8 Weeks in the Flat

Chance has spent a LOT of time in his flat. I bet he knows every nook and granny of the place he calls home. 

He may be spending a lot of time in his flat, but he has been able to see some incredible things

on his daily walks judging from the pictures he takes.

The cathedral in front of the sun.

An artillery tower.

A really old boat dock stop.

Being out and seeing nature is really good for Chance's mental health.

He loves all things nature and being able to see animals.

He has always been this way.

I am sure that seeing the duck in the pond was a special treat for him.

Here is what Chance had to say this week in his weekly email home:

大家好!

Hello everybody! Another week has come and gone, it seems to fly by like it did when we were outside now. Which is really weird. It has been 54 (7 weeks, 5 days) days since we have been inside. People keep asking me how I do this, and how I have not been going insane. It kind of surprises me too. I have gone a little insane, don't get me wrong, If I hadn't, then there would be something wrong with me haha. I think a lot of it has been that we've been able to continue to focus on others and their needs even though we are all inside. We have been working with a lot of members and this past week we have been able to communicate with a couple of people that could potentially be interested in the Gospel so we will see how that goes!
We haven't been able to teach a whole lot of nonmembers since we have been inside. Most of the people we were teaching returned back to China. However, we have been able to learn a lot of lessons while in Isolation. I have learned a lot about patience, humility, and other things while here. It has been amazing. As my mission president's wife, Sister Green told me last week, "You are getting a crashcourse of a whole lot of lessons that will set you up for the rest of your life." It's so true! We can all learn lessons that will help us when we come out of Quarantine.

I want to share a thought with you that I got from a BYU speech that Elder Bednar gave called, "In the Strength of the Lord." He said:

"There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, “No one understands. No one knows.” No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power."

I love this. The Savior understands you and I perfectly, even in quarantine. This event is no surprise to him. He felt all of this before it even happened. In those times when you feel annoyed, angry, frustrated, sad, lonely, or anything else in this circumstance, know that the Savior understands. It doesn't just take remembering the Savior and his sacrifice that is going to help us, we have to act. We need to call upon the enabling power of Christ to cover all of our weaknesses, imprefections, and mistakes. We need to pray and say, I need help with this situation I am going through, please give me the strength to endure through it.
In this talk he talks a lot about how in times of hardships, instead of asking to be delivered FROM our trials, we need to ask to be delivered IN our trials.
I invite you to read through this talk. It has a lot of amazing insights and it helped me understand so much more about what the Atonement of Christ is. Here is the link for the talk.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/david-a-bednar/strength-lord/

Pictures: We've been able to explore a lot of England on our walks everyday!