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Alma 25-26

Hey Friends! Today we have Alma 25-26 as part of our block. There is a verse from Alma 26 that stood out to me today probably because it spoke extremely close to something I have been struggling with.  I don't know about you but my social interaction is limited to my 3 boys, my 2 parents, and whomever I get the pleasure of Zoom calling with on Fridays.  This isn't to say I don't talk on the phone with friends or text other people on the phone but I tell you I feel like there is nothing left to say to some of these people.  I feel conversations go like this: "How is your day going?" "It's going, feels just like yesterday." "You trying to go any where?" "Nope, you?" "Nope"......cool right?? I am pretty much over being stuck at home, I am lonely, and I have that heavy depressed feeling every morning when my alarm clock goes off. 

At the end of Alma 25 and all of Alma 26 Ammon reminds his brethren of some of their mission experiences.  He does this to illustrate several things, one being that with God's power nothing is impossible and that as young men who were actively seeking to destroy the church the power of the Atonement and repentance is real because now they have brought so many to Christ.  In verse 27 Ammon states: "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." Do you feel this verse? I feel like we are right there at the end of all of this.....just a few more days left of school and then the pressure of remote learning will lift for a minute allowing us to regroup before we face whatever this next year may have in store.
Ammon leaves this reminder for his brothers but really for all of us, his brothers and sisters in the gospel, that sometimes life and the work of life is going to leave us depressed, discouraged, and down but these are the moments where we have to find ways to "hear Him" and the comfort He sends, did deep and keep working hard.

President Benson said, "There are times when you simply have to righteously hang on and outlast the devil until his depressive spirit leaves you.  As the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith: 'Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high' (D&C 121:7-8).  To press on in noble endeavors, even while surrounded by a cloud of depression, will eventually bring you out on top into the sunshine" (Ezra Taft Benson, "Do Not Despair", Ensign, NOv. 1974, 65-68).

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