Meaning of Mission

What does it mean for us, as a couple, to serve a mission?  For us it has meant white shirt and tie, dark skirt and hose every day of the week.  It has meant name tags, teaching appointments and learning to smile and nod at the right place when listening to a torrent of words in a language you don't completely understand.  It has also meant paying bills, answering phones, filing papers, and "holding down the fort" that we call "mission office.  It is an opportunity, also, to smooth out some of the bumps in the road traveled by seventy, nineteen to twenty-some year old young people, who have dedicated their prime time to God.

When it comes to missionary service, we think couples have an added advantage because we are not limited in some ways.  We can hold FHE.   We can invite people to dinner.  We can participate in activities in the ward and in the community.  We can listen and advise and just be friends.  There are just so many ways that we can reach beyond what we are called and asked to do. 

Sam, a friend of Paul, was new in our family home evening this week.  He says that we will be seeing him again.  On Saturday we had a meeting with Anya, a friend of Anee.  We feel good about her response to gospel teachings.   Members are a great blessing to those who are trying to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ and want to understand what embracing it will mean in their own lives.  It helps those we are teaching to hear from others why they believe and how they came to know.

When Anee was seventeen years old a girl friend warned her to watch out for Mormons.  She was told to stay away from them-- not to talk to the young men with books and badges.  Anee's Mother was dedicated to the church their family attended.  She had no interest in other views but she was a good hostess.  When Anee invited two young missionaries to come to her home her mother prepared carefully for the new guests. She shined and polished her already clean house.  The Elders arrived and looked around with appreciation.  "Wow, what a clean home."  That initial comment won an audience with Anee's Mom, and the beautiful gospel truths earned them a return invitaion.   But her Father was another issue entirely.  He not only had no interest in Mormons . . . he did not believe in a God.  He was polite to his daughter's guests, but remained distant and noncommital.  Astounding the rest of the family, Anee's father was the first to set a baptism date.  When the day arrived, the entire family joined him.  Their home is an hour away from the church where the ordinance would be performed, making baptism a full-day affair.  It was wonderful to hear Anee share the feelings of joy and peace that surrounded her that day and the absolute miracle of an entirely new and amazingly clear path she now could see ahead of her.  Hearing her joy in the gospel enlarged my own understanding of how blessed my family is, and how blessed I am to know and understand these truths.

How glad I am that we did not try to select the time and place and means by which we could best serve. How glad I am that we did not miss the opportunity to grow to know and love Anee and Ashoet, Michael, Paul, Jidhe and Sam, Edgar and Yulia, Vitali, Aleksey, Andre, Yurik, Deema, Vladimir, Olya and Yana, Lena and Lubov, Galeena and Max, Lidia, Nadia, Masha, Sasha, Aleksandra and . . .

How glad I am that we did not have to decide whether or not it was a good thing to do, that we knew we should; that, knowing this fact, left no room for questioning what, where or why. Leaving our home and our family to live and work and serve in Ukraine has been, in some ways, a challenging thing for us to do. How glad I am that we did it – how very, very glad.

How glad I am to know that, for my family far away, when things get tough . . . as they always will and do . . . that they have been left in the care of One who best knows how to help, support, succor and heal.  How glad I am to feel with certainty that He is watching over my children at home as we help to watch over His children here.

What does it mean to serve a mission? It means learning to serve, loving to serve, and learning to love... how and whom He loves.  It means leaving some things behind . . . temporarily . . . in order to gain many, many more.