Chapter 66: Deliverer

"And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell."

Doctrine and Covenants 138:28

Another crazy week; just for some perspective, right now I am in a city called Cork in the south of the Republic of Ireland. In this past week, I have traveled around the entirety of the mission, starting up in the northernmost part of Scotland in Aberdeen, down to Dundee, Edinburgh, over to Glasgow and Paisley, then over the sea to Belfast, then down to Dublin and now over to Cork and Limerick. Tomorrow, we will head up to Galway and then back to Belfast and home to Edinburgh.

It's been a lot of driving and I'm really tired, but it has also been a lot of fun. My companions and I have really enjoyed being together this trip. The purpose of our trip has been to deliver all of the Christmas packages to all of the missionaries across the mission.

Unfortunately, due to rising COVID numbers in the UK and Ireland, our Christmas Zone Conferences had to be canceled, which was really hard news to first hear and then pass on. The backup plan was packing up the mission van and sending us to bring Christmas and hopefully a bit of joy to an overall disheartened mission. I really do hope we've been successful.

As we've driven from town to town and city to city delivering these gifts, I've tried to spend some time pondering on the greatest gift we've ever been given and how He delivers us from so much.

In all honesty, with being so busy as of late, it's been hard for me to have the time to connect with God in a way that I've gotten used to on my mission. I've realized that it really is so easy to become "too busy" for the simple thing—but—it's not worth it.

Jesus Christ chose to condescend, to take upon him an imperfect, mortal body in order to give us opportunity to not only return to live with our Heavenly Parents again, but to even just feel close to them through The Spirit. When we don't take it upon ourselves to seek this connection, we forge our chains of ignorance and apathy, ultimately destructively, and oftentimes passively, distancing ourselves from God.

I think this happens to all of us. That's just the nature of our lives here.

The hope is, then, that we have a Redeemer and Deliverer from the chains of hell, those chains we ironically forge. At any point, we can "seek this Jesus" and allow Christ to help us in our desires to connect more.fully with Him and our Heavenly Parents (Ether 12:41).

This Christmas season, I invite you all to accept Christ as your Deliverer, accept the miraculous gift of His Atoning Sacrifice, ponder His wondrous birth, and follow his example in serving others. Your Christmas will be unforgettable.

Life is good.

God is wise.

Don't give up.

Elder Childers

Prepping all the presents

Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeen

Chilos in Glasgow with Elder Lambert and Elder Moeller

In the Ferry over to BE

Tasty Hut in Dublin

Us in Cork