January-March 2020 Facebook Posts

January 17, 2020

So excited to hear more details about this temple! I've been waiting on this ever since it was announced.

February 1, 2020

Last week, my companion and I got in a car crash while leaving a teaching appointment. The impact was hard enough to knock the glasses from my face and bend her earring against the side of her head. We were T-boned by a car going at least 40 miles per hour and the left side of the car was inescapable. We definitely could have died.

Overall I am fine, but I woke up this morning dealing with back pain and feeling burdened. And then I saw this little quote. I know God kept us alive (and relatively uninjured) for a purpose and I am adamant to find it as I continue my mission in Missouri for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm going to trust in God to shape my back to bear my burdens and give me work to do.

March 17, 2020

As I've watched the nation and the world panic over coronavirus, my thoughts keep going to this C.S. Lewis quote:

"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways...It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

There is hope to be had out there, friends. This too shall pass. So far, every generation has predicted the end of the world and so far every generation has been wrong. We have weathered plagues and vikings before and will hold up well enough now.

March 19, 2020

Yesterday morning, I heard about the earthquake in Salt Lake City but wasn't able to learn how severe it was or hear from my family for several hours. I braced myself for the possibility that I might have lost everyone I love. The words of this hymn kept sounding in my mind:

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, I’ll never, no never,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

It's a scary time right now and your life might be uncertain, but I am trusting that Christ will never, no never, no never forsake.

March 20, 2020

I used to have countdown sticks. Each one represented how many weeks I have left on my mission and when a week passed, I broke it. But this week my brother Brandon Smith was told he must return home after 21 months of service to clear room for foreign evacuees who have served less time and need a place in America to finish out their missionary terms. I don't want to count down anymore. This morning, missionaries in Missouri and Kansas were placed under quarantine. Two days ago, I made these blessing sticks counting up all the good things in my life. I love the service I am still able to do here!

March 21, 2020

March 22, 2020

Everyone is posting pictures of empty shelves, so I thought I'd share full ones at Walmart and Dollar General. The world is still well supplied!

March 22, 2020

This is my mom, as an eleven year old and now. She was evacuated from Iran after living under martial law for a time. She's told me the story of how of how she had a doll as big as she was that wouldn't fit into her allotted one foot locker and one suitcase. She hugged the doll one last time, put it on her bed, and shut the door. I was the last one out of the chapel today during a 10 person missionary sacrament and shut out the lights, thinking of my mother closing her bedroom door as I did. We are not supposed to meet together for sacrament after this. But I believe that unlike my mother with her doll, I will someday see the chapel again full of people, people I've brought there.

My brother is getting pulled out of his mission at 21 months in a few weeks. I'm grateful I get to stay and die for BHI.

March 22, 2020

My little brother Jacob just received his call to serve as a missionary in Cali, Colombia. He reports to the missionary training center in Colombia on July 16th. I am sure many people are wondering what the mass evacuations of missionaries around the globe means for the program overall. This is firsthand proof that the apostles of the Lord who lead our church still have hope to send people on international missions. I'm surprised that he was able to go international, and so soon, when our other brother was scheduled to come home from Chicago early July and he's now returning in 14 days.

There is hope. I know the prophet and apostles receive revelation from the Lord on how to help people inside the church and outside of it, and that includes when, where, and how to take the gospel to those people.

Good luck Jacob!

March 26, 2020

Back in March of 2018, I thought it was a good idea to go to a color festival and a wedding in the same day. The Hindu Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah holds a festival every year where people stand in a field and throw handfuls of colored chalk at each other for hours on end.

You come wearing white, look like a rainbow soon, and leave looking like you crawled through a chimney. I'd driven with my friends Gauthier and Ellianna. When we left in Gauthier's car, which he always kept so clean, I tried not to touch any part of it that wasn't necessary. I felt filthy and ashamed to be getting chalk dust on the seatbelt and door handle. I got home and prepared myself to take the best shower of my life before driving to my friend Heather's wedding. And then I realized I was out of soap.

I didn't want to get my own car dirty, so I walked down the street to the BYU Creamery. I've shopped there hundreds of times and knew full well where the soap was, but they'd just reorganized the entire store. So I had to go up to two guys stocking shelves and ask, "Where's the soap?"

They stared at me several seconds before answering. "Next aisle over."

"Thank you."

I grabbed the soap and wet up to the cashier, trying to get my card out while touching my phone wallet as little as possible. And then I went home, showered for almost an hour, dried my hair, threw on a pretty skirt, and drove up to Heather's wedding.

Two hours before, I didn't feel worthy to be in a car or a store. But once I cleansed myself, I felt comfortable at her fancy wedding and no one knew where I'd been. But can you imagine if I'd shown up without a shower?

The Savior's atonement is the same. We are told that we can wash ourselves in his blood and be made clean again. His atonement is ever-present but we have to access it (pick up the soap). There are many opportunities in this life to get dirty, but once we're made clean, we can feel comfortable with our Father in Heaven.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't believe that our destination is fixed once we die. We all have a sense of right and wrong, yes, and that guides our choices in this life. But so many people have lived and died without ever getting a chance to learn about Jesus Christ and what he wants for us. When we die, we go to a place called the Spirit World. It's not heaven or hell. It's not a final destination, either. It's a place for further learning. Here, people who lived and died in countries or eras that didn't have a full knowledge, or maybe any knowledge, of Jesus Christ, will learn of him for the first time. Here people who learned about Jesus Christ during their Earth life, but didn't get a chance to fully understand all the things he wants us to do (such as faith, repentance, baptism), will have a second chance.

I was absolutely devastated when I came home to a soapless bathroom just before I had a wedding reception to see. But I had second chance, and we all will, to be made clean. It's not about qualifying or "deserving" Heaven. We're all invited. God just wants us to use the time we have, both here and in the Spirit World, to learn of him, accept him, and prepare ourselves to feel comfortable in his presence.

March 27

In times of turmoil like this, God will not leave you in despair. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you." We're offering free Bibles for delivery anywhere in MO or KS. New Testament study guides, Spanish bibles, and digital scripture study sessions also available.

March 29

Seven years ago tonight, my friend Hannah and I were out to eat at a restaurant in Salt Lake City and ran into Russell M. Nelson, who was then an apostle of Jesus Christ and is now the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was in the middle of a quiet dinner, but he took the time to shake Hannah's hand and get a picture with two teenage girls who looked up to him. I am looking forward to this weekend, when he and other apostles will address both the church and the world in a video conference addressing the situation the world is in right now and speaking messages of comfort centered around Jesus Christ.

It will be available to stream starting Saturfay 11 am midwest time at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference…