Christmas Day 2022

 

Today, Christmas Day, my heart is filled with love and gratitude. My wife and I live with other senior couples in duplexes just a few hundred yards from where the Smiths lived. We can see the Sacred Grove from our windows. The Smiths celebrated about twelve Christmases here. This is our second. I miss my family, my children, grandchildren, brothers, and friends very much, and I should be lonely, being so far away from them, but I’m not. Why? Because I’m serving my Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ at one of the most sacred places on earth, and their love fills this place. From here, 204 years ago this spring, that love began to pour out upon the whole earth. My wife and I feel so blessed to be here.

How did we get here? Being called on a mission as a senior couple in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a little different than when the young men or women are called on a mission. We are given the opportunity to list the places where we would like to go, and though it’s not certain that we will serve there, it is likely.

In the spring of 2021, Covid had finally lost some of its grip on the world and my wife and I decided to serve another mission. We began filling out the papers online. We were given the opportunity to list a maximum of 8 places where we would like to serve. This place, Palmyra, New York, was number one in both our hearts, but we felt selfish choosing the place we really wanted to go to. So, we placed it down the list and put areas with critical needs and where we had skills high on the list. Three weeks later, we got our call by email from President Nelson and the Missionary Department of the Church. Imagine our surprise and joy when we saw that we were called to serve here, at the New York and Pennsylvania Historic Sites. We were so amazed.

Now, nearly eighteen months after leaving on our mission, I’m a changed man. Though contention, anger, and polarization still fill the headlines of the online news, I feel none of it. My heart is drawn out with love to all of Heavenly Father’s children, my brothers and sisters. It does not matter if they are of my religion or even religious, I love them. Contention and anger are gone from my heart as well as fear and distrust. “How did that happen?” you might ask. There are many reasons, I’ve been praying for just these feelings, but more than anything else it comes from this place. We’re living just a stone throw from where God the Father and His Son appeared to a fourteen-year-old boy. There is still an incredible Spirit there. In the last eighteen months, I’ve had the opportunity to talk about these places with people from Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, England, China, Taiwan, Japan, Ukraine, Croatia, Germany, Australia, Tahiti, New Zealand, Tanzania, South Afrika, not to mention just about every state in the United States and every province in Canada, and the list goes on.  

With every single person that I’ve talked to, I’ve felt Heavenly Father’s love for them welling in my own heart. Is it any wonder that I’m a changed man?

On this Christmas Day, the world seems like a much smaller and warmer place to me. I’m not blind to the problems, but I know that everything is going to work out. What a wonderful place this world is going to be someday, when all of us feel the same, incredible love that now fills my heart.

A Stroll Down Stafford Road

 

My brother, Kris, reminded me that I hadn’t been writing in my blog, and I agreed with him that it is high time that I share the feelings and experiences of this place.

Today, we worked as tour guides at the Smith Farm. Although I have walked Stafford Road, which passes through the middle of the Farm, many times, I always sense the same, wonderful spirit as I walk down it through the farm fields, past the apple orchard, and to the heart of the farm. I know that I am walking where the Prophet Joseph Smith had walked countless times as a young man, and where his mother, father, brothers, sisters, and his wife also walked. The testimony of all those people seems to surround me, as I see the same sights they saw. I can almost hear their voices in the fields as they worked. The Smith family lived here for nearly 12 years, working together. They were a very close-knit family.

As I have learned the stories told about their time here by Lucy, the mother, and by others in the family, I have grown to sense their complete support for their son and brother, Joseph Smith Jr. They believed that he had seen the Father and the Son and that he was meeting with the Angel Moroni. They saw the covered golden plates and hefted them as they helped Joseph to protect them. His mother, father, brothers and sisters and also his wife, who knew him very well, were willing to sacrifice everything to follow him as he left the farm and followed the Lord’s directions.

That’s what I sense when I walk down Stafford Road, not just Joseph but his whole family confirming that it is all true.

Home Safely

One of my favorite movies is “Apollo Thirteen”. In that movie after Tom Hanks and his crew have landed safely, he sends a final broadcast to Houston telling them that they have landed and that help is at hand and then he signs off for the last time. As a viewer I always feel joy in that moment.

Our mission is now behind us. There are so many wonderful memories and friends. I am grateful beyond measure to my Father in Heaven for the experiences that He blessed us with and for the opportunities that he guided us to. My faith and testimony have grown immensely over the last 18 months. My love for my wife has grown. She is truly my eternal companion.

In our final week our ward, the Huehuecalco Ward, had a special family home evening for us. The bishop gave a talk in this meeting, thanking us for our service in his ward. He quoted this scripture:

Doctrine and Covenants 18:

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Our joy is great.

Conclusions

Last night a wonderful thing occurred. In April of this year I wrote of a young teenager with strength that marveled me. She had lost her mother a few months before and her father was an alcoholic. Yet, when I went into her house it was beautiful, looking very much like a very well kept teenager’s bedroom. Xazmin is her name and though she was only seventeen years old, she was meeting her trials head on. You would never guess her strength at first knowing her. She is quite shy and timid in nature. Last night I baptized her into the Lord’s Church and today I was part of the circle that confirmed her. I told her as we parted today that she was an elect daughter of our Father-in-Heaven. Her father was there for baptism and for her confirmation. I told him what a blessed man he was to have such a daughter.

