Cold Weather and Corona

What a strange week it's been!

Last Monday night, Elder Hales started feeling mild symptoms of COVID,  and we went to get tested the next day. They couldn't find our results in the system when we called, so we went back to get retested, and on Saturday morning we got the news we had tested positive. We were honestly not that surprised; we've both been super tired all week, and Elder Hales has had 9 of the 11 symptoms. He got worse throughout the week but started to feel a little better Saturday and Sunday.

We've quarantined from Tuesday on, and we'll continue until next Tuesday as far as I'm aware. With that being said, it has been a frustrating week. I haven't felt super sick, so I've still tried to do some missionary work, but with almost no success. With all our member lessons last week, we asked if we could call and share a quick testimony instead since Elder Hales was sick, but out of 30 lessons we now have set up, we only were able to call 4 of them, everyone else cancelled or just didn't answer. It's been super strange to be out on a mission and to want to serve and share the gospel, but to have no energy and be unable to leave our apartment. This week I have definitely turned to prayer more, though, and I'm grateful for this challenge and what it's done in strengthening my relationship with my Father in Heaven.

In other news, our zone leaders called yesterday to check on us, around 11:00, and I heard someone in the background say how cold it was. We opened our blinds for the first time that day, and what do you know? There was SNOW everywhere. I'll admit, I did not see that coming! My first thought was maybe we could shovel the sidewalks at the church, but then I remembered I'm kinda in this quarantine thing.

I realize this might have sounded a little depressing which isn't really what I want. I honestly had some of the happiest or most peaceful moments of my mission this week. They were kind of random little moments and reminders that I still have a Heavenly Father that cares about me. I know even in our hardest trials that He is there for us, and that you can still feel joy! I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love you all!
Elder Leary

Transfer/Exchange/Fishies

Hey guys!!

A lot happened this week: I had my first exchange, we had transfers, we had some cool service opportunities, and my family got to visit!

On Tuesday I had my first exchange with my district leader, Elder Borla. It was a lot of fun, he's a really funny guy, and we got a lot done. We contacted some people about service, had four member lessons, went shopping for some things for district council, and he gave me some good advice.

On Thursday we had our first transfer, but only a few sisters changed, and we got a new zone leader. Our districts got rearranged, but just about everyone stayed in our zone. The new zone leader has really been cracking down on some things, and we could be more efficient with our work, but I feel like some of the rules they're making don't matter, and it's driving missionaries away from wanting to obey them on the one's that should matter. We'll see how it all plays out here over the next week.

We also got to go to Barr Lake on Thursday to do some service, and they had us pulling out carp since they ruin the ecosystem. We got waders on and pulled out these giant fish and chucked them in the back of a truck for a couple hours, which was so much fun. We also planted about 50 trees on Friday at a cemetery to replace one's lost from arson, and we helped out with a food drive on Saturday and then went and moved some dirt for someone in our ward. We were really struggling to find service the last couple weeks before this so it was super fun to get out and help people.

Lastly, my family came to Denver for UEA this week, and they got permission from my mission President to see me! We got to go to Ihop and hang out for a while. It was a weird feeling to have said goodbye for two years and then to see them just three and a half weeks later, but I'm so glad I got to see them.

I just want to close with my testimony; I know that Christ lives, that he suffered and died for us. I know, without a doubt, that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore His church. I know this because of the study I've been able to do in the Book of Mormon. No man could have written what is in there; it is the product of centuries of prophets' accounts of their knowledge of the Savior and their efforts to bring others to Him. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you guys, and hope you had a great week! Let me know how your lives are going!

Elder Leary 

 

COVID-19

In the beginning . . . as in last March . . . it was rare to know anyone with COVID-19. Over the past seven months, it has slithered and crept and inched itself ever so close to our family and finally struck this past week.

The day before our fall break trip, I got the dreaded Scarlet Q letter from the high school informing us that Ashlyn has been exposed to someone with COVID. She immediately knew it was her tennis partner whom she sits by in seminary.

