Serve a mission! Anyone who wants a blessed and happy future should consider it. The Lord knows and understands even better than you what you sacrifice and you are compensated for it.
Elder Mark Ross, February 2026
Our temporarily silent piano means that pianos throughout the world have been played by our sons. Our silent piano stands in contrast to their missionary voices sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others. What a privilege to have a silent piano for a few years while a child serves a mission!
We know the story of the Flood and the covenant that God made with Enoch and Noah. In the Bible, the rainbow is the token of that covenant. We know it so well that we might consider it a great story to tell children, but find little meaning in it for ourselves.
When I read a little deeper, though, I find a beautiful lesson about God,
The Lord’s tears for the wicked who will suffer are as the rain upon the mountains.
Likewise, when Enoch sees in vision the suffering of the wicked in the flood, he weeps and thinks that he will never be comforted.
The Lord weeps for the wicked, but He doesn’t want us to weep, but look to the atonement of His Son and rejoice. Will we allow Jesus Christ to carry the burdens of our sadness, fear, weakness, and sin?
Heaven’s tears are as the rain, and the Savior is the sunlight that can cut through our darkness.
A rainbow reminds me of the Lord’s covenant. It also reminds me of a God who weeps, who is just, merciful, and sends light to shine through the tears.
Tears + Light = 🌈
A just, merciful and loving God who weeps + the Light of Hope in Christ = A Fulness of Joy 🌈
Mark’s photo of the Northern Lights from Bornholm, Denmark
Rejection is one of the greatest teachers in life. Mark is experiencing it as a missionary, and you can probably recall a time when you’ve been rejected. I think of a small rejection I faced just last week and ouch, it still hurts.
Rejection makes us see that we aren’t going to be chosen every time; we can’t all be the favorite; the gifts we prepare won’t always be appreciated; and sometimes, the precious things we share with people will be ignored.
Let’s remember that poor reception from others can’t obliterate our efforts. We haven’t failed if we have loved, sacrificed, and shown the courage to share. And if we are unable to accomplish the big things we hoped, let’s remember that our identity and our worth in God’s eyes have never been a matter of popularity, outward measures, or appearance.
…for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7
What can we do when we experience rejection? It’s tempting to get discouraged, feel like a victim, or become angry. But Jesus knows a lot about rejection, and he met it with love and truth, whatever the personal cost.
Today, I am going to keep facing the winds of possible rejection and keep loving, serving, and sharing. I also take comfort that in some things, such as temple work, we see things as they really are:
There is value in giving, even if we don’t see an immediate result.
Gradually, our church is rolling out new hymns, so it’s becoming more common for me to hear unfamiliar music at church. This hymn was sung in my parents’ sacrament meeting on Sunday and although it isn’t new, it was new to me.
It’s a beautiful prayer, and it was written by a woman I admire, Ellis Reynolds Shipp, an early female medical doctor in Utah.
Some of my favorite lines,
Calm the surges of the soul,
Bid the dark waves backward roll,
Let us all thy mercies feel,
Thru the pow’r thou dost reveal.
The storms we face are usually hidden in our souls, with dark waves and uncertainty that can feel consuming. This verse reminds me that we can ask our Heavenly Father to calm our storms. Jesus Christ showed us that He is really good at that.
I sat with a wise friend this week and we went deep about life in our 50’s, this tugging, expanding, reinventing phase of life. There are many possibilities at this age, and an innate need to mentor, serve, and teach. Our friends scatter to many pursuits.
Balancing her concerns about current events and her desire to do something about it, my friend observed that the world doesn’t need more angry people, it needs more disciples of Christ. She’s decided that discipleship will underscore her service and mentoring in her 50’s and beyond.
In my personal study of the Creation, I looked at each day and pondered what the Lord was revealing about himself.
For instance, on day 2, He created the heavens. Here were some of my thoughts,
God is aware of our specific temperature and oxygen requirements. The atmosphere protects, insulates, provides rain. = He doesn’t intend for our lives to be uncomfortable all the time. God is our protector and aids our every breath.
He prepared the atmosphere to sustain life. He prepared Jesus Christ to give life.
He provides a Comforter to be with us. During mortality, we are engulfed in heavenly help, just as we are encircled by the heavens.
Perhaps this exercise would be helpful to you. What is the Lord revealing to you about Himself through His creations?
I don’t think we’re using hashtags or saying “#Goals” anymore, but this verse is pretty aspirational for me.
Notice that Nephi says his father Lehi was obedient unto the word of the Lord. End of statement. This is a character trait of Lehi, a long-established pattern in his life. Nephi continues, “Wherefore (meaning because of this, or for this reason), [Lehi] did as the Lord commanded.”
Nephi also says he was born of goodly parents. To Nephi, GOODNESS and OBEDIENCE were defining characteristics of his parents, so (of course) they would do what the Lord asked of them.
I have parents like this, and they have been missing from our lives for a year because they have been serving a mission. This is their second mission together. They served as mission leaders for three years when they were in their fifties, and now they are in their seventies. They have been serving in Puerto Rico where my dad served as a young missionary in the early 1970’s.
I can say of my parents, “They are obedient, so they answered the call for more senior missionaries to serve.”
They come home this week. I have their car in my driveway, a nice bedroom waiting for them because they fly in so late, and flags to wave at the airport. Hooray!
In honor of President Jeffrey R. Holland who passed away last week, Mark and I spent a lot of time sharing with one another our favorite talks by this beloved Apostle. After our call ended, I took a minute to appreciate the privilege of having such a conversation with a 19-year-old.
There are so many talks that we shared and there are many that I love. If I had to choose just one, it would be The Grandeur of God from 2003. I keep it folded in my scriptures for ready reference. Here are some of my favorite words,
God, in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.
To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim—speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do—this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it, and He did it. Then, when the praise and honor began to come, He humbly directed all adulation to the Father.
“The Father … doeth the works,” He said in earnest. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” On another occasion He said: “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me.” “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”
He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came.
So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness.” In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, “This is God’s compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own.”
I am so blessed to have had Elder Holland’s witness of Christ through my years of important decisions, marriage, and all the years of raising children. Apparently, he spoke at my middle school because his youngest son was in my class, but I don’t have a memory of it. Foggy middle school years aside, he was very influential in my life and I will miss him.
