Post # 241 – Counsel From the Twelve Apostles series # 9 – Elder Garrit W. Gong

Dear Family and Friends

During this time of COVID 19 our lives have changed so much for some and very little for others yet in some ways very much for all of us. I do not know just how many of you would be wearing a mask all day long if you were not in some department of the medical field. 

I know that I absolutely would not wear one at all, ever, even on Halloween. Not even a partial covering over my eyes, and especially not over my mouth and my nose.What about using hand sanitizer? How many of you would have been using hand sanitizer as much as you are or should be using it now? 

And what about staying 6 feet apart from those around you? I teach preschool so that definitely was not a part of my norm for every day. i still haven't found a way to implement that into my classroom. And these are just to name a few of the major changes that have come into our lives.

But all along the way we have been receiving counsel from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Lord as well as ongoing counsel from our living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, who was a former heart surgeon. knowing all about health issues from his previous occupation still gives us guidance from the Lord.

We have been receiving counsel from the Lord through these wonderful men for our day, for our time. they are relating to each one of us what the our Heavenly Father Himself and His Son Jesus Christ would say to us if They were here on the earth today.I have brought you part eight in this series of such counsel:

LEADERS & MINISTRY

Why we need to stay connected amid COVID-19 social distancing, Elder and Sister Gong say 

By Sarah Jane Weaver

Updated

28 MAY 2020

9:59 AM MDT

Editor’s note: This is part nine in a series of counsel from members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during the COVID-19 outbreak. Read counsel from President M. Russell Ballard, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Elder David A. Bednar, Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Neil L. Andersen, and Elder Dale G. Renlund.

In the days after the Church’s 190th Annual General Conference, Elder Gerrit W. Gong was frequently asked what it was like to direct his remarks to an empty auditorium.

Reflecting government pandemic guidelines, the conference sessions included only the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the program, all sitting 6 feet apart.

Still, Elder Gong was clear about his experience.

“I wasn’t speaking to an empty auditorium,” he said. “I could see in my mind friends and neighbors, members and leaders, and others across the world.”

For Elder Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the image of the near-empty auditorium for general conference is a metaphor. “There might be some physical distancing,” he said, “but it doesn’t mean we are spiritually distant.”

Contemplating a world changed by coronavirus distancing, Elder Gong and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, spoke to the Church News via telephone. “One of the things I have felt deeply during this time is that the Lord is close to us and we can be close to each other,” said Elder Gong. 

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For example, the apostle said he has held frequent video conferencing sessions with priesthood and sister leaders, members in many different circumstances, mission leaders and missionaries, in many places. He said he has felt very close to each one.

“We have been in member homes via technology — it is as if we are visiting homes and families individual by individual. We share deep spiritual feelings and how we are doing. We are not speaking to an empty auditorium. We are speaking to each other, and we are deeply connected, even while we have some physical distancing.”

Unity of purpose

As the world was reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic, Elder Gong said the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have taken time to counsel together — including with social distancing and via technology — on questions impacting the Church and our members, neighbors and friends, across the world.

“As President [Russell M.] Nelson said, we all want two things,” Elder Gong noted. “We  want to know the will of the Lord, and we want to know how to bless His children.”  

That unity of purpose and the time and ability to reflect together — to counsel in council — has been “very sweet and very important.” There has been harmony and clarity in feeling the direction of the Lord for these times, and knowing the Lord’s watchcare and blessings for His Saints and children everywhere.

“The Lord is aware of [God’s children] and blessing us and helping us in the things that are happening each day,” he said.

In coming days, Elder Gong said Latter-day Saints will reflect with new perspective about the sacrament and temple work and what it means to be good neighbors and to feel closeness within families.

Moving forward, “we can have confidence that as things continue to change the Lord will continue to guide us,” he said.

Ministering

Sister Gong acknowledged that required social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard for everyone. “We love each other. We belong to each other. We have covenanted to bless and help each other,” she said. “Typically that happens face to face and in groups. Not being able to be together has been a challenge for everyone.”

This is a time, she said, for Latter-day Saints “both to seek personal revelation and to follow the counsel that has been given to us by wise, inspired leaders about how to connect with and to act on inspiration received.”

With easing of COVID-19 restrictions, personal revelation is essential, says Elder Renlund

Elder and Sister Gong said they think about and pray for those who have been impacted by the virus physically, emotionally and economically.

“It behooves us all to reach out to people not just in our immediate circles, but beyond our circles, to see how we can best help them,” she said. “Especially in this circumstance, ministering is a really critical attribute of a follower of Jesus Christ.”

That might mean “calling people you have not talked to in a long time or making contact with people you have known only casually.”

One of the things the Gongs have tried to do is to make a list of people to reach out to every Sunday. Even if they can’t visit, they have found there are things that can be done to cheer them up and help them. “This is a small thing,” Sister Gong said, “and so many others are doing so much more.”

“You don’t have to be in each other’s homes to be in each other’s hearts,” said Elder Gong.

