Missionary Moments

Ever since the missionary age changed, there has been something happening in the church.  It's real and it's urgent--like a tangible force bearing down upon each of us.  God is ready to move the plan forward, but He is waiting on us to do our part.  Indeed, He is waiting on us, and through the inspiration of a modern prophet, He is calling us to action; moving us to hasten the work.  As I feel this call, it seems only logical in the overarching scheme of things.  Missionary work must go forward.  The gospel must sound in every ear.  Nephi's words that each are free, and must have the opportunity to "choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of the devil" must be fulfilled.  Each of us, through our efforts, are a part of it's fulfillment.

For me personally, the weight upon my shoulders is especially acute.  If I am going to wish and think and pray for the Savior's second coming, then I had better be willing to do my part to usher it in.  I had better rise to the call of the prophet to assist in hastening this work.  The only problem is, I feel like missionary work is one of the areas in the gospel where I fall short.  Now this is not because I am afraid to talk about the gospel with others.  That is one thing I am not.  I am happy to converse on gospel topics with anyone--from our real estate agent who want to know what the temple really is for, to the post office worker who wants to know if "Elder" really is the first name as I listed it on my customs form.  I hand out pass along cards, gift Books of Mormon, and even invite friends and neighbors to church.  The problem for me is, you never know what the outcome of these missionary moments are.  Do they really do any good?  They are surely planting a gospel seed, but for me to feel like I am really contributing to missionary efforts, I want to plant a seed AND watch it grow.  I want to partake of the full missionary experience.  And as a stay at home, home schooling mother of four, I just don't feel like those opportunities come to me very often.  Actually, I have only had the experience of really introducing someone to the gospel once, and it was long before I became a full-time mother who spends 95% of her time within the walls of her home.  Consequently, I feel like I am falling short in the missionary department.

Additionally, I'm a little jealous of those families who have older children who are joining this great missionary force.  They have, what feels to me, like a real role in this hastening process.  And not just the missionaries themselves, but the families of the missionaries too.  They all work and support and come together to build the kingdom of God.  We, on the other hand, are years away from having a child called on a full time mission.  We can prepare, yes, but there again I feel like there is a discrepancy between getting ready to go, and going.  Now I realize the getting ready to go is a necessary step, and perhaps I am just impatient, or compulsive, or just a perfectionist.  Perhaps my expectations are not realistic.  I simply cannot; however, deny this pressure I feel to do more.  Neither can I deny the windows of heaven that have opened and the blessings that have encompassed our family as we have tried to rise to the call of the prophets and apostles, however short our efforts fall.

I could list so many ways that this has been true, but let me just give one poignant example to illustrate the goodness of God of blessing those who try to love and serve him.  Nick touched upon this experience in his post on switching jobs, but I want to elaborate on it just a little more.  During the April General Conference, I did what I always do at conference time: put on my spiritual ears and listen with all of my heart for that message that is just for me.  As usual, I want that message to be last days related, but alas, as usual, there usually isn't a call to march to Jackson County or begin living the law of consecration.  Instead, during the April General Conference, there was only one message that seemed to burn itself into my mind.  It was a simple line spoken by Elder Russel M. Nelson.  The words were this:

 "You adults, catch the wave with help for the spiritual, physical, and financial preparation of future missionaries...[Also] plan for the day when you can go on your mission. We will be most grateful for your service. Until then, perhaps some of you could send your dollars on missions."

In particular, the words: "send your dollars on missions" stuck in my mind. And it wasn't really too difficult to translate the implications of those words.  As soon as the spirit zinged me, I knew what those words meant for me.  There was no doubt in my mind what we needed to do.  Convincing Nick, on the other hand, was going to be quite a task.  Especially since we were knee deep in housing bids that were astronomically higher than we had anticipated when we moved to Bismarck.  Ironically, in many ways we were more stressed about finances than we had ever been before in our married life.  And it was now, in the midst of this stress, that the inspiration would come to "send our dollars on missions."  Still, the power of the spirit is real, and I am not one to ignore any prompting, however great or small.  Consequently, I broached the subject with Nick.  He, of course, thought this was a great idea.  The point to be negotiated, of course, was how many of our dollars needed to go.  For me, there was a clear number.  I wanted to give the amount that any missionary would pay--each month, for the space of an entire mission. Actually, what I really wanted was to find someone in our area who was going on a mission that we could sponsor.  Someone who could be our adopted missionary.  Someone my kids could write to and send Christmas packages to and learn from. To Nick, this seemed a little over the top. Over time; however, his heart softened and he agreed to go out on the financial limb with me--to test the Lord and see if His promise to open the windows of heaven was sure.

