Of course, world events are always happening every day. There are wars and rumors of wars, there are political fights and criminal activities. There are amazing achievements and discouraging failures. In general, my blog has not shared these events, but this is a remarkable moment in recent history--and I think we are caught off guard. I think we believed that we should be beyond the pandemics and terrible seasons of flus and other illnesses which killed millions and millions of people worldwide in the past. Science and medicine and antibiotics protected us from that. However, it is not true and although the death counts are not yet in the millions, people are and will probably die from the Coronavirus worldwide and maybe in our backyard.
Governments and others are scrambling to react to this new virus which seems to have started in Wuhan, China in December. Cruise ships and travelers have been tracked spreading the illness in many parts of the world. You can do an internet search about the history of it all. This blog is a tribute to following a living day prophet in these trying times.
The first part of February the Church made a donation to China of needed medical and sanitation equipment. Early in March, the Church announced that they were cancelling the normal leadership meetings for the Church held in the week before April Conference. In fact, they were telling the General Authorities not to travel to Salt Lake for the conference. That was very surprising. There were few travel bans at that time and it seemed like an over-reaction by the Church. Missionaries from locations in Asia were sent home and required to stay in their homes for 14 days--then may be reassigned. Shortly after that, the Church stopped travel from many countries for their employees. March 11--the Church announced that April Conference will not have any audience except for direct family members and the choirs. (March 12-14)--then in rapid succession-- the following things happened:
1. All senior missionaries from Europe are being sent home. Young missionaries are mostly to stay inside and contact business online--a system which has only been in place for less than two years in most missions.
2. Missionaries preparing to go on missions are doing online MTC and then heading to the mission field.
3. Temples in the impacted areas had been closing over the first part of the month, but it was announced that all temples would stop doing any proxy work and only be available in limited ways for living ordinances. These will be handled by each temple. (That is a weird feeling to not be able to go to the temple when you live close to them.)
4. Stake Conferences were cancelled after March 16. We were scheduled to have ours today so we thought that we would still meet.
5. Then on Thursday of last week, the Church announced that ALL meetings worldwide would be suspended until further notice to prevent the spreading of the virus.
6. All of the buildings of the Church in downtown Salt Lake are closed to visitors. Construction on the Salt Lake Temple will continue.
In the state and in the world, there were similar announcements of closures and changes in life. There have been runs at the grocery stores, especially toilet paper which has been made fun of frequently on social media. The shelves are emptied of cleaning supplies and paper goods as well as cold medications and other things to use if your family is ill. Daily we hear the growing number of people who have tested positive for the virus. I think it is at 21 people in Utah although most got it somewhere else. We are famous because two members of the Utah Jazz, our professional basketball team, have tested positive for the virus. Schools have been closed. Universities are switching to online only and students sent home where possible.
Jena's events such as ushering and theatre and her beloved College Bridge program are all paused to prevent spreading of the illness. Her race day for skiing was cancelled and the resort has closed for the year. No NCAA basketball, no spring college sports....the list goes on and on.
I have to admit that it was an odd feeling to wake up on Saturday morning with NOTHING on the calendar for the weekend. In fact, all that is on our calendar for this week is my work, a haircut for Gary and a goodbye party for Jena's college bridge program as her roommates head home. It is not to say we don't have piles of stuff to do around our house or stuff to do on the computer--but no outside things--it is quite an interesting season to be in.
Saturday I spent a fair amount of time reaching out to neighbors, friends, and my kids to make sure they were doing okay. Gary was able to get a box of diapers for Jessica who found herself without diapers at four stores the night before. They are good for a couple of weeks, but she was worried about beyond that so a huge box of diapers was a relief for them. Our order from Walmart was missing 20 items which has never happened before, mostly fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. We fortunately have toilet paper at home already!
The virus itself is still being studied, but it seems that it mostly is dangerous to people over 60 or with compromised immune systems. Children especially seem to not have problems managing it. It causes a fever, dry cough, sore muscles, and leads to a pneumonia which is what becomes life threatening. Many people who have it feel like they have the flu. Because of the lack of testing materials worldwide, it is impossible to know exactly how deadly it is or will be over the next few months or year. History will have a record of it. But for now, we are just at the beginning....and how we manage is the story yet to be told.
Back to having a living prophet: For years we have been encouraged to have a year's supply of food and other needs (recently the focus has been on having 3 months worth of necessities including money). Two years ago, our Church organizations were switched from visiting and home teaching to ministering to each other--in a more personal and intimate way of serving. We were encouraged to reach out by text or phone or other ways to connect with each other in addition to doing visits as indicated. Last year, we went from 3 hour Church to 2-hour Church with the new focus on Home Centered-Church Supported Gospel learning and the introduction of the Come Follow Me program. In October of 2019, our prophet told us to becoming spiritual stronger and prepare for April Conference in specific ways because it was going to be different than other conferences (in part, to celebrate the 200 anniversary of the First Vision.)
And today, in our home and likely millions of homes of Saints across the globe, we gathered in our own homes, dressed in our Church clothes, at our kitchen table while Gary prepared and blessed the sacrament and passed it to Jena and I. Just the three of us--in "Hall Church," Jena called it. For us, we also listened to the prophet's recorded message from yesterday and also watched the videos about the First Vision in preparing for Conference. Even as I began to dress in my Sunday clothes (in the afternoon, because who has 9:00 am Church if they get to pick the time), my eyes teared up at the thought of partaking of the sacrament in my own home. I think I have done it one other time after a surgery in West Jordan, I think that the priests brought me the sacrament. But this was different--to watch Gary kneel and bless the sacrament at our kitchen table was a moment that I will never forget.
So in the mist of the craziness outside, I am grateful for the peace in our home and in my heart. I thank God for a prophet to guide us in these latter-days. But most of all, I am grateful for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who lead our prophet and other leaders and love us so much that They have given us the preparation we need to be ready for whatever is ahead!