A corollary to that is that there are some people who could fall between the cracks. “In our gospel, in our Church, it is OK to let people know we need help — that we need a little attention, that we need a little support,” said Sister Gong. “Ask your ministering sisters or ministering brothers for things that you really need. … When we love and trust each other we can do that.”

This time of isolation is a “heart, might, mind and strength opportunity” during which members have to “engage your imagination and your intelligence and your energy” to minister in the Savior’s way, said Sister Gong.

“We are going to come through this, and we are going to be able to be together again and show each other love and appreciation, face to face, again,” said Sister Gong.

When the pandemic is over, she also hopes members will all remember “the need for meaningful interaction we have all felt during this time and continue to cherish our relationships with each of God’s children.”

‘Bloom where you are planted’

Latter-day Saints not only honor, obey, and sustain appropriate governmental guidelines during the pandemic, but also “keep the work of the Church moving forward,” said Elder Gong. “This includes essential ordinances, blessings, ministering and carrying forward other Church functions to bless families and individuals in appropriate and needed ways.”

 Sister Susan Gong looks over at her husband, Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, prior to him speaking at a BYU campus devotional on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Credit: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Elder Gong said that on a personal level, one of the things which has been “most tender for me,” is “I have experienced spring in a different way this year.”

Because he has not been traveling on Church assignment on the weekends, he has been learning to garden with Sister Gong. “Sister Gong loves gardening,” Elder Gong said. “When I am in the garden with her, I grow in love for gardens and for her. I’m learning about plants, mulch, and how you mix the soil. I have gotten to smell the flowers and hear the birds in a different way.”

Sister Gong said time has been a positive outcome of the pandemic. “Time with each other is a gift — time to meditate and to pray and to study things that are important.”

There is much to be grateful for and “so much to learn and experience — even in situations like this,” she said. “I hope we will remember the lessons we had here and will remember to cherish the time we had together and the time not rushing around.”

Elder Gong recalled with a smile how members supported missionaries and seminary graduates among many others.

When a local stake held a drive-by greeting for six missionaries who had come home, the Gongs made a sign for their car that said “bloom where you are planted.”

“You don’t have to be in each other’s homes to be in each other’s hearts.”

Elder Gong said the sign symbolizes missionaries’ faith and flexibility. He spoke of a missionary who was reassigned four times because of COVID-19. The young Sister from outside the United States was called to California, then Cambodia and then the Philippines, and could not go each time. She is now serving in her home country. 

Similarly, a home stake held a seminary graduation where graduates and their families socially spaced in their own cars, but the stake found a way to broadcast a short graduation program, complete with a musical number, to the cars by FM radio.

“The hearts of all of us across the Church go out to all who have been so full of faith and determination to find ways to accomplish the Lord’s purposes and to serve and bloom where they are,” said Elder Gong. “We are not going to go back to something old. We are going forward to something new. We are learning things that will help us keep the best of what we do person to person while learning to use technology and other means in effective and appropriate ways.”

Communication

One of the great lessons of mortality is to experience person-to-person communication, said Elder Gong. “These times remind us of how much we cherish the things we can do person to person, face to face, need to need — in each other’s hearts, homes, and in Church together.”

This has also been a time of learning of the blessings and opportunities of home-centered, Church-supported patterns of gospel living.

For example, the Gongs have used technology to have frequent contact with their children. Sister Gong has helped her granddaughter study Mandarin each afternoon as part of her school.

  

“There are new patterns, new ways to think about what it means to be connected,” said Elder Gong. “I think we’re all going to be grateful to be back in Church again. But we don’t want to lose the feelings and the thoughts and the patterns we have had while we have been at home.”

 President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his wife Sister Wendy Nelson and Elder Gerrit W. Gong, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wave upon arrival in Papeete, Tahiti on May 23, 2019. Credit: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The Church, he emphasized, will not return to the old pattern; “we are creating  new and better patterns which will bless us now and in the future.”

Elder Gong said that “‘by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass’ (Alma 37:6). As old patterns break, we can create new ways to think and do.”

It is an opportunity to realize the Father and the Son are in the details, said Elder Gong. “Sometimes we may feel alone or lost or isolated or separate, but we are not.”

In reading Luke 15 about lost sheep, lost coins, and the prodigal son, Elder Gong recently noticed the passage: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).

“I realized the Father could be saying, ‘My Son, the living Jesus Christ, was dead and is alive again. And because He lives — because He is the living Jesus Christ — each of us is never lost. Each of us can be found.

“We should always remember our Lord Jesus Christ knows us. He loves us. And we are never lost to Him. He is aware of us in the darkest hours and in the brightest days.

New patterns and new ways of doing things are “a new opportunity to feel the Lord’s love and to have faith that all things will work together for our good.”

I realize that this counsel is given specifically to our church members – members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the counsel here can be applied to anyone’s life – if they choose to do so. I have reviewed a bit of the counsel given below as examples, you can apply the rest if you will.

