September 7, 2026

This week has been a bit of a mess with lots of travels and conferences, but all good things! This last Monday night we headed up to Madrid for a conference and we spoke a lot about having a vision and how we come to not only complete, but live and love our dreams. We watched "Boys in the Boat" as well and spoke about becoming one as missionaries! 

After a quick stint in Sanlúcar on Friday we had a Zone Conference in Jerez. We spoke about the account in Mark of the leprous man being brought to Jesus. How much joy must his friends have felt knowing that they played a part in his healing. Who in our lives might need this healing and how can we bring them to the One who can do it? 

This last Saturday we had the opportunity to teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ to a friend named Cesar. He has seen and done things that may make one think they are not worthy of forgiveness or peace. The message of Jesus Christ is that you are worthy, and invited in fact, to come to Him through baptism and forget those past sins, becoming a new creature through His power. Teaching such principles to someone who doesn't know them before is a powerful experience.

To top off the week, and my Spain tour, on Sunday we had Stake Conference in San Fernando. Along with other talks, President Obando spoke of how even a little peace and investment can have such a large impact. During WW2 the United States spent trillions (inflation adjusted) in defense and military expenditures. That eclipsed the spending of the first World War which ended in the humiliation and future conflict of the defeated nations. After the Second World War the US spent about 4% of those defense expenditures instead to investors in and activate the economies of Europe in the Marshall Plan. All this to say...How do we deal with conflict? Do we waste time, energy, and emotional resources to continue fighting? Do we humiliate and seek to control those we with which we have conflict? Could we instead seek for peace and use a fraction of that energy to build up and support? Sorry for the long and wordy historical example, but I liked the idea. 

I have been thinking recently about my influence here or what I have achieved and what I would like to achieve. I sometimes worry that what I'm doing may not have any real long term influence. I would like to share the definition of an idea call the "Butterfly Effect."

"A negligible perturbation in initial conditions that amplifies into a non-negligible divergence in outcome."

Do we often feel our actions are negligible, forgettable even? The beauty of this definition means that even still, there may be a great outcome. There are so many stories from my mission of those little contacts becoming great friends and from baptisms leading to many more. Sometimes we may start a chain without knowing where it will end. 

D&C 64:33

33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind

Elder Dougall