Now what to do?

It had been eight days since that day of exposure and Ashlyn was showing no signs.

Do we go?

Do we stay home?

The decision was made to get her tested and head out.

First stop was Moab and a sunrise hike to Delicate Arch. As we came around the bend to find the arch, we also found others who had the same idea. Quite a few in fact. But you never would have known that many people were up there due to the silence. It was a very reverent few minutes as we all watched the grandeur and beauty of the morning unfold before our eyes.

In Denver we loved on our baby, hiked some more, and took our missionary Nate and his companion Elder Hales out to dinner (with permission).

Upon returning home, there was a message about Ashlyn's test. I called the next morning.

Negative. She was free to return to school.

Fast forward a few days. Kiersten informed us that her and Jason had been exposed to COVID. Jason stayed home from work for a day or two and got tested which came back negative.

Fast forward a few more days to today. Nate messaged us to say that Elder Hales had been feeling sick Monday night. They both got tested. Elder Hales's came back positive while Nate's was negative. However, Tuesday night Nate began getting little headaches which have been on and off for 5 days along with a sore throat. He's pretty sure he has COVID too.

There is nothing worse than being sick when you are away from home. I sure hope those two boys are going to be okay and that someone is taking care of them. I know they are in the Lord's hands. This is where faith steps in. When you are powerless to do something for yourself, Jesus Christ is the one with power to heal and save and make things right. I have to trust that they will be okay.

And so with that little bit of news . . . we are all lying low for a few days.

Week Numero Dos

Hey guys! This week honestly flew by faster than any week ever has. I'm worried I'll wake up tomorrow and have a month left, but I guess that's the way it goes. I am still not teaching anyone, but we've gotten a lot done.

In chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel (PMG), it says (paraphrasing here) that missionary work is most efficient and effective when people are found through members who are friends or usually become that way. Our goal as a mission is to become the best member mission in the world, so we've done a lot to get going on that. We've set up weekly 10-15 minute lessons with many of the members, and eventually we'll ask them to invite a friend to join in on these or share with them what they learned.

We spend a lot of time at our apartment planning, doing those lessons, and working to reach out through Facebook, so we decided to give out free snow cones at a park on Friday to meet people. We invited the ward, and got to know some of them, and got to talk to one man named Sahim who had a lot of questions. We aren't teaching anyone currently, since we're both new to the area and trying to set up a lot of new things, but Sahim asked for our number so we're hoping he reaches out to us soon.

We had a greenie conference on Friday during the day, and that was a lot of fun. President Blake talked about the importance of good goal setting, and there was one quote mentioned that I loved which goes, "You can serve without loving but you can't love without serving." We also had general conference which was absolutely fantastic, with a lot of focus on preparation, being good citizens, and changing our nature to be like Christ. Elder Holland made me rethink how much effort I should be giving, and I'm still not sure what continents the first two temples announced are being built on, but it was all in all amazing. We're so blessed to have a prophet on the earth today. My favorite quote was, if I wrote it down right, "I too suggest that life cannot be faith-filled and stress-free." I believe it was Elder Holland quoting Neil A. Maxwell.

I hope you all had a fantastic week, let me know if I can pray for anything for you guys! I love you all,
Elder Leary

Our second missionary has embarked

We dropped our missionary son, Nate, off at the airport to begin his missionary service.

Tyler helped him with his bags and getting to security while I made a loop through the new airport. It was surprising to Tyler how much Nate stood out. Everyone knew he was a missionary and went out of their way to help him and ask where he was headed.

I was forever grateful to a sweet soul who took several photos of the missionaries at the airport and texted them to me. I was nervous for Nate who had never been on an airplane and was having to navigate the airport by himself AND a new airport at that. I couldn't even tell him what to expect and where to head because I'd never been in this new airport myself. But Heavenly Father was aware of my concerns and sent me some relief from a total stranger.

