Come What May

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" (Luke 15:4). Not so very long ago after a long hard day of watching movies on Netflix I called up Momma for a little chat. Our incredibly stimulating conversation basically consisted of me complaining. She listened sweetly like a good mother. I knew it was coming but after just a few short weeks walking the dusty streets of a small Ecuadorian fishing village I was already impatient by the questionable quality of health care, mediocre local government, mosquito-borne illnesses, the lack of animal control and seat belts, and ineffective trash pickup. On this particular day I was suffering with the rest of town from bouts of fatigue and arthritic sensations brought on by my unfortunate contraction of chikungunya. By the time I finished unburdening myself to my poor mother my irritability levels were highe...

"I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building...and filled the barrel with extra bricks. Then I went to the bottom and cast off the line. "Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was heavier than I was, and before I knew what was happening the barrel started down jerking me off the ground..." Life is like that—ups and downs, a bump on the head, and a crack on the shins. Gordon B. Hinckley Last week a lady came in with an injured coccyx (that’s your tailbone if you don’t speak anatomy). It's not a happy place to have a broken bone and I was supposed to give our patient a massage.  Unfortunately for her I have never handled an injured coccyx.  I know what it looks like, I know where it is, but for some reason the practical application just wasn't hitting me. Poor woman. After some time she at last succeeded in explaining to me that I needed to lift the buttocks and massage in the crack to lift up the bone. Of course. Silly me. I need to massage y...

“I love and revere the Lord. His power and peace are real. He is our Redeemer, and I witness He lives. And because of Him, our hearts need not be troubled or afraid (see John 14:27), and we will be blessed to hush our fears” (Elder Bednar). One cold July night near the bottom of the world I was a missionary in southern Chile walking home with my small, dainty 19-year-old companion. I always got tired after a long day of walking, but when the world started spinning below me I decided it might be a good idea to sit down.  After collapsing onto the pavement I put my head between my knees and tried to regain balance so the little Ecuadorian beside me could stop worrying. We made it home, I ate a snack, we planned our day, I built the fire, and then it was off to bed. Earlier that day we knelt down together in prayer and began a fast for the sick newborn baby of our friend’s 16-year old son. We wanted to ask Heavenly Father for a special blessing of recovery and health for h...

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. (The Serenity Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr) The past few months I’ve been able to work as a direct care technician in a care center for intellectually disabled children and adults. I’ve discovered that sometimes life is not so pretty. Some feet are webbed, some eyes are blind, some backs are crooked, and some people eat their poop. Sometimes when I look at my sweet boys and girls I just want them to be normal. I want them to be able to get out of their wheelchairs, to walk around the block when they need some fresh air, to taste food, to stop playing in the toilet every half hour. I want them to enjoy simple pleasures of life and most especially I want them to go home and be with their families more than is now possible. I know there are others with even more difficult lives and it is hard for me to imagine. These boys and girls are special people....

A little talk on Family History. While Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail in 1839 he wrote an epistle to the church.  The end of that epistle is D&C 123:17: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, 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.” When I read that scripture my question is what things lie in my power and how do I them cheerfully? I hope that we all think about our participation in and attitude towards God’s work of salvation.  What more can we do for the Lord? Two years ago I was called to be a missionary in the Chile Osorno Mission. I served there for 6 months until I got sick and came home early. For a long time after my mission I was very sick and very dependent on other people. On occasion I wouldn’t even eat until my brother came home from school to feed me because I couldn’t get up and walk to the kitchen by myself. I didn’t like...

“Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer every child’s prayer?” (A Child’s Prayer) Someday I would like to be a bit more polished, punctual, graceful, cheerful, competent, and put together; but since that is not going to happen any time soon I am learning to make do.  On this particular Monday morning I was a bit of a mess.  I slept in too long and woke with a sore throat, lost my keys, had a dead battery and a broken phone charger, failed a quiz, failed a test, forgot my calculator, forgot my pencil, missed class, and even found out about a charge for overdue library books from 4 months ago in a moment of desperation. Then I went to work.  I am a direct care technician at a care center for disabled people. I generally anticipate being hit, pinched, having my hair pulled, or getting knocked into at least once or twice throughout the day. That’s in addition to the feeding, showering, and changing of diapers. (Sounds like motherhood, I kno...

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been” (Mark Twain). At age 21 I have finished serving a 12 month part time mission in the Family History Department.  As one might imagine I have always been kind of a rarity when I put on my name tag each day.  As far as I know, there is a relatively small percentage of young family history missionaries and an even smaller percentage of those attending BYU.  Most of the people I work with have about 30 to 40 years more life experience than I have and I often notice the age gap: when they talk about children, their grandchildren, when they mention that they don’t hear very well, when they bring up their time in the 60s, and most especially when I hear the testimonies, stories, commentaries, and questions indicative of a life full of service and struggles that no 21-year-old can quite understand. I am often touched by the sweet examples of service from my much wiser, more experienced elders.  They were my...