The Blacks' Mission Report

This is a hard article to write.  These things are private, but I feel prompted to write them anyway.  Hopefully these musings will be helpful to someone else. Personal revelation comes often when we are ready to receive them.  In my own experience, I receive revelation after I have studied and prayed about a gospel topic about which I have had questions.  Sometimes it comes after praying and considering a personal or family problem.  And then it comes at a time when I am in a quiet location and when I am quiet. Occasionally, revelations come to me to warn me about a situation I may be in or to warn me of danger. Sometimes, they come to me at inconvenient times. Personal revelation can be persistent and can be hard to ignore even when we don't want to receive it. Do I hear an audible voice?  Sometimes, but it is very quiet and gentle.  Do I have thoughts inserted into my mind?  Sometimes, and sometimes immediately after asking for enlight...

Sometimes I get a sudden burst of instant insight into things I've been studying and considering for some time.  Often times these little epiphanies come while I am meditating in the temple, but sometimes I get them as I kneel and pray in the evening. Last evening I got a little insight with regard to Jesus' fast.  Matthew reports in Chapter 4: 1  Then was Jesus  a led  up of the Spirit into the wilderness  b to be   c tempted  of the devil. 2  And when he had  a fasted   b forty   days and forty nights,  c he  was afterward an hungred. This report given by Matthew is important for a couple of reasons.  It was unusual.  Fasting was not done that way.  In that time period it was normal for the pharisees to fast, but they only fasted during the day and then consumed their meal after dark much as do Muslims today.  So when they fasted for a week, for example, they really didn't miss any calor...

We were released and asked to go home on March 20.  We didn't actually leave until March 24 because of Dr. appointments, but when we left we were given an envelope to take to our Stake President in Washington, Utah.  We presented that envelope to President Carnavale when we met with him on March 29.  Included in the envelope was a letter from President Hewlett to President Carnavale along with our release certificates. President Carnavale gave us an official release and gave us our certificates and the letter President Hewlett wrote. Then, a week later I got a call from a Church Service Elder Missionary working in the Missionary Department wanting to know our intentions when the COVID-19 issues are finished.  I told him that my lung disease had exacerbated over the past few months, and that I didn't think we would be able to return.  I thought that would be the last call.  However, I got a call from a Sister Missionary, reportedly calling from the Mission...