In the summer of 1977, I was on my mission and a district leader in the city of Tampico, Mexico. While I was there, Elder Dean L. Larson from the First Quorum of the Seventy came to speak at a stake conference. I was asked to translate for him. On Saturday, in between leadership meetings, we talked about the Gospel. I remember to this day almost everything he told me.

We started talking about the latter days. With time, Elder Larson assured me, society would deteriorate. On his notepad, Elder Larsen drew two diverging exponential curves. One line curved up from its origin and the second line curved downwards from the origin. He told me that in the latter days, people would decide to follow one of these two curves. The majority of the earth’s population would follow the descending, increasingly unrighteous curve. In response, the righteous would have to further separate themselves from that society and take an ascending curve of increased righteousness towards God.

I have always wondered what that separation would look like. Now, these many years later, I think I am witnessing the beginnings of that separation.