Hope

My Dear Friends of the St Paul Stake:

Over the past many days, I have found myself thinking of you.  Not only are we dealing with a Pandemic but now we are feeling the very real effect of Civil Unrest in our Cities - in fact in our backyard.

Very recently in one of Presidencies Meetings, President Ertel shared a wonderful spiritual thought about how important it is to pay attention to the 'voices' on which we focus.  

During the last few days of unrest, I have found my own level of concern, stress and anxiety continue to rise.  So I started to pay closer attention to the voices on which I have focused.

This evening I turned to the most recent General Conference to focus on some different voices.  I found myself re-reading the talk in April Conference from Elder Jeffery Holland titled: A Perfect Brightness of Hope  I have always enjoyed Elder Holland's talk but I found great peace and comfort in his Prophetic counsel.

Toward the end of his talk stated:

Even as we speak, we are waging an 'all hands on deck' war with COVID-19 ... When we have conquered this [COVID-19] —and we will—may we be equally committed to freeing the world from the virus of hunger, freeing neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty. May we hope for schools where students are taught—not terrified they will be shot—and for the gift of personal dignity for every child of God, unmarred by any form of racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice.

I was humbled to feel his Prophetic insight in those words but in the next sentence he shared how we might accomplish these enormous challenges:

Undergirding all of this is our relentless hope for greater devotion to the two greatest of all commandments: to love God by keeping His counsel and to love our neighbors by showing kindness and compassion, patience and forgiveness. These two divine directives are still—and forever will be—the only real hope we have for giving our children a better world than the one they now know.

This counsel has caused me to ponder how I might better live the Two Great Commandments.

I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it is in Him that we can find true Peace and Hope.

Please know you are in my thoughts and prayers.

... President Pattberg

---

You received this email because you made your email address available to your local Church leaders. It was sent by David Pattberg, whose calling is Stake President.