If your mission has been changed, cut short, or cancelled because of COVID-19, it’s likely you have some questions.
The simplest may be, “Why?” You may wonder how you could be called by revelation to one place, when the Lord knew you would end up serving in another. You may ask how you are supposed to do any good in your apartment trying to share the Gospel via the Internet. You may ask why you felt so inspired to serve when your mission wasn’t actually going to happen. Some of you may feel that your experiences aren’t matching what you read in your patriarchal blessings. Others may simply be wondering, “What am I supposed to do now?”
These questions aren’t wrong. They are questions of faith. Throughout life, as we learn and grow, we constantly run our experiences through our personal framework of understanding and beliefs. And when our experience appears to run counter to our understanding and beliefs, it doesn’t fit the framework. We wrestle, trying to make things fit.
Sometimes we feel guilty about asking questions, but this is a mistake. The Lord repeatedly reminds us throughout the scriptures that he wants us to ask, seek, and knock. Matthew 7:7-8, for example:
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
If you go to that scripture and follow some footnotes, you’ll follow a thread weaving throughout the scriptures inviting us to be seekers. Not surprisingly, our own Prophet and President gave a talk on the theme only a few years ago:
I will resist the urge to answer any of those questions with my opinions. Instead, I’d like to remind you of some truths you likely already know that will assist you as you seek answers to your personal questions.
If you took seminary in recent years, this will be a review. You learned three valuable principles to guide you as you address hard questions. They are principles of “acquiring spiritual knowledge.” That is, principles of how to obtain truth from God:
- Act in faith.
- Examine concepts and questions with an eternal perspective.
- Seek further understanding through divinely appointed sources.
If you’d like to review each of these in detail, read this. I’d like to emphasize the second principle, “Examine concepts and questions with an eternal perspective.” Here is a simple process to do that:
- First, identify your questions or concern.
- Second, consider the assumptions and conclusions one might make because of that question or concern.
- Third, ponder what truths you know about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their plan that would address those assumptions or conclusions.
As an example, say your mission location has been changed. You were supposed to go to the Philippines and now you are headed for Missouri. The question may be, “How could an inspired prophet call me to the Philippines when the Lord must have known I couldn’t actually go there when the time came?”
A simple assumption or conclusion, of course, might be this: “I wasn’t called by revelation. If I was, I wouldn’t have been called to a place where I can’t go.” The next assumption may be, “If I was’t called by revelation those men aren’t actually prophets.”
Lastly, consider what truths we know about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their plan that can address those assumptions. I can think of a number, but this truth taught by Elder Bednar is probably the most relevant:
“In the culture of the Church, we often talk of being called to serve in a country such as Argentina, Poland, Korea, or the United States. But a missionary is not called to a place; rather, he or she is called to serve.
Each mission call and assignment, or a later reassignment, is the result of revelation through the Lord’s servants. A call to the work comes from God through the President of the Church. An assignment to one of the more than 400 missions presently operating around the world comes from God through a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, acting with the authorization of the Lord’s living prophet. The spiritual gifts of prophecy and revelation attend all mission calls and assignments.”
(I highly recommend the entire talk to anyone whose mission has been altered. )
You can see Elder Bednar is trying to help Church members adjust their framework: Our cultural framework says we’re called to a place, hence the concerns when we get reassigned. But Gospel doctrine actually says that we are called to serve, and that the location is a secondary concern.
As we take our questions and examine them through an eternal perspective, in light of the actual doctrines of the Gospel, we are able to reframe the question.
If you’d like another example, check out this video.
Concluding thoughts:
You don’t always have to spend time with the second part of that process. Many times you will automatically go from the question or concern, straight to the doctrines and truths that address the question or concern. But those aren’t usually the ones that eat at us. Most tough questions and concerns have some compelling assumptions and conclusions that really challenge our framework of belief and understanding. In those cases, it can be very powerful to take those assumptions and conclusions and examine them in light of our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their plan. In my experience, there is no challenge that cannot be addressed by falling back on this simple question: What do you I know about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their plan that can address this issue?”
God bless you as you navigate this challenging time! This virus has suddenly forced nearly everyone on earth to examine some of their past assumptions and beliefs. But that’s okay, it’s how we learn and grow. Consider the Savior himself, as described by Elder Neal A. Maxwell:
A short while before Gethsemane and Calvary, Jesus prayed, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.” Then, as if in soliloquy, he said, “But for this cause came I unto this hour” (John 12:27). The awful weight of the Atonement had begun to descend upon him. We next find him in Gethsemane.
And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.
And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy. [Mark 14:32–33]
The Greek for “very heavy” is “depressed, dejected, in anguish.” Just as the Psalmist had
foreseen, the Savior was “full of heaviness” (Psalms 69:20). The heavy weight of the sins of all mankind were falling upon him.
He had been intellectually and otherwise prepared from ages past for this task. He is the creator of this and other worlds. He knew the plan of salvation. He knew this is what it would come to. But when it happened, it was so much worse than even he had imagined!”
It seems that even the Savior himself, when the time of atoning arrived, had to reframe some of his assumptions and conclusions. So, if you find yourself confused, questioning, reeling… If you find yourself thinking, “I know life is supposed to be hard, but this is really hard!” It’s okay. You’re in good company, as the Lord helps us take somewhat clinical, cognitive knowledge and turn it into the knowledge gained by hard experience. So, just as the Savior became the greatest of all by descending below all and suffering for all, we can become like him by gaining our own earthly experience.
Dig deeper? Check out this from Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Brigham Rupp 