Week Thirty-One

This week I wanted to talk a little bit about trials.

In order to explain what I have been thinking about lately, I will have to give you some background information about someone that we have started working with.  We have started working with someone who used to be a cancer doctor.  It has been tons of fun talking to him, because I can use my limited medical knowledge, or atleast what I can remember.  The hardest part has been talking to him in german.  But I have really enjoyed talking to him about his research and ideas, he is really a brilliant man.  But unfortunantly, he has also had a very hard couple of years.  His mother was diagnosed with cancer a little while back, and in order to fight the cancer he gave up everything to help.  I mean litterally everything.  He gave personally almost 300,000 euro and sold everything that he owned, he was super close to beating this case of cancer, but a little over a month before the treatments should have been successfull, his mother died.  The problem was now that he had nothing.  His wife had left him, he had accumulated tons of back taxes and was in debt now, got fired because of he didn't pay his taxes, and is now unemployed and has nothing.  That is atleast how I have been given the story.

I think it is something very basic, but trials are there to help us.  This man is an increadible man, and was doing a lot of good before this trial in his life.  It is increadible to listen to him talk about everything and see the impact that these trials have made on him. He has gone from someone who always had the opportunity to think about other, as a doctor, to someone who only can think about himself and the situation that his life is now in. It is so simple, but the Lord needs us to focus on others.  But in this particular trial, the simplicity of thinking about others was taken away.  I think that is what has become the biggest trail for this man.  The way to overcome trials is to simple follow the Lords example and turn outward, something that is easy as a doctor, but as someone who is drowning in debt and has nothing, outward is not always the direction of focus.  The happiness that this man used to have did not come from the material possesions or money that he had, because he freely gave that away, but rather his happiness was found through helping others.  How do you help someone who thinks that their worth and ability to help others has been taken away?  I think, like always, it is centered on pride. The inability to concentrate on the basics.  He can still serve, he can still help, just not in the same compasity as before.  There was a talk given by President Uchtdorf called What Matters Most.  It speaks about times such as this and the importance of focusing on the basics.  Trials are hard, they come in a variety of forms, and in a variety of streangths.  However, the same principals stand for all trails, turn outwards, and focus on the basics. I haven't yet seen the full impact of these trials on this man, but what I can say is that the Lord knows him, and there is nothing that brings us closer to our Savior than these two simple things.  There are people all over the world experiencing different things, but there is one thing the same, we are Children of our Heavenly Father.

Viele Liebe,

Elder Blackley