Cwic Show- Coronavirus and the LDS Church- Some Thoughts

'Clean Hands and a Pure Heart"

-  Crazy Week! -  Ideas on working with the current changes in the church

-  Learning from the Coronavirus

 

Zoom Video and Teleconferencing https://www.zoom.us 

 

 

Cwic Show

 

bringing hands kind of applies to both

for this physical virus is very as well

as a spiritual leverage

[Music]

what a crazy week this has been from so

many different angles I I'm a financial

planner you can imagine the amount of

time and sweat and concern that I've had

as I've worked with clients over the

last week or so especially last couple

weeks as they've watched their

investments their future their

retirement go very quickly downward on

top of that I was at the store yesterday

decided to buy a little bit more than I

usually would just as a precautionary

measure and lo and behold they're in

late afternoon and so are a lot of other

people and since I was buying in bulk I

went to the Walmart and complete you

know aisles were completely empty

I went found the last bag of rice that

was in the entire store I grabbed that

didn't have to fight anybody off for

fortunately there was they didn't have

the peanut butter I would typically buy

so I bought another brand but there were

only a few of those jars left there were

no bagged beans right no legumes don’t know

that was left they were all gone so and

all paper goods are gone and that was

the ones I don't quite understand the

toilet paper thing but when a door stand

you want it but I don't quite understand

the rush on toilet paper especially no

hand soap

there was no hand soap not even know

kind of hand soap was it was left so

what a crazy week I feel like we are

living in a an episode of The Twilight

Zone right now or some type of a

dystopian movie that you would watch and

hopefully this isn't going to get too

crazy for us but I had some thoughts on

some things I've been working on some

things with our ward in trying to put a

plan together for

offsetting the procedural protocol

changes that we've had over the last few

days come from coming from Salt Lake and

so our to share that with you and maybe

some ideas that might help you in your

ward or stake and see if we can't look

at some practical things that as we move

into this hopefully short-term scenario

of remote and very home based worship

that we can keep a cohesiveness in our

wards and our stakes and make sure that

we're taking care of people so here's a

few things that we're going to be

implementing in my ward first of all I

think that one of the great things about

the church in these types of scenarios

is the organization certainly there is

no institution in the world that is

better prepared for these types of

scenarios and it's a great blessing to

have inspired leadership and to have a

culture where we have had such a focus

on preparedness and so but in this

scenario I think there's a few things

that we haven't been used to doing

before obviously where I think we can

add to that preparedness and we can make

sure that our communication is kept at a

higher level than maybe it could fall

into in any scenario so here's what

here's what we're doing first of all

with the ministering program there is

the ability to have a reporting system

in place or you're making sure that all

of the members are being taken care of

that doesn't even have to be face to

face certainly sometimes but something

that can be done by phone by email

electronically a few other ways I'm

going to go over as well and so in using

the ministering system what I've put in

place is is I've got three different

secretaries in the elders quorum

that are split into three different over

three different districts as I think

many wards are set up that way hmm and

those secretaries are in charge of

reports and so they'll be getting

reports back from the ministering

brethren in the ward and what we're

doing is those that have are assigned to

individuals and families will be making

sure that they are in touch with those

individuals and families every week and

you're gonna ask a few specific

questions if there's anything you can

help with are you healthy and even food

right is there is there's any issues

with food I don't think that's going to

be an issue but just make sure that

people are in a position where

especially those that may not be able to

get out much both from a health

standpoint and from a preventive

standpoint with the virus and so just

making sure we get that report back so

that we've got the intelligence gathered

so to speak from as many of the ward

members as possible right and that way

we can kind of stay on top of these

things and make sure that there's also

communication if there's not as much

face-to-face we're not meeting with each

other then we want that communication

going out there through the ministering

program in addition to that if you are

assigned to someone who is especially 70

years or older those that are especially

susceptible to this virus to COVID 19 I

think that there needs to be some

special attention made number one we

still want to limit face-to-face visits

I think that's the wise thing the

numbers that I've seen for anyone over

70 to 80 years old that contract the

disease there is an eight percent

fatality rate that is way way too high

and so it's something where you've

got to be you want to limit face-to-face

as much as paw

with those individuals for those over 80

the numbers that I've seen are a 16%

fatality rate so we've got to be very

