We have had a wonderful two weeks with our young missionaries. They are skilled, intelligent, obedient, and eager to serve. John’s student is from South Jordan and my student is from Grantsville. She had served in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission but had to come home because of serious medical problems. After three months the problems were resolved so we are fortunate to have her in our mission. She came with a documented biography she wrote of her great-grandmother and a handwritten five-generation sheet. When she left she had 815 names in her file, many of them sourced. One day as we were reading a history she paused and said, “I’m feeling things I’ve never felt before in my life. Is this the Spirit of Elijah? If I had tear ducts, I would be crying.” We have sacred, testimony building experiences almost every day as we are guided by the Spirit with help from both sides of the veil. What a privilege it is.
One remarkable pioneer story of the week was of Elizabeth Churchill. She was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria in England but chose to leave those circumstances and married a sailor named Cassity for love. They had five children. Eventually they joined the LDS church along with her married daughter and her husband Edward Bowden. Cassity died in Nebraska before the family crossed the plains and eventually settled in Tooele. Edward Bowden’s wife, Elizabeth’s daughter, died and he became blind. In order to care for Edward and her grandchildren, Elizabeth married Edward Bowden, her daughter’s widower.
Go Forth Day is always special because the new missionaries receive their zone assignments and then all the missionaries, trainers, and many of the mission presidency and staff attend a temple session so that they will again feel the endowment of power to accomplish what is required. After the endowment session, John and I had the privilege of serving as proxy parents in a short sealing session in which the young sister and three young elders were proxies for children being sealed to parents. In many cases they were proxies for family members for whom they had personally researched. (For the duration of their missions, young missionaries are only permitted to participate in sealings as children or as witnesses, if they are elders.) My young trainee is only four years younger than Melody. These young missionaries are more like our children than our grandchildren.
This has been a week of intense gratitude for the blessings we have. We are very aware of the world situation with our nephew Ben Rogers in Afghanistan, and Dave and Tam Rogers (John’s brother) in Japan. Dave and Tam arrived at their assignment to be the mission home couple in Fukuoka, Japan, just days before the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit. They are safe but extremely busy as they learn their responsibilities and work in reassigning and finding housing for reassigned missionaries from Sendai and Tokyo. How thankful we are for email and other communication.
We are grateful for our families and for our friends for the examples that they are in our lives. As missionaries we are surrounded with remarkable people who have consecrated their lives to the Lord. Some serve with difficult physical problems. Many are single, divorced, or widowed. It has been surprising to me how many missionaries serve for a year or so then return to their occupations because their family has been covering for them in their absence or they don’t have money to live unless they return to work. Missionaries come for all over the world and from every occupation. This week I was visiting with a couple and learned that her husband is a member of the family that owns the Dole Pineapple Plant on Oahu, Hawaii. She is from Laie and they met at Church College of Hawaii where he was attending as a non-member.
The fact that we are a married couple, living at home, and completely retired is less common. We are blessed to have each other and our supportive extended families. When we see the trouble that much of the world faces then look at how our children and nieces and nephews are living their lives and raising their children, we are filled with hope and profound gratitude. The rising generation is remarkable and the church is in good hands. They are choosing the path of peace and safely with their priorities properly in place. How blessed we are for our association with them.
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