While this happened almost three years ago, for some reason I’ve been thinking back on this experience a lot lately. During the heart of COVID-19, probably about September or October 2020, I came across a Facebook post. This was coming from someone who I’d known since high school, although we hadn’t kept in touch well. When I’d known him, he was an active member of the church. In his post, he said that if the prophet was a real prophet, he would have warned us about COVID-19. Based on that information, my Facebook friend determined that Russell M. Nelson was not a prophet.
Honestly, it surprised me a bit because while COVID-19 had apparently damaged this guy’s testimony of the prophet, for me, it strengthened my own testimony. Along with that, while the prophet hadn’t specifically said that a worldwide pandemic was coming, he (and others before him) had provided us with an assortment of resources to prepare us for what was to come.
Why Didn’t the Prophet Tell Us What Was Coming?
*First of all, let me say that nothing that I write is endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These are 100% my own thoughts and opinions.
Sure, Russell M. Nelson could have come right out and said something such as, “In early 2020, the world is basically going to shut down because of a worldwide pandemic. A lot of businesses will either go out of business or suffer extreme losses.” Yes, he definitely could have done that. There are many examples in the scriptures of prophets telling the people exactly what is to come. Yet, in this case, I don’t think that would have been the best route. I don’t think that it would have accomplished anything good.
If the prophet had warned us specifically of what was to come, I feel like there would have been two basic responses. First, there would have been a lot of people who ignored him. They may have even laughed at him or thought that he was a little crazy. Then when the pandemic actually hit, I can almost guarantee there would have been some sort of conspiracy theory about how the prophet or the church caused it because he knew about it before it happened.
Second, there would have been those who would have panicked. Remember the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020? That, along with other panic may have happened a little sooner.
How Were We Prepared?
“Come Follow Me”
During the October 2018 General Conference, a new program of study was introduced. This program called “Come Follow Me,” created better opportunities for studying the gospel at home. It was implemented in January 2019, which gave us a little over a year to get used to the program before at-home study became the only option for a while.
Civil Marriage Followed by Sealing
Some countries already allowed for a couple to be married civilly and then sealed in the temple right away or soon thereafter. In some places, though, prior to May 2019, couples who were married civilly (outside the temple) had to wait a year before they could be sealed in the temple. This May 2019 change allowed for couples worldwide to be married first civilly and then sealed right away with no one-year waiting period.
This change allowed couples who had planned to get married in the early days of the pandemic to follow through with those plans with a few adjustments. I know that for some couples, this was a huge comfort, knowing that they could be married when they planned to get married. Then when temples reopened, they could be sealed to their spouse.
Missionaries Calling Home
In February 2019, missionaries worldwide were given the opportunity to communicate more often with their families. This meant weekly phone calls home, text messages, or video calls with their families for many missionaries. Prior to this, phone calls home happened twice a year for most missionaries. As the pandemic hit roughly a year after this announcement, I can guarantee that there were some missionaries who were grateful to be able to talk to their family members, receiving comfort and reassurance during this scary time.
Missionaries Using Social Media
When COVID-19 hit, many missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were impacted. Some got sent home, in some cases, temporarily. In other cases, they were released early from their missions. Some while they didn’t go home, they were reassigned. Staying at home rather than tracting was now the normal for those who stayed out. Fortunately, even before COVID-19 hit, many missionaries had been using social media and other resources that they could use from home. This allowed the transition from physical to virtual missionary work to be a smoother process than it would have been probably even 5-10 years before that.
Food Storage
The focus of General Conference talks had shifted more towards other things in recent years. For years, though, I don’t think you could make it through a full session without someone emphasizing the importance of food storage. Those who followed this counsel were better prepared when COVId-19 hit. When there were shortages at the stores of specific products, people who had prepared didn’t have to be as concerned. In some cases, they were able to share with their neighbors who weren’t as prepared. Having these products at home also helped those who were homebound for an extended period of time, either because of sickness or because of concern about venturing out where they might be exposed to the virus.
Why Does This Matter Now?
Yes, this happened three years ago, so on the surface, it may seem that it’s old news or that it doesn’t matter anymore. Several weeks ago in Sunday School, we were reading about the end of Jesus’ life. When the soldiers came to take Jesus away to be tried and condemned, Peter cut off the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus healed the man’s ear. While this connection might not make sense to anyone but me, it reminded me of my experience with seeing how the prophet had prepared us for COVID-19.
Missing the Miracle
We don’t get a lot of information about how the soldier reacted to Jesus healing his ear. Because it never says that he was converted on the spot or that he defended Jesus, I assume that neither was the case. Maybe, he felt that if Jesus really was the Savior, He would have been able to avoid capture. Maybe, the miracle didn’t even register as a miracle to him because he was only willing to see it if it went according to his own definition of one.
Do We Recognize the Help?
The truth, though, is that the same principles apply now that applied then. Unfortunately, we often want answers handed to us. I know that I do. When help or answers aren’t given to us in the way that we anticipated, we may begin to think that we didn’t get the help or answers that we were looking for. Instead of looking for the exact answer that we think we want, we may need to look for ways that Heavenly Father has helped us, warned us, or provided answers in potentially less noticeable ways.
*How have you noticed divine intervention in your own life, whether at the time or later? Please share your own experiences below.
- Please note, I have included links to some of these announcements. The links are there to provide more of an explanation of these changes.
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