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Good afternoon, Once, there was a man who bought a neglected farm that hadn't been taken care of for years. While cleaning and fixing it up, he found a currant bush that had grown really tall and provided good shade, but it wasn't producing its beautiful, colorful fruit. Without hesitating, he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stems. After pruning, drops could be seen coming from the stems, almost like tears, as if the currant bush itself was crying. The man couldn't help but imagine the bush complaining, thinking as if it were saying: "Why did you do this to me? I was growing so tall and beautiful... and now you've cut me down. All the other plants mock me and look at me with scorn... How could you do this to me? I thought you were the one who would care for me in this place." Naturally, the man responded to this imagined complaint, saying: "Look, little currant bush, I'm the gardener here and I know what you need to become. You're not a shade tree; you're a currant bush, and someday, little shrub, when you're loaded with beautiful, red currants, you'll surely say to me, 'Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to prune me.'" In our personal lives, we face and will face many moments of uncertainty, doubt, and challenges that can test our being, self-esteem, decisions, friends, partners, and also our faith and trust in the church. Faith, according to the church's teachings, is having strong hope or belief in a person or thing. In a spiritual sense, trust also means to completely rely on God and His Spirit. We can say that faith and trust are closely connected. When the Savior was on earth, especially on His final journey to Jerusalem as His days were coming to an end, He taught both His disciples and His critics, as well as those who approached Him, about forgiveness, faith, the kingdom of heaven, etc. One teaching that particularly catches my attention, recorded in the book of Luke in the Bible, talks about the Savior's coming: Luke 17 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot's wife. What did Jesus Christ mean by this statement? Recapping briefly, Lot escaped from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah before God destroyed them. The story tells us that Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Perhaps this woman was resentful and looked back at her past and what she was leaving behind, or as Elder Holland, a special witness of the Lord, teaches: she looked back with longing; her attachment to the past had a greater influence on her than her trust in the future, or in other words, she lacked faith and doubted the Lord's ability to give her something better than what she already had. Recently, I heard a friend share some of his experiences. After a long period of depression, this friend made the decision to change his life, start a digital business, train himself in topics related to his business, and with all the new habits he is forming, it has allowed him to reconcile with his family, forgive his debtors, and also return to church. Amidst all this, he said to me with strong conviction: "I have to leave the past behind, I have to forget how successful I once was, the musician I was, and the many activities I did; I have to become a new me..." Apart from being happy about what is happening in my friend's life, it made me reflect that looking back can truly turn us into a pillar of salt, where we do not trust in the ability to have a better future, or the pillar of salt that no longer trusts people, or the pillar of salt that immobilizes us and makes us stop believing in a heavenly Father who extends His hand to us. The neurologist and psychologist Viktor Frankl once said that pessimism is based on a lack of self-confidence, and optimism is based on self-confidence. Coach Tony Robbins often says something like this: "The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself." So, the question is: what am I doing right now that is turning me into a pillar of salt? Or perhaps what am I doing to stop being a pillar of salt? And for those who are not pillars of salt, what are they doing to avoid falling into the comfort zone of looking back and becoming a pillar of salt? But what about the spiritual aspect? Elder Holland talks about not looking back with the example of Lot's wife and teaches that faith is for the future. Faith is based on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ is truly the "high priest of good things to come." I can't help but think of the story of Limhi and his people, recorded in the Book of Mormon, which can be a perfect example of trust and faith. At that time, this king and his people were enslaved by their enemies, and after hope for possible liberation, he speaks to his people, and what he says is recorded in the book of Mosiah as follows: Mosiah 7 33 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage. They trusted in their collective work capabilities, and also that if they continued to obey God's laws, they would be liberated from slavery at some point. Elder Gong, in the April 2021 general conference, taught us that trust becomes real when we do difficult things with faith. Service and sacrifice increase capacity and refine the heart. Trust in God and trust in one another bring blessings from heaven. Trust in God can sometimes mean exercising faith despite some doubts we may have, as Elder Soares teaches: the adversary tries to use our logic and reasoning against us; he tries to convince us that living the principles of the Gospel is useless. The natural man’s logic "does not discern the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." I know these things can help us, and the Lord wants us to trust in ourselves and above all in Him. He has a better path for us. Are we becoming pillars of salt, pillars that do not trust in our ability, or in Jesus Christ and His gospel? In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.