Monday April 9th, 2012

Sometimes it feels counter-productive with the amount of traveling and
administrative work we have to do. In this past week alone, we
traveled up to Clearfield to exchange with the Ridgway Elders, back to
St Mary’s to exchange back, up to State College for a couple baptismal
interviews, and then out to Pittsburgh for Zone Leader Council. It’s
amazing that we saw the success we did for I feel pretty restrained
from what the area could look like compared to the effort that it’s
getting now. It’s like I feel rusty and lazy, yet I still feel as
tired as ever.

Our investigators are surely making slow and steady progress, but I
think the real success that Elder Kovacs and I have seen working here
in Altoona is the strengthening of the members who may not be
completely less-active but who are bordering on being burnt out in an
area that is constantly descending into one of apathy and despair. The
families we’re working with are truly feeling the Spirit and making
efforts to come unto Christ and although I have yet to see a baptism
in this area, I remember that the worth of every soul, member or
nonmember is great in the sight of God.

I’ve never really felt like I could find solace in prayer before my
mission, but when you’re far from home, away from family and friends,
and thrust into situations that seem unbearable alone, kneeling
becomes a comfortable and familiar position. I’ve learned more about
our Savior and His plan for us more in these last 12 months than I
have in my 20 years before my mission. The beautiful and certainly
un-Canadian blossoms that have started to ripen and fall, only to be
replaced with the young leaflets, have really brought a tangible
reality to the wonderful renewing of the Easter season. And this past
weekend certainly left an impact on my life as it has jettisoned any
trace of doubt or indifference concerning the Atonement and replaced
it with deep appreciation and personal reflection.

Some may think of hope as an uncertain concept, a false and naive
security for something that is doomed to be harshly half-empty. But
hope is as real and reliable as the One who brings it. I know that I
have received grace and comfort only when I’ve relied on the Savior
Jesus Christ; because in Him, all things are possible. No one is
doomed. No one is forsaken. The comforting thing about reflecting on
the Savior’s spiraling last days is that because Jesus walked such a
long, lonely path, we do not have to do so. May we all find solace in
the reassuring words of the angel on that first Easter morning, “He is
not here, for He is risen.” (Matthew 28:6)

Elder Low