I've included his first email below. I don't know if we will get the photos like we did with Erik. I can hope. But he's already been challenged by not having a car or a bike and he's witnessed God's hand with a little miracle that came to him and his companion.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

Hey Everyone!

This week has been craziest week of my life. I flew on an airplane for the first time, which was super cool. I had the window seat and I spent half the flight just looking at the clouds right next to me. It's a super short flight to Denver (I've been reassigned to the Denver north mission), but I loved it.

The first night we had dinner at a church and President Blake and his counselors and their wives all spoke. We stayed at a hotel, and then went back the next morning for more instruction and we met our companions.

Elder Hales has been out about a year, he's from Mesa, Arizona. That first day he told me that I was in charge, and that I was supposed to lead on everything, which I was not expecting. Instead of just learning what to do, I decide what to do, and he gives suggestions. This has been challenging, because everything they taught us in the mtc was about teaching, which we haven't done a lot of. We're both new to this area so we've been trying to contact all of the people the sisters before us had contacted, and we're working on doing member lessons and setting up our Brighton Facebook page.

In other news, I live outside my area by a ways, and though I was told it was a driving mission, due to the number of reassigned missionaries here, my companionship doesn't have a car. I do not have a bike at this point either, since I didn't think I needed one. We do all our work online for the most part, but we do go to the church and other places to do service. We've been able to get rides places, but on Friday we walked 3 1/2 hours back from a service project. I've emailed my Mission President and we'll see what he thinks I should do.

A mini miracle happened on my first full day. I've decided to pick an attribute of Christ to work on each day, and I picked faith that day, and I prayed in the morning to be able to have more faith. We went to the church to create a video introducing ourselves to put on the ward Facebook page, and then walked to Walgreens so Elder Hales could get a flu shot. We got back and called for a ride, and then realized we didn't have the flash drive with the video. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it, so we prayed and asked for help. We checked everywhere again and then felt impressed to check in the rocks along the fence out by the road. We went and sure enough there was the flash drive.

I know that prayer works, and that our Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. If any of you are struggling with anything, or just got out of the habit, I'd invite you to make prayer a goal. He will answer your questions if you continually pray in faith, and you will feel his love as you do so.

With that, I found out last night that my grandpa has the coronavirus, so if you could all pray for him I would appreciate that. I love all of you and I'm excited for the work to come!

- Elder Leary

p.s. if any of you got sent this by mistake, if there's a better email to use, or don't wish to be on my email list let me know. Also if you know anyone that does want to be on the list let me know, sorry if I missed anyone. 

Hear and Hearken

 It has never been more imperative to know how the Spirit speaks to you than right now. -- Elder Russell M. Nelson, April General Conference

Over many years I have worked to learn how God speaks to me. While living in Salt Lake City, we lived by Nancy. She was an older lady who had fallen, broke her leg, and eventually had it amputated below the knee. I was asked to help her and we became good friends. In our conversations she often told me how she had powerful burnings in her bosom that came from God. I had never felt such things and frankly did not know what she was talking about. But those conversations led me to seek how my Heavenly Father communicated with me on a very personal level.

I learned that God speaks to his children today just as he did millennia ago.

I learned that God speaks to his children individually.

I learned that revelation is a constant stream much like a rain shower, but we have to come out from under the umbrella to access it.

I learned that revelation is very personal and tailored to our individual needs and circumstances.

I learned that thoughts that tell me to do something good, especially if it involves other people, is from God. AND really, does it matter if it is my thought or God's thought is it's leading me to do good and be good?

A week ago I was in Vernal, attending a temple, in a session that was anything but ordinary.

With COVID-19 temples have been temporarily closed. Only recently have they begun opening up for limited ordinance work. I was praying and hoping that Nate would be able to go before his mission. It just seemed a little weird to send an unendowed missionary out although I know it's been done before. One Friday in August I received an email from Nate's mission president in Denver saying that when temples opened up there, they would schedule times for the missionaries to go and parents could come and go through with their missionary at their own expense. I cried a little when reading that email because I knew that my Father in Heaven was so aware of the turmoil my heart was in over this. I just didn't want Nate to have that temple experience by himself.

