Last night, I attended a mission reunion for the mission I served in Antananarivo, Madagascar between 2001 and 2003. It was an emotional and fulfilling experience. It was so wonderful to see old friends and people who had such a huge influence on my life.
My mission was hard. For me, it was an emotionally draining experience. But it caused me to have deeper and more meaningful relationships with people and with God than I had ever had. The experiences I had on my mission have had a huge and deep impact on me ever since. Most of the consequences have been blessings. Others have been like lingering scars, occasionally flaring up. But I wear those scars with pride.
It was sweet, bitter, fulfilling and almost overwhelming to meet, hug and reconnect with some of the people who shared some of those experiences with me. I'm so grateful for it.
A few nights ago, I opened my Book of Mormon and read to my children the 11th chapter of 3rd Nephi which is the story of Jesus’ visit to the Nephite people. As I read it, I felt a strong feeling of peace come over me. I’ve had this feeling many times before when I read the Book of Mormon to investigators on my mission and I was grateful that two of my children were listening (the other two got bored). I hope that they were feeling that same peace which I recognize as the Holy Spirit.
My mission was hard. For me, it was an emotionally draining experience. But it caused me to have deeper and more meaningful relationships with people and with God than I had ever had. The experiences I had on my mission have had a huge and deep impact on me ever since. Most of the consequences have been blessings. Others have been like lingering scars, occasionally flaring up. But I wear those scars with pride.
It was sweet, bitter, fulfilling and almost overwhelming to meet, hug and reconnect with some of the people who shared some of those experiences with me. I'm so grateful for it.
A few nights ago, I opened my Book of Mormon and read to my children the 11th chapter of 3rd Nephi which is the story of Jesus’ visit to the Nephite people. As I read it, I felt a strong feeling of peace come over me. I’ve had this feeling many times before when I read the Book of Mormon to investigators on my mission and I was grateful that two of my children were listening (the other two got bored). I hope that they were feeling that same peace which I recognize as the Holy Spirit.
I feel a gratitude for the Mormon church for bringing this book to my ancestors.
One of those ancestors was John
Linford. John and his family converted to the church in the 1850s in England
and joined the Mormon pioneers to Utah in 1856.
John didn’t make it. As a part of
the Willie handcart company, he and his family encountered winter and he became sick as the weather turned worse. As he lay dying his wife, Maria, asked him
if he regretted leaving England to travel to Utah.
“No, Maria, I am glad we came. I shall not live to reach Salt Lake, but you and the boys will, and I do not regret all we have gone through if our boys can grow up and raise their families in Zion.”[1]
The vision of "Zion" of the early pioneers is very inspiring. It was a view that motivated them to sacrifice for their posterity. They were leaving their old homes in the hopes of finding a place where they could peacefully build a new society and live their religion without persecution. They weren't fighting to get power or trying to get someone to give them a handout. They were sacrificing for the right to scrape out a living in a desert and they were determined to make it "blossom as a rose" as the bible says.
They established a beautiful foundation for my society, which is, on the whole, a peaceful, happy and prosperous one.
The church does so much good today. My parents recently completed serving as service missionaries. Their duties were to help women who were transitioning from jail back into society. My sweet mother would sometimes go to the very rough homeless shelter downtown to serve the women there. They would often visit the jails and assist with the transition process which, for some reason, usually happened after midnight. They obtained donations from many individuals: housing, food, clothing, jobs and counseling services. My parents were not paid a dime for their efforts (although they did have expenses reimbursed). The church fosters a culture of service, helping and teaching. There is a massive amount of resources that go from the rich down to the poor and needy in the church and even those out of the church.
Is the church perfect? No. But at its core, it's a pearl.
Its core message is that God is real and that He has a plan for us. Not just us individually (although that's true and important) but that He has a plan for us collectively. In order to bring about that plan, He created the LDS church as His kingdom on earth. It is His instrument in bringing His teachings to the world.
Its core message is that God is real and that He has a plan for us. Not just us individually (although that's true and important) but that He has a plan for us collectively. In order to bring about that plan, He created the LDS church as His kingdom on earth. It is His instrument in bringing His teachings to the world.
A belief in God changes you. You can't help it. It makes you more willing to sacrifice immediate pleasures for long term joys, including joys for your posterity that you won't personally experience. This belief sustained me in my mission and helped me forge bonds with a lot of people that I would never have met otherwise.
[1] https://www.lds.org/ensign/2016/07/true-to-the-faith-of-our-forefathers?lang=eng