And sure enough, as always, the Lord is true to His word.  Almost immediately after making the decision to set up a meeting with our bishop to discuss our options, the friend from the ward Nick mentioned brought up the opportunity to switch jobs.  At first Nick didn't want to consider it because he loved the hospital he worked for.  After reviewing the compensation package; however, it was a no brainer to switch.  It was an answer to our financial prayers.  Not only was the pay much better, alleviating some of our housing stress, but as an extra incentive to get us to switch over, they offered to pay back $100,000 of student debt.  With what we had already dumped into debt in our first year out of school, that money would make us student debt free. Talk about windows of heaven!

The story doesn't end there though.  I know this has evolved into an extra long post, but I have to finish the saga.  Aside from the financial blessings, what came about as a result of this inspiration has been even better than the Lord proving his ability to reward us temporally.  The day that we met with the bishop to ask if there was someone we could "sponsor,"  an awesome thing happened.  He cocked his head and gave us a queer look.  Then he said, "You know, it's amazing you would come in today saying you want to sponsor a missionary.  There was someone in my office this morning who wants to go on a mission, but she had no means to pay for it.  Your timing is more than coincidental."  We all felt the zing this time, and me more than the others.  I don't know why, but it had never occurred to me that it would be a sister we would get to help. A sister missionary.  Nothing could be more perfect.  Nothing more close to my heart.

After this meeting; however, the bishop never got back to us.  We waited and waited, and then after a few  months went by, we decided to simply start donating to the missionary fund until he got back to us.  Two weeks later, however, a young woman stood up in sacrament meeting and announced her mission call to Mexico.  She was humble and sweet, and when she said that she was to report to the MTC on December 18th--my birthday--I suddenly knew that it was her the bishop had been talking about.  She was to be our missionary.  The only thing was, she wouldn't be leaving for five more months.  This perplexed me at first, but then another ray of inspiration came.  I could hire her to work for me until she left on her mission. It would be a double win!  She would get money to put towards her mission, and I could get a little help in exchange for our missionary dollars.  It struck me again how good the Lord is.  He never leaves us hanging.  He asks us to serve, to obey, and to give.  Then He gives back ten fold what we give, and in ways we can't even imagine, ways so unequal to our meager efforts!  It's awesome.  It makes me want to sing with my evangelical friends--My God, is an awesome God!

These five months have been wonderful, and have made me feel that much closer to the missionary work that is unfolding with miraculous speed all around us.  It was particularly sweet when we went to her missionary shower and decided to break the news that we were her "sponsors."  We had intended to make it anonymous, but the kids were so excited to tell her, and to ask if they could write her, etc., that we decided we would tell.  It was emotional for all,  and I'm sure will be even more so the closer her departure date comes.

Here we are at her missionary shower:

 And here are a few pictures of the kids working on one of our other missionary endeavors.  We started doing Secret Santas as a family a few years back.  This year; however, I thought it would be fun to tie our Secret Santa project in with our missionary efforts.  As a result, I asked the kids what they would think about doing a little service project for one of the missionaries serving in our ward instead of our traditional Secret Santa.  They loved the idea, and begged to do it for their good friend and fellow Harry Potter fan Mike Bahr.  I thought Elder Bahr would be a wonderful choice, and after contacting him and getting some information on the primary children in his ward, the kids got busy putting together little Christmas goodie packets for them.  It was especially meaningful as a hurricane hit the Philipines where he was serving right as we were working on our project, making it both a Christmas gift and a relief package.

Here is Maddi sewing the Christmas bags,

and the kids stuffing them with goodies afterwards.  They all included: a notebook, pencil, stickers, play dough, a sun catcher art project with paints and paint brush, a Christmas Pezz dispenser, and a host of other small treats.

Mason fell asleep before it was all said and done, but the other three were sure proud of their goodie bags when they were all packed and ready to go.

And here are the kids with the stuff we picked out for Elder Bahr.  It was all special order straight from none other than Harry Potter World.  The kids helped us pick what to order and then come up with clever little cards to go on each item.   

Madison picked a Hogwarts Diary.  Her card read: "Bear your soul--and your mission experiences--to this journal.  (But not like Tom Riddle!)"

 

Spencer picked a Gryffindor Tie: "Wear this with Gryffindor courage!" his card read.

Emma picked a pack of Hogwarts house socks: "Wear according to your mood" (She signed hers from EmmaLee and Dobby!)

Mason picked Sherbet Lemons:  "Dumbledore's--and hopefully your--favorite!"

Nick picked Peppered Imps: "To add a little spice to life!"

 I picked: Every Flavor Beans:  "I've never been on a mission, but I think it's fair to say....A mission is like a box of every flavor beans....don't get disheartened when the flavor of the day is earwax!"

And we got him a remembrall from all of us: "Always remember who you are!"

It was quite an undertaking, but we got it all together...

and shipped the package off the same day we sent out our Thanksgiving cards.  This was also the same day we delivered all our Thanksgiving treats, delivered our tile to the house, and finished packing for our Disneyland trip!  Phew!  It's a wonder we survive our life.  Actually, it's a miracle.  Literally.   But we're grateful to be us, and grateful to be anxiously engaged in the Lord's missionary work, even if it's in a bit of a non-traditional way.