are facing a difficult time, and we are about to discover what kind of people we are. I hope we surprise even ourselves with the good we achieve.

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These are the scripture pages from last week’s study. I’ll post this week’s study by Saturday.