Serving the Lord's Servants

There is no greater job on earth than missionary work, carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to God’s children. The reward for doing it coming directly from our Father in Heaven and it is difficult to describe other than to clumsily say that it is a quiet and enduring joy that fills the soul. The experience creates a commonality among us who are doing it full time. When we see each other there is always shared feeling of happiness, an unspoken and shared brotherhood. Yet, the work can be very difficult especially for young men and women who for many are away from home for the first time and for the first Christmas.

Chrise and I have found an additional joy here in Mexico in serving these wonderful servants of the Lord. We try to make it point to let them know how much we care about and appreciate them whenever we see them. And when potentially very difficult times to be away from home like Christmas comes, we do all in our power to ease there homesickness. On Christmas Day we invited our entire zone of twenty elders and sisters to our house. Chrise baked four Christmas casseroles to feed them and later in the day we bought four large pizzas. The Elders and Sisters had a wonderful time watching Church Christmas Videos on YouTube, exchanging gifts, calling there parents on Skype using our computers, and culminating it all by smashing two piñatas in our yard. I felt embarrassed by all of the thank yous we received when they left, mainly because they helped Chrise and I to make it through our first Christmas away from our family. Yes, matrimonios get homesick too.

All the of the matrimonios worked with the mission president and his wife to provide a heartwarming Christmas experience for the entire mission earlier in the week. When the President asked the missionaries to share their Christmas miracles it was like an avalanche of testimonies. All in all it was a very memorable Christmas.

A Small Christmas Miracle

Our mission president calls December the month of miracles. One thing is for certain, there is a very special feeling when you are doing the Lord’s work in December. People are more receptive to our message and more willing to change.

One small miracle  happened to Chrise and I, today. For more than a month we have been working with a young man. He has been coming to Church for nearly seven months and said that he was living the commandments, but was reluctant to commit to be baptized. He’s had a lot of opposition. I have tried a lot of different things from giving him blessings, to fasting with him to challenging him, yet always there has been something holding him back. This week I pushed him to set a date and have a baptism interview. He agreed with all kinds of escape clauses. Today at Church he backed out and the agreed again and then backed out and then agreed again. All the while he has been saying that he needed a stronger confirmation from the Lord, and I focused a lot of that. Finally, at the end of church, he said he wanted to through with the baptismal interview.

The interview went on for a long time and then the Zone Leader came out and said that we need to talk to him together and that our young man had admitted to him that he had a smoking problem. Lights and bells went off in my head as I said to myself, “Yeah, that is what the problem is. Finally, an answer to my many prayers.” When I went into the class room where he was being interviewed, I could sense and feel a real change in him. He was finally ready to commit and make the changes necessary to be baptized. He will be baptized on the 31^st.  Now as I look back I can see clearly how everything fits together in his actions. He had not yet repented or come to the point of repentance. We talked about the Word of Wisdom more than once, mentioning smoking each time by name, but he never admitted until  today that he had a problem.

This young man is a very special young man, and I will be doing everything in my power to help him keep his commitment to stop smoking.

Our Week and the Lord Works Through Small Things

I want to give you a taste of our weeks here in Mexico. Our primary responsibility is to support and help our beloved missionaries and Mission President.

Monday’s are always very busy. It is the missionaries’ “dia de campo” and the day that they come to the office to take care of many things. Basically we spend much of the day answering their questions and helping to solve their problems. It’s hard to even take a break to eat, but we don’t begrudge that. These young people that are so wonderful that we love helping them.  In the evening we gave a family home evening to a less active family whom we’ve working with for some time.

Elder Anderson and me at the Airport

Tuesday we were up at 4am to take a missionary to the airport. We could have sent him in a taxi, but Chrise and I wanted him to have a pleasant, last experience in the mission. The hug he gave me when we departed told me that he really appreciated what we had done. We were back in the office working by 9am and pretty bushed by the end of the day.

Wednesday, we took three missionaries to Mexico City to take care of visas. We were up early and did not make it back to the office until 9pm. Gratefully, the next day Thursday was our day of rest.

Friday, I spent most of the day buying phones for the missionaries in a neighboring town. We practiced a nativity scene that we are preparing for the mission Christmas Program, and after that we gave our second discussion of the week to Sandra, Saturday after another full day at the office, we went to visit a family giving a Christmas party in a close by town, and then we had a baptism.

Perhaps what we do doesn’t sound all that exciting. But Chrise and I constantly feel the Lord’s approbation as we serve him. So much so that we feel energetic and happy every day. The service we provide is essential.

Yesterday, we baptized a young woman named Sandra, whom we have been teaching. At her baptism, I noted what a simple ceremony it was. The room was not beautiful, having plain grey walls and a pale tile floor. Music was provided by my wife using a rather flat sounding keyboard, and everyone sat on the standard portable chairs. The baptism prayer took only a few seconds. But with this simple ceremony we changed a young woman’s life forever. In those plain surroundings, the heavens and earth joined, opening a door for Sandra. It is through these small things that Father in Heaven works mighty miracles.

Sandra and her brother, who baptized her

Encountering the Sheep of the Lord

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Another incredible week. It started at church last Sunday. After the Sacrament meeting, we were approached by both counselors in the bishopric. Each had an investigator standing beside them for us to teach. One of them, named Sandra, said she wanted to be baptized. We went to her house the next day to teach her, but she needed little teaching. She had already heard clearly the voice of the Savior through her brother, a recently returned missionary and up until now the only member in his family. We asked her a question and she taught us the lesson. Intelligent and well educated, she talked of feelings that she had and that she knew what we said was true. We were talking to a spirit sister, someone who was willing do whatever it takes to follow His voice. We will be baptizing her on the twelfth.

The next day while Chrise and I were working alone in the mission office. The bell at the front gate sounded. I went out to discover a teenage girl, looking kind of lost. She asked if she could come in. I left her alone for a couple of minutes in the reception area  reading a Liahona and then went to talk her. She knew little about the Church and hadn’t even heard the name Mormon, but she had been guided to our front gate. She wanted to know who we were. I talked with her about the Restoration and then showed here the movie on the Joseph Smith Story. After watching the movie and hearing my testimony, she ask some incredible questions, and then said she really wanted to know more. I called the sisters in the area where she lives and had them talk to her and set up an appointment. Another one of the Lord’s sheep heard him calling.  

The truth of what we teach fills me, burns in my heart and fills me with joy. It is the Lord’s prescription for our troubled world. I’m just an ordinary member of His Church, nothing great, not a mission president, or a bishop or a stake president, but how wonderful it is to serve him and see how he cares for his sheep.             

What a Great Ward and Mission

We’ve been in the Huehuecalco ward for almost two months and we’ve received and incredible about of help from the members. They have wanted to take us around to know other members and bring investigators to the chapel. Today, for example, we were introduced to two ladies, both of whom were very anxious to hear the gospel. One, the sister of one of the counselors in the bishopric, said she wanted to be baptized. When there is someone new a ward member will often grab us and introduce them to us.

More than that, they treat my wife and I like family. They seem so happy to see us. Today in sacrament meeting I was supposed to be the last speaker, but the first two used up all of the time…just like my family did to me a couple of times. I feel very at home and comfortable with these people. They are so aware of us and trying to help us. What a great example they are.

For Thanksgiving our mission president and his wife invited us over to their beautiful home.  It was such blessing to share Thanksgiving with people we care about. It was the first Thanksgiving that Crhise have been away from family and it could have been pretty lonely. The mission has been very much like the Huehuecalco ward, embracing us and loving us. We love being around all of these very special people.