Some Old Experiences

Lately, I have been pondering the mission and my life now. The mission was a great experience and a great tool for igniting the ever burning flames of my spiritual fire. Like two great stones striking each other and setting in motion the spark that would enlighten my path through life. For those of you who are heading out on the mission, I would ask you to reflect on your life now and then, in 1 1/2 or 2 years from now, to ponder again on where your life is at that moment. Hopefully, some of you have been keeping journals and will continue to do so. Hopefully, you have been searching those sacred scriptures. Hopefully, your prayers have been more meaningful, heartfelt and sincere.

The mission is a wonderful place to fine tune your senses and more importantly to fine tune your spiritual senses. Yes, you need to have fun on the mission and enjoy serving the people around you, but at the same time never forget who you are, where you come from and what you are doing.

I remember some moments in the mission that were very sobering eye openers. I have shared some of those in past posts. One moment was entering my second area, Pueblo Nuevo Viñas with my fourth companion Elder Storer. On our trip to the area, we discussed our goals and discussed the efforts that had been made in that area. Apparently, his former companion, didn't really care for the mission and really thought of it all as more of a vacation than anything else. He reasoned that he was paying for it and by that reasoning alone that there shouldn't be any rules or efforts made to preach, unless it was convenient for him. Unfortunately, this former companion was only transferred to our District Leader and his attitude had permeated into the rest of the companionships in the district.

It was hard for me to understand. I wasn't perfect by any means. Heck, I wasn't even trying. I was just trying to adjust to being in Guatemala and speaking Spanish and still trying to preach the Gospel. This attitude they all had was hard to comprehend. Why come to the mission field if you didn't want to preach? What was the point? What was the point of wasting your time and your money if you didn't want to participate? It made no sense to me.

My companion and I decided that we didn't care what the rest of them did, that we would continue praying, studying, and preaching the best we could. Did we have success? A little. The Pueblo had already been affected by many different Elders, that didn't want to preach there or just wanted to flirt with every girl in town. So it was difficult. But we plowed through it all. We had a tiny little branch of about 8 people that met in a run-down tiny cement shack. Somehow, through it all, my companion and I were able to baptize an awesome, humble young man named Byron. It was our only baptism there, but he was golden and later went on to serve a mission.

He was pretty much the only baptism in that area for a long time. Shortly after my companion and I had separated to different areas, Pueblo was closed.

Some years later, I visited that small Pueblo with some friends. I found my old Branch President, who was still the Branch President. I ran into his sister who had blamed me for getting married to some young man, that I only vaguely remembered. I asked her if was all that bad and she replied that he would work all day and get home late and hardly see him. I went out of my way and asked her if they were still praying and searching the scriptures and she replied that they were. Then I asked her if she really felt that I had made a mistake by assisting her in her decision to marry him. She only replied, "No, it has been a Celestial marriage since then."

The mission will bring you sadness, tears, and heart wrenching decisions that you'll have to make. You may miss the funeral of a loved one, have a girlfriend tell you that she is getting married or even have family and friends turn away from the Church. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You will find unsurmountable joy and answers to your prayers. You will find the angelic support like a soft blanket to surround you for serving. You will find love, a love that is so deep and beyond anything imagineable for the people you serve. You will find humility and direction for your life. You will find your tears of sadness converted to tears of joy.

All I can say, is never give up and never give in. Serve with all of your heart, with all your mind, with all of your might and with all of your strength and Heavenly Father will bless you. He will bless you and surround you with His love. Never forget that, never forget.