Last January I baptized a young man named Alain. Since that time, he has fallen into inactivity. I sent him a text this week, telling him that we were leaving and that we really wanted to see him. He came to Church to day. I was so happy to have him there. He asked me to give him a blessing tomorrow. I’m hoping that this will be time for renewal and rededication for him.

On Saturday, we turned the mission office over to the three elders that are taking our place. It was hard to leave a place in which we have had so many good memories and experiences. There were tears shed.

My experience here in Mexico has been far more wonderful than I would have ever imagined. I have loved so many people and felt their love. Above it all I have felt the love of my Heavenly Father as I spend my time serving his beloved children. He has blessed me with the assurance that it is all very true. This is His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality of his children. It has been His presence through me and his Spirit that has so touched His children here and I have been deeply blessed to be a part of it. I love the young people that my wife and I have been called to serve with. What incredibly good men and women they are. And despite all of the troubles that discomfort our world my faith and hope are increased by all that I have experienced, known, and seen. Through Him there is great hope of everything ending well.

Our Next to the Last Week

I thought that I would share with you the busy week that we have just completed. On Monday after working at the office, we hosted our entire zone of more than twenty elders and sisters in a BBQ at our house. President and Sister Zapata and Doctor Ortiz and his family came too. We purchased a box of sixty hamburgers and not a single one remained. We love our missionaries, the Ortizs and the Zapatas so much. We are so blessed to be able to know them.

Tuesday we made an hour a half trip with two of the missionaries that are replacing us to Cuautla to show them the ropes down there. While there we had the chance to say goodbye (since this will be our last trip to Cuautla) to a few of our beloved missionaries.

Wednesday we took two families to the Mexico City Temple to do baptisms for the dead. This will be a beginning for both of them which will lead to their being sealed together as an eternal family in a year after the baptisms of the sisters. It was a very special and wonderful experience to share with them. I have no doubt they will return at the end of their year.

Thursday after work we went to Hermana Arenas house to have a delightful meal, this in preparation for my wife’s final visit to the dentist (Hermana Arenas is a dentist and very dear friend). After that we went to Chrise’s final piano class. My wife has taught and graduated many students in our time here. This was her last class and I think her best one. We felt so much love and gratitude from the students and their parents.

Friday, which is our day of rest, we went shopping in Amecameca. We found just about everything we were looking for and then had a splendid dinner at the Castle of the Deer (we didn’t eat venison).

Yesterday after work, we went to another wonderful dinner at Hermana Arenas’s house. After which we went to and equally wonderful baptism service. Elena, Hermana Areana’s daughter, had asked me to baptize her. We ended by going to Sara’s house in Ayapango. They were just about the first people that we taught when we arrived here in Mexico. Though they have yet to accept the Gospel, I have faith that they will. They are very dear friends and they invited us over to the birthday celebration of their granddaughter.

Perhaps you can see now why my wife and I feel so blessed here on our mission in Mexico. Check my wife's Facebook page for pictures. 

Bringing Families Together

Several months ago our former mission president, President Crickmore, transferred us to a ward called Huehuecalco. From the start we have felt the inspiration of that move. We’ve been able to help several people, with whom the Lord brought us together.

On Wednesday, we went to the Mexico City Temple with Magdalena and two sister missionaries. For a number of weeks, we had been preparing her by teaching her about the temple and helping her to find some ancestors for whom she could do the work. We found information for her to do two sets of grandparents. The tranquility and power of the temple touched her deeply as did the opportunity to perform baptisms and confirmations for her ancestors, beginning to the work of uniting an eternal family.

Last night we baptized a woman named Alma. She is the one that I talked about last week, who had resisted the efforts of missionaries for several years. Her husband spoke at the service and tears flowed freely as he told of his many years of prayers and hope for this moment when his family would now have the opportunity to be sealed in the temple for all eternity.

One of the prime efforts of our missionary work is bring families together.

On Dying and Living

In the mission there are many sayings to parallel life. When a young missionary comes into the field, they are born and their first senior companion is their father or mother. When a missionary leaves for home, he is said to have died and his last companion is like an undertaker, preparing him for death.

Chrise and I have about 3 and half weeks in the mission. Suddenly, there is not enough time to get everything done that we want to get done. So many people we want to see and investigators that we want see baptized. Its eerie to realize that practically everyone left in the mission will outlive us in a mission sense (and probably in a secular sense too). This week we began training our replacements in the office.  We will be replaced by three elders since there are no missionary couples available.

Even in our last weeks the Lord continues to bless us. We have been working with a young woman for several weeks. Her husband is a member and she has come to Church for several years, but has resisted the teachings of many missionaries. I started our discussion today by asking her what doubts she might have to prevent her from being baptized. She talked about her traditions learned in the Catholic Church since she was child. I told her that I love the Catholic Church and that there is a difference between beliefs and traditions. We are not here to take away the truths that she has, but to build upon them. I asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he restored the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. She said yes. I asked her if she believed there was a living prophet today upon the earth and to this she also said yes. She also affirmed that she was willing to obey all of the commandments. Finally, we read together the following verses from the Book of Mormon:

Mosiah 18

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

 10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

In response, tears wet her eyes and she said that is what she wanted. As we die in the mission field, someone will begin a new life.