Sacrifices for the Lord

Last week, we talked to Kate and the boys on Skype. I was hit with a giant case of homesickness as I talked to them and it lingered for a few days. I miss them. I remember when Elder Bednar blessed us just a month and a half after we arrived in the mission, and how he promised us that our grandchildren would be blessed for our sacrifice. Then I didn’t feel the loss nearly as keenly. Now I feel the sacrifice much more.

As I write this blog, I am still fasting. It has been a day of spiritual feasting. I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting and my wife said that the whole congregation went very quiet. As I told them I that I knew that this was the true Church of Jesus Christ and the only church that holds the saving ordinances which will carry us back to our Father in Heaven, the words came simply and powerfully. I used no emotion or adjectives to embellish the truth of what I was saying. I felt them being carried by the Spirit into every heart. Many came up to me after the meeting, and though they said nothing about my testimony, it was there on their faces, the gratitude for hearing it. I felt a gratitude for having been and instrument in the Lord’s hands.

As a small part of the baptisms of Issac, Sandra, Alain, and Andrea, I have a continuing and deep concern about them, like they were in some way my children. It gives me a great deal of joy when I see them or hear about them. I pray often that Father in Heaven will strengthen them and watch over them. I had a testimony when I was a young missionary many years ago, but it was nothing like the one that has now grown in my heart. The true Gospel of Jesus Christ brings such happiness and I want these special people and many others to know it and to feel it. My sacrifice is small. They are worth far more.