very careful with this but what we can

do to help them be more in a behavior of

prevention is to find out if there is

anything that we can do for them as far

as running errands and as far as

shopping even you know Surrey shopping

where they don't have to get out with

other people as much and just try to

limit that a little bit for them and I

think the Relief Society can also be a

great help in that area where or they

can help to help provide some of that

some of those tasks that may be those

that are over 70 would normally need to

do but that we can help them self

quarantine a little bit so to speak and

limit their contact with other

individuals so overall looking at this

you know the idea of bringing in this

information this intelligence from all

the ward members as many as possible so

that we're able to stay on top of things

I think that that's a crucial point and

I think in the changes that have been

made with the elders quorum and with the

Relief Society

being in charge pretty much of the

adults I think that we need to really

step up in those areas and through this

ministering program and help out

on this in addition to this what we're

planning on doing is if you have worked

with the software called zoom before

it's a great it's a great software and

it allows for teleconferencing video

conferencing where you can have meetings

and so whether it's a quorum meeting an

auxiliary meeting award Council I think

you can still hold all of those things

remotely if necessary and again limit

especially if you have people in those

we've got several people in my ward that

are over

years old and gathering people like that

I think it's very unwise to do but we

can gather everybody on either video or

on phone calls so the zoom it's at zoom

dot us is the URL you can put people

if they choose to go video they can go

video on there if not then there is a

phone number that they can go to as well

and so you can have your meetings

through zoom just like you would

normally we have meetings twice a month

in elders quorum so we can we can

continue to do those you can do that

with your war Council you can do that

with bishopric all of your auxiliaries

and so and maybe even keeping in

touch sometimes if you've got students

in Sunday school you know your young men

young women etc I mean it's not a bad

idea my wife is a seminary teacher and

her responsibility is to teach online

students those that don't have the time

or ability to be able to go to seminary

and so once a week she gets together

with them gives them an assignment and

she uses zoom and so the students are on

with her and she's able to teach them

through going through so when they come

in on video with her but it's a great

technology at limited numbers it's free

I don't remember the number but I want

to say under ten individuals at the time

is free beyond that it's a you do have

to spend a little bit of money but it's

a great way to go so I would definitely

check that out but again a way to keep

the cohesiveness of your

auxiliaries and your quorums and your

ward when we're not meeting together and

then a couple of other things that I

wanted to go over here you know I think

I've talked to a number of people

there's people that are all on all ends

of the spectrum with this in terms of

complete panic yeah too on the other end

where it's like you know everybody's

crazy with what they're doing and

overreacting etc to me I would say that

both edges of though that spectrum are

our dangerous place to be and here's

what I would consider we've talked a lot

about

the higher and lower laws on this

podcast and here's how I would like you

to look at this being prepared and

precautionary is part of the gospel and

in fact the ironic priesthood is called

the preparatory priesthood for many

reasons and so if we look at a scenario

like this where we want to administer

carry out to execute a preparedness well

we can look at that as the lower law

it's what's up to us and what we're

supposed to do get our food storage get

our water make sure that we're being

careful about our hands and washing our

hands as often as possible with warm

water or warm and hot water being

careful about social distancing and

different things like that that's our

job we're expected to do those things to

use common sense and to use our agency

right that is part of the lower law but

in addition to that that would be if we

just leave that alone and say that's all

that it's up to then that

would be on the panic side of the

spectrum right if we didn't have on the

other side what would be faith in the

lord and in him watching over us and in

prayer and in using that faith because

the faith is in God and in what he does

right and it's so it's uh I'd sent out

on Facebook one of that short video from

the church about faith and fear and how

look all of this will be okay it's not

going to be likely as bad as you might

think and that there is not only us

that's working on this and we need to do

all that we can as we learn a second

Nephi but we can also count on the Lord

and have him watch over us he knows

exactly what is going on in fact

something like this and the scenario

teaches us so well that we're only in

control up to a certain point that

entire economies the entire world

can shut down from a little bug and

certainly this is something I would

imagine even this exact thing this exact

virus this exact situation the Orion is

probably a part of something that the

prophets have all seen about the plagues

in the last days and it's probably

