Is the World Getting Better or Worse?

Hey everyone, it's been a great week!! It went by so fast!!! Speaking of going too fast, tomorrow marks 8 months in the mission, literally cannot believe that I have already completed 1/3rd of my mission!! That is insane!!! (And 80 days of that has been stuck inside in quarantine

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We had a mission conference this week and President Galli told us some exciting news!! We got some exciting news, We can start doing baptisms. Only allowed in private pools or the beach with police permission. Only 4 people allowed, the confirmation is done there, and you can videocall it! And in some sad news, we probably won't get any new missionaries until October 6th. We have 122 right now, by then we'll have 96 and supposedly that transfer, receive 75 new missionaries!!!!!! Which is INSANE!!! Basically every single person will be training! We'll have to open 28 areas! I have no idea how that will work!

I was listening to a BYU devotional from Truman G. Madsen (I think..) yesterday and he said something that has left me thinking about it all day yesterday and today. He said, "Students ask me, 'Do you think the world is getting better or worse?' And I always answer, 'Yes.' The wheat is getting Wheat-ier and the tares are getting tare-ier" I have been thinking about that a lot, I feel like right now all we hear in the news or from anyone is the bad in the world. I mean let's be real, we have a world-wide pandemic, floods, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, famines, tornadoes, locust swarm, raids, fires, murder, and wars, just to name a few. (Hmm typing that really felt like reading the book of Revelation

) I mean, that's pretty bad, so is the Earth actually getting better? I really like what he said about it, basically the bad is getting worse and the good is getting better! After thinking about that a lot, I have realised just how true that is! We've already covered how the bad is getting worse, now let's think a little bit about how the good is getting better. I think this one here is a little bit more personal, so I'd like to invite each of you to spend some time thinking about that, but I'll share some of the things I have found! For me personally, during this quarantine, I have seen miracle after miracle. Too many incredible experiences to be coincidence, too many things falling into place perfectly. Another example is just the amount of service and love and humility I have seen from people worldwide, I have seen a whole lot more humility and selflessness than I have of the opposite. I have seen on Facebook, people in their most desperate times of need, humbly asking for prayers, and then hundreds or thousands of people commenting and showing love and support. There are countless things that are getting better, let's expand our vision just a little bit to realise which side of the spectrum we are on. Are we letting the events happening in the world make us worse or make us better?

A lot of things aren't in our control, but the way we react to the circumstances are.

I truly love you all so much, please tell me what ways you have seen the earth becoming better during this incredibly hard time!!