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Update on Life

I sit here in my home office, which is more like a small corner of my bedroom, this Friday morning watching the sun come up over the majestic mountains I will no longer get to ski this spring.  I can't believe all that has transpired in one week.  Just last Friday I was starting my A-day classes so excited to talk about Jacob 5 and the allegory of the olive tree and the sweet message of a loving Savior who keeps laboring over us, his trees. Little did I know that by that afternoon school state wide would be put on a mandatory dismissal leaving us seminary teachers scrambling to set up and an online learning plan and platform in the coming week.

This last week brought a health issue that usually sends me to the ER but left me wondering if I should self treat at home, I chose the later. The spring skiing season was cancelled leaving my kids morning a missed last club race, soccer, and baseball were also delayed. Then I had to try and figure out this work from home 8 hours a day while now home-schooling 3 kiddos. Wednesday brought that unexpected 5.7 earthquake that rocked my home and my final nerve.  And that was just my week.  I can't imagine what others are facing with job lay offs, limited access to supplies, and the disappointment many students around the world are facing with cancelled dances, commencements, spring athletics, and those final "senior" moments.  I have found myself often this week feeling weighed down with the grief and disappointment that seems to hang in the air.  This disappointment that is also mixed with the sting of uncertainty with no idea when it will end and life will head back to "normal."

I have tried to do this week what many are trying to do, find peace, comfort, and hope through this darkness.  To be frank, I felt like I kept praying and searching, and complaining, and then praying and searching some more.  I can't say that I have a found an answer to why this is all happening and why right now......but I did find myself flipping through my scriptures this morning and stumbled across my favorite scripture, Mosiah 24:14:

"And I will ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of surety that I, the Lord God do visit my people in their afflictions."

I don't know when this will end, I don't know how things will look when it does pass, I don't know if I will get to be back in the classroom with my AMAZING students who bring such laughter and love into my life anytime soon........but I do know that He is here with each of us now.  His love shows in the concerned text from a friend reaching out to check in or in the spirit felt as we unite more with our families in worship and study. He is also in the ministering of neighbors sharing what they have with each other and the laughter found in playing a game with family or friends.  The Savior is there if we just take a minute to look for Him and because of that we can add our testimony to that of Alma and his people, "the Lord God [does] visit [His] people in their afflictions.

Love you all and pray for your safety,

Sister Coleman


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