foreshadowing unfortunately other things

that will come be coming down the pike

in the future now we've gone through

these types of things before we had H

and the swine flu

we had SARS none of them quite had the

impact of this but we did 100 years ago

or so have the Spanish flu which was

very deadly but we can see how something

like this can completely turn things

around throughout the world and we need

to be prepared but if we look at that as

a higher and lower loss situation where

we need to do all that we can on our end

but we can count on the Lord too and

have faith in Him and understand that

this is part of a larger plan and that

adversity is always there and then from

that adversity I think we can try and

say okay well what are we going to learn

from this do we not have food storage do

we not are we not quite ready for

something like this well maybe we ought

to get on the ball a little bit more on

that for future events and maybe there's

some ideas of wow the things could

really change here in a heartbeat in

days and maybe we need to get our house

in order you know get our own heads in

order to get our own spirits in order a

little bit more so there are lessons

that we will be able to take out of this

there's lessons that the church will be

able to take out of this but our

families our selves as individuals

there's things that we can take out of

this and learn from this another thing

that we might look at with this is the

the part of the problem is the press

right what you want to look for I

believe I know I haven't watched TV news

for 30 years I just I dropped it when I

was in my 20s that's a big time

recommendation on my end I know a lot of

you really like the TV news at night

depending on which side of the aisle

you're on you pick different stations

but

just don't get too caught up in it right

don't get too caught up in it look for

good sources they're gonna go over facts

and not hyperbole especially I mean this

is one of the worst times for something

like this to break out right in an

election here and from what I've seen I

just see so much political you know the

politicizing this on both sides of the

aisle and it's dangerous you know let's

let's find good sources that give you

good information about the disease

about what you can do to prevent it

about how you can change some behaviors

and don't get caught up in the politics

of all of this and then a last thought

here on this as I as I've thought about

this and kind of looked back into how

all of this very likely happened I don't

know if you've heard this but apparently

a lot of this a lot of viruses come from

bats and this is no different

apparently I don't have a hundred

percent surety on that but from what

I've read so far this likely comes from

bats in China and most coronaviruses I

believe have come from bats and many

others I believe Obie bola came from

bats as well but they came from bats

they went to animals and then from

animals they go to humans and I just I

just think to myself there are these

physical viruses that can change our

lives

but there's also spiritual viruses that

can change our lives and if we look at a

vampire for example and in a bat kind of

it's kind of like you know like these

monsters are out there so to speak right

these the adversarial monsters

that are putting out there different

ideas different ideologies things that

would distract us away from keeping the

Lord at the highest level of our values

hierarchy but instead of spreading the

virus the spirit

viruses through contact necessarily it's

done through persuasion it's done

through communication it's done through

rhetoric it's done through pleasantries

and wolves putting on sheep's clothing I

was thinking about this the other day

and a lot of the monsters that we have

in our mythologies are you know from

bats you've got bats and vampires

zombies right it has to do with being

infected with something werewolves right

think about wolves in sheep's clothing

that they try and pull empathy from you

for a certain ideology and you

lead with that empathy into that

ideology but in fact the consequences

are dire and so just as this virus

spreads physically and can be very very

contagious there are ideas and

ideologies that can spread very very

quickly and that are just as deadly but

in a spiritual manner maybe sometimes

even in a physical manner as the corona

virus is for us today and so a lot has

to do with I think of I believe it's

Psalms 24 and the Lord wants clean hands

and appear heart and of course with the

coronavirus it's you know we need to

wash our hands all the time so clean

hands kind of applies to both this

physical virus as very as well as a

spiritual virus and the clean hands in

the in the Psalms represent your actions

you know what do you do that's the

way I see it what do you what are your

actions like are they clean are they

pure and so are there ways that we can

vaccinate ourselves immune uh immunize

ourselves to potential ideas and things

that would pull us away from truth and

from the Lord these were just some

things that were on my mind that I

wanted to share with you I hope that

some of them might be able to be

implemented if you are in a position of

leadership and your Lord be safe and

instead of maybe just binging on Netflix

if you have some extra time over the

next

several weeks spent some time on the

Scriptures really good time to delve

into the scriptures and to learn some

things and to bring the spirit more into

your life I'll talk to you next time