Elder Gong said that we need to stay connected during this times of COVID 19 social distancing, we can all do this right? We can each one of us make a phone call to someone to whom we have not spoken to in a while. Just ask them how they are doing. You may be surprised by their response to your concern.

He said that we may need to have some physical distancing during this time but we need not have that same spiritual distancing – this is important to us all, am I right? We can all be close to one another even if we are not in the same place and we must remember that the Lord is close to us. 

If the Lord is not close to you, you must think about and do what is necessary to get close to Him!! What will you do this very day to get closer to your Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ? Make a list of things that you can and will do during this upcoming week to learn of your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

We can all feel close to one another through video conferencing and texting and phone calls just to mention a few ways to stay connected. It is not the same as being in one another’s homes but it is the next best thing for us to each stay safe during this time of COVID 19. 

If we make the effort, we can find a way to communicate with those we love as well as those we only know casually. It may take some creativity on our parts, but we can make it work can't we? We can each be deeply connected to one another even if we are miles apart.

We can each have a unity of purpose during this time of uncertainty and change. We can be sure that, as Elder Gong has reminded us: “The Lord is aware of [God’s children] and blessing us and helping us in the things that are happening each day,”  

As we each move forward in the days to come we will look back on things as they have been during this challenge and look ahead with a new look at things to come.We will remember how important is is for us to be united when we are at church, at home, as a family, as friends, as a community, as a country, as a world. 

Elder Gong reminds us that we can move forward and “we can have confidence that as things continue to change the Lord will continue to guide us,” So you see, we can all move forward with caution for safety and confidence that the Lord will continue to guide us.

Elder Gong reminds us that we love one another or we should love one another as God has loved us, and still loves each one of us individually. He knows each one of us individually. He knows our gifts and talents, as well as our strengths and weaknesses. He loves us and He is there for us when we need Him!!!

Elder Gong said that during this time when we have not been able to be together due to the COVID 19 has been difficult for most of us because we were used to spending time physically face to face with each other as often as we wanted to and now we are not able to do so in the same manner.

It is very important that we remember to communicate with one another !!! We can all do this can we not? We can all reach out to one another in some way through all of the avenues of media that are readily available to each one of us if we can figure therm out 

I did figure out how to zoom We can also connect with our Father in heaven on a daily basis and follow the guidance we receive for ourselves and our families. This is something that is so important for each one of us, to develop in our lives. the ability to communicate with our Heavenly Father each day!!!

Elder and sister Gong reminded us to think about and to pray for those who have been impacted by the COVID 19 in one way or another: physically, emotionally, and economically. We can all do this can we not? Can we not each one of us say a prayer  for those around us?

He says further that “ministering is a really critical attribute of a follower of Jesus Christ.” Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? If you are not a follower of Christ what changes do you need to make in your lives in order for you to become His followers? make plans to make those changes for as better life.

You can each call someone that you have not talked to in a long time or make contact with those people whom you may only know through casual meetings. I have sent uplifting quotes and pictures to people whom I don’t know very well, just to brighten their day. So far no one has been upset with me for doing so 

To be honest with you, sometimes they don’t answer and sometimes they ask who it is and when they recognize my name, they say thanks.  I like their idea of making a list of people to contact each Sunday. this way you would be sure that you made the contacts that you wanted to make or were inspired to make.

I am kind of random at my contacts and who I contact so making a list might be a good thing for me to do as well. It is something anyone can do, right? And then they gave us the reminder that we do not need to be in one another’s homes to be in one another’s hearts!!! 

I know that in our Church it is okay to ask for help. So if you need something, sometimes all you need to do is to ask. I know that anyone can ask for help but for some of us this is a very hard thing for us to do. I understand this, I really do. I also know, that if I don’t know if something needs fixing, how can i fix it?

You won't know if someone needs something, if you do not ask, right? We should ask for what we need as Sister Gong says, “when we love and trust each other we can do that.” I have helped in this way through texting to see if anyone needs anything. Then I buy it and leave it on their porch for them

This is something that we can all do, cab we not? Sister Gong say that this time of isolation is a “heart, might, mind and strength opportunity.” She says that during this time we as members have to “engage your imagination and your intelligence and your energy” to minister in the Savior’s way. 

We are each one of us capable of being the Lord's hands here on this earth. Can we not all do this to minister as the Savior would? Let us each “bloom where we are planted.” Let us remember who we are and listen to and follow the counsel given to us from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

I pray that you will each feel the love of the Savior and His Father as you are reading through these posts that I share with each of you, my family and my friends I pray that you will each do your best to love one another and reach out to others and help those in need. 

There are ways to do this without any physical contact at all and it can make all the difference in the world to the person you are helping. I know that this is a small thing to send a text with a picture or a quote, or to drop by some groceries or to deliver a meal or two.

Please continue to read and study the Book of Mormon with me and all of our cyber study buddies out there in cyberspace I hope that you are learning as much as I am through this years study. Until my next post, please be safe and keep communication open!!! Between each other and Heavenly Father too!!!