‘Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words’ (Saint Francis of Assisi)

                The responsibility of a Military Relations Missionary is to “Preach the gospel at all times” through our example and service, but we are under strict mandate not to proselyte those we serve. When there are words inside it is very hard to keep them there and trust that the example we set will be sufficient.

                One of our opportunities to use words is with our young missionaries. In our district meeting we were each asked to respond to the question, “Why did I come on a mission?” After all the junior missionaries answered, I told them I came to keep my temple covenant to consecrate all that I have and all my talents to the Lord. This is His work and we are here to do our little part in sharing the Plan of Happiness for God’s children. Wayne had a very spiritual insight into the question one set of sisters was trying to answer for an investigator. Sometimes the perspective of added years is useful. We feel honored to serve with these faithful sons and daughters.

                As we left the meeting there was a little bit of rain so Wayne and I shared a little umbrella by walking with an arm behind the back of the other and matching our stride. The closeness was worth the little bit of wet. We like to hold hands on the train. We have no way of knowing if anyone notices that we are happy together, but we greet everyone we pass or who makes eye contact on the train with a smile and their traditional greeting. Our neighbors have learned to wave to us and their faces brighten with broad smiles.

                We watched as the sister missionaries sat on opposite sides of the train and each tried to visit with the woman sitting beside her. One of the two women not only accepted the book, but wanted the sister’s name and telephone number so she could contact her to know more. Our sister missionary gladly complied and obtained the phone number for the woman in exchange. I think it’s amazing that our new missionary can use this language fluently enough to carry on that conversation after only three months in the country. Both of the sisters are fearless in sharing the message. They are called to use words.

                Two different days one of the soldiers who will be in our class came into the USO.  I recognized his name tag from our roll. He is from Africa so the name is unique. He said he joined the US Army to raise money to create a business in his home country. His wife and children are there and she invests his money in real estate and other capital goods. He hopes to have enough money to purchase the diagnostic equipment to do repairs on vehicles and other machinery when he returns to Cameroon. He has lots of positive dreams and seems to be working hard to make them a reality. He has already downloaded the phone app to begin studying vocabulary. We look forward to assisting soldiers like him to achieve their dreams.

                The student we have been tutoring for several months met us at the USO and had been working on Family Tree trying to build his pedigree. He had the phone app of FamilySearch so I worked with him for more than four hours helping him search for the parents of a great-grandfather who looks to be half white. I found his helper number and signed in using my account so we could search Ancestry as well as FamilySearch. We learned lots of fun information, but we didn’t ever find the father. Working on family history is as close as I’ve been to real missionary work for a long time and I love to do the detective work and tuck the sources neatly into each person’s page. He can see the records I found on Ancestry now because he has the source URL for them. He had the light that comes with the Spirit of Elijah with him as he learned to appreciate this grandfather who was given only a first-grade education and went to work in the fields at the age of eight. He was living with his uncle and aunt when he was married and listed them as his parents even though he is listed as their nephew in the US Census the same year. He gives his grandmother as his next of kin on his draft registration the year before. She was also living with this uncle. 

                 It was such a quiet week that I only took one picture and it was of a 3” spider spinning a web. My camera focused on the background so the picture was too blurred for you to see the beautiful spider. I decided to share pictures of the birds we see in our wetland almost every day: The great egret, the blue heron, the little wagtail, our resident species of spotted-billed duck, and the snowy egret. Nature has a way of soothing the soul and whispering of God’s love for each of us.