[MUSIC PLAYING] Driving up the 94 from West Des Moines, Iowa, and seeing the suburbs and then seeing kind of the city as you see it from the freeway and looking at my wife, going, "Oh, boy." We moved here about seven and a half years ago for Josh's residency program. We were planning to be here just for three years. When we came out house hunting, it was shocking. We looked at, I think, 26 houses in three days. And you drive a mile in any direction, and you go from a normal neighborhood to a house where there's--every third house is empty and falling apart. There's weeds five feet tall. Empty lots. Rubble. Burnt-out houses. We were out here. My wife actually didn't even unpack some of the boxes that we had when we moved here just because, "No, I don't need to unpack them. We'll be gone in three years once we're done residency." Josh is a podiatrist working for Henry Ford Hospital. And so when this job came along with this hospital locally in Detroit, we talked about it and I think I was the one who first said, "This feels like the right thing to do." And she was like, "Actually, that's what I've been feeling all along too." We knew that our family could have the opportunities to serve here and make a difference here more so than elsewhere. It was a culture shock for us initially, but we've gotten used to it. This is home now. We all struggle. And sometimes it's where everybody can see how we're struggling, and sometimes it's private, personal. And we can't know what somebody is going through. But when we're on the Lord's errand, oftentimes it's through somebody else that He answers our prayers. And so sometimes the service that you give might be the answer to somebody else's prayer or their need that they're facing. Today we're just driving a friend. She doesn't have a vehicle and needed to get her financial aid papers notarized today. So we're just giving her a ride. I love that my kids get to see us helping. To see people helping people, it changes you. It changes you for the better. With the poverty comes a--specifically in Detroit, which is generational poverty. Basically they become entitled to think that what they receive now is what they're supposed to get and that's just their lot in life. And so when people's needs, physical needs are that immediate, it occupies their entire mind. I've had those situations before where the temporal needs of my family--and there's nothing else that can occupy your mind. We've had to receive help from the Church for food. We had a Christmas where it was the last year of our med school. And we had cereal and peanut butter and milk and eggs. Our student loans were supposed to come in in September, and it was now December. They still hadn't come in. And they ended up not coming in until March. We were preparing to have some just-add-water pancakes for our Christmas dinner. Not ideal. Somehow it slipped in talking with one of my sisters. And next thing I know, I had a FedEx package. She had let a different sister know, and she overnighted cash to cover our groceries so we could go out and get some real food in the meantime. And then we were able to receive some help through talking with the bishop to help with a couple of our bills and things so that we could live.

It was humbling to be on that end, but it allowed me an opportunity to know that my Heavenly Father and my Savior are aware of me, of my struggles and my needs.

My prayers were answered.

And it's feeling that on that end. If there is a way that I can be of help to somebody else who is feeling a little bit like they've been knocked down, it's a blessing both ways.

Josh has been the bishop for, it'll be two years in January. He works hard. He does the work because he loves our ward. We both do. We love our ward. Service will do that to you. And service can change you. If you want to learn to love somebody or something, service. I felt that both on the giving end and on the receiving end, that--there's the scripture--when you serve your fellowmen, you're only serving your God. I have a firm belief and testimony that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that will resurrect and reinvigorate Detroit. And as the local stakes and areas have turned their attention to serving in the community, which we have with the Personal Storehouse Project, you will see testimonies growing. You'll see people change. And so what I'd want people to know is that Detroit has a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and is gaining it more day by day. [MUSIC PLAYING]