A week later Utah had several temples open up for own endowments for missionaries so I emailed Bountiful, our temporary temple. Several weeks later I received a generated reply that they were all full through October and had no available openings. I was a little saddened but held on to possibly going to Denver. A few days after that I got another email from Bountiful from a real person who said the same thing that there were no openings but that I might try Vernal. Vernal? I didn't even know Vernal was open yet.

I was hastily walking out the door for a half-marathon but decided to make a quick phone call to Vernal KNOWING I would get a voice mail with an email address to send my request (just like with Bountiful). I was taken back when a real person answered the phone and we had a real conversation and they had several days and times available!

So that is how we ended up in Vernal, three hours from our house, on a Wednesday night.

Although, in reality the Lord put us there.

After making that appointment the THOUGHT kept coming to me that I needed to contact my cousin Craig who lived in Vernal to see if he'd like to come. We were told we could have up to 16 and we weren't even close to that number. I kept brushing that thought aside. Life was incredibly busy.

Two days before our scheduled trip, I was sitting at the light headed to school. I had turned off the radio because that's when I get revelation which comes to me most often in THOUGHTS. I wasn't seeking any real revelation but that thought came back that I need to contact Craig.

As I sat and contemplated not doing it and trying to talk myself out of it, I realized I would hugely regret it if I didn't follow through.

I got to school and the first thing I did was pull up Facebook Messenger and messaged Craig's wife Andrea. She immediately responded that they would love to come.

Whew! Glad I took care of that.

*photo courtesy of Brian Leary since I forgot to get one

But that's not the end of the story.

We were sitting and waiting and chatting in the temple when Andrea told me her story. She is the Relief Society president and had been asked to get two new counselors. She has been in angst over it and was up the night before I messaged her in turmoil and thinking to herself, "I can't even go to the temple over this." Then she said, "I was in complete shock when I saw your message the next morning."

You can't tell me the Lord is not the great orchestrator in the small details of our lives. He knew Andrea would love to go to the temple with her questions. He knew we needed to go to the temple for Nate. He also knew that Kiersten would come if the temple were close enough for her to do so. Had we gone to a temple in the Salt Lake Valley, she most likely would have stayed in Denver.

The entire day was magical. And the entire temple experience was so intimate and surreal. I know I'll never have that same experience where we had our own private endowment session with just family. The Lord truly orchestrated a beautiful moment when he allowed me to be in the temple with three of my children. It was this momma's dream come true.

Hear and then hearken. That is what the Lord needs us to do right now.

Happy endings and beginnings

 “I don’t know how to speak about heaven in the traditional, lovely, paradisiacal, beauty that we speak of heaven – I wouldn’t know how to speak of heaven without my wife, my children. It would, it would not be heaven for me.” 

-- Elder Jeffrey Holland

These past couple of weeks have been pure bliss.

We prepared our home for Erik's return.

Kiersten came home with baby Oliver from Denver, and then we picked up Erik from the airport late one night. There is nothing that quite prepares you for welcoming home a child who's been away for a time. I imagine this is what leaving this world might be like.

Oh, how we missed that boy of ours. This was the last photo I took of him as we dropped him off at the MTC 2 years ago,

and this is one I snapped of him returning. Looks like same suit with a few more wrinkles and a bit more faded.

Bright and early the next morning we met at the stake president's office to release Erik and set apart Nate as a missionary before Nate entered home-MTC later that day. President Child commented how this was a first for him . . . having two missionary brothers coming and going on the same day.

Nate's P-day happened to coincide with Tyler's birthday later that week where we spent the morning at the zoo with ALL our children.

Sunday was Erik's homecoming talk and Oliver's baby blessing with family photos afterwards.

Photo courtesy Brian Leary

Photo courtesy Brian Leary

Photo courtesy Air and Ember Photography

Photo courtesy Air and Ember Photography

My heart has been so full. There are still good things to come.