11 May 2020 - Spiritual Thought - Tender Mercy Hosting Video Conferences by Elder Edward Drummond

Spiritual Thought 11 May 2020

Tender Mercy Hosting Video Conferences
Elder Edward Drummond

Life on a mission is a journey of discovery. We each have responsibilities to master, testimonies to grow and things to learn. I quickly learned we are not alone. The most important thing I have learned is that Heavenly Father and Angels are with each one of us on a minute by minute basis. Our seemingly minor trials are of concern for those on the both sides of the veil. They are quick to help.  This we can rely.  Daily, I am strengthened by the personal examples from those in our Mission Office on the third floor of the JSMB. They're positive, helpful, and of good cheer.  I could not do my job without them. They are people you want to be around.

On March 10^th 2020, the effects of the Coronavirus hit our mission. As a result, all mission buildings on Temple Square were closed and missionaries were to shelter in place. Overnight we became dependent on video conferencing to reach missionaries confined to their residences. Quickly, the Mission Office began to explore two video conferencing technologies: Cisco Webex and Zoom. My role was to make these operational. After a week and half, I thought I had mastered the two technologies. Webex had the advantage of unlimited participants, long session times, and security. However, our first large attendance test meeting with the whole mission was humbling. Video conference etiquette was being learned by our population of missionaries and the best configuration of Webex was still not clearly understood. During that meeting I was juggling between muting participants and real-time reconfiguring equipment. President Fenn was very charitable and said it went well for our first attempt. To me it was a disaster and we had another meeting in two days.  All the next morning I tested the Webex setup and felt we had a better chance for a more successful next video conference.

At 1:00 pm, I thought to myself that our coming Mission Video Conference to 300 people to "Start the Worldwide Fast" for the pandemic would go well. At 2:00 pm, two angels visited me that day and my viewpoint changed. The angels were Elder and Sister Welsh. They stopped by my cubicle and said they had years of experience with Cisco Webex and could they be of help.  They literally saved me. They helped me prepare a PowerPoint to play introductory music for the conference that President Fenn wanted to set the mood. Together, we set up a test which soon showed that our configuration of Webex could not transmit quality music reliably.  Unfortunately, we had to abandon the music option for the conference.

The Welches offered to be my co-pilots during the conference. There I saw that large participant video conferences are at least a 2-person job.  During the conference, they solved problems on the fly. They made the conference do-able. Without them I would have not known what to do. Later, they explained some of the causes of our technical problems. I said to them they were my angels to come to my aid in my time of need.  Help also came in the form of Elder Jacob Dunn and Elder Jameson Devine who reliably hosted Webex conferences became my Webex "Whisperers" to clarify how to reliably use Webex.

I learned we are not alone. I am grateful that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ knew what I needed before I did.  It was a tender mercy.