Enduring Bonds

"Some say a bond is made when people are tied to an emotional experience. For us that emotional experience grew over two years"

 Often times we take for granite the people that have blessed our life. Look at your average teenager today. Far from their mind is what someone means to them. They are caught up in hanging out with their friends, playing video games and just trolling through their fancy phones. You can’t really blame them for this behavior. After all they are teenagers, responsibility isn’t in their vocabulary yet. Relationships with others just sound awkward to them, especially the thought of telling someone how they really feel about them.

It wasn’t until I served my mission for the church of Jesus Christ that I came to understand this. Not until I started to think of others besides myself did I begin to appreciate the role people have had in my life. A new missionary leaves his family for 2 years to share the Gospel of Christ that has blessed their life. I remember those first few days having to look around the room and see other young men feeling lost like me. We had to come together and form a relationship, a bond you might say to be able to endure the journey ahead. 

The Book of Mormon provides great examples of men coming together to lift each other. Alma, Ammon, and Amulek, embark on the same mission I did with my new friends. While teaching the Gospel they experienced heart ache and difficulty. People rejected them and removed them from their cities. Remaining diligent in their purpose to share the Gospel they were able to find joy and peace from enduring it together.

During the course of my own mission I can remember many of my own occasions similar to these examples of the Book Of Mormon. Stopping strangers in the street with a companion to testify of our message. Being yelled at to leave someones property and never come back. Questioning if I was really in the right place only to look over and know my companion had over come the same doubts and fears. We became strengthened together under our purpose. 

Lifting each other up with encouragement and sometimes helpful reproof, we all grew closer together as missionaries. Like Alma and Ammon there were times when we would not be able to see our fellow missionaries for weeks or even months at a time as they were assigned to labor in various portions of the mission boundaries. 

Ammon is quoted specifically for his joy and how full it was when he was reunited with his brethren after their long and strenuous effort. I recall vividly the memories of those final days as a missionary. Coming together in the mission home to share of our experiences and testimony. Having fast forwarded now through our two years it was hard to comprehend that the difficult, trying and exhausting experience was already over. It had been so long, but seemed so short.

I sat in that room that final night scanning across the faces that I had personally watched grow. Memories and moments that I have had with each missionary flooded back as they stood to testify of Christ. Instantly, I was reminded of specific streets and faces of people as we stood shoulder to shoulder and testified of the Savior and His work.

Each missionary that gloried in God that night was a witness to me of the love the Gospel of Jesus Christ carries. It brings us together under the greatest cause ever to be imagined. I was heavy with gratitude and appreciation for all God had given me the past two years to build these types of friendships.

The memories of walking different streets in the rain, cold and scorching heat, the meetings of coming together and unity are memories never to be washed from the mind. They are imprinted permanently upon the soul of each missionary.

Once a young teen uninterested in anyone else's life but his one, I had grown up. I had seen the blessings of caring for others and building something special with them. Creating a bond that would be unique only to us and our experiences. 

Some say a bond is made when people are tied to an emotional experience. For us that emotional experience grew over two years in to many ways to list. We knew that as we boarded the plane the next day to return home after two years, we would join with Ammon and his brethren in boasting of our God and tasting of the great joy that was ours to have. We can endure anything when we have a true bond with one another. 

Checkmate

"Who's the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi

“You don’t have any kids?” he questioned me with a hint of sarcastic surprise in his voice. Followed closely by “and come to think of it, you don’t even have any grand-kids!” I couldn't suppress the laughter that was bubbling inside of me and it began to slip out as I tried to remain focused and serious.

Then the first match ended almost before it began. I should have seen it coming. The first pawn of mine that was taken resulted in check-mate. So as suddenly as we started it was over. I don’t take losing easily and wasn't going to let that happen again, despite my lack of experience in playing chess, compared to the 72 year old retired English teacher with an Afro that was sitting across from me.

Emotion Is A Journey

The sun glistens past the window early that morning, I lie wide awake in my bed lost in as many thoughts as one can have. My mind dances through the multitude of experiences and memories. Memories and experiences that have shaped and molded and changed my life forever. I glance to the other side of the room to see my suitcases bulging at the zipper. Overflowing with everything that I currently hold to my name. 

As my body is in habit now, I roll out of bed to my knees. My roommate jumps in the shower. Rarely do I get time and space to myself, this is a chance to speak my mind and get off my chest bottled up emotions. The bottle burst as I began to offer one of my final prayers. Heavy drenched tears race down my face as a flash flood. My chest is compressed with pressure and anxiety. Different themed emotions scamper through my body. One instance is absolute gratitude and appreciation for my experiences and opportunities. Next I long to have more time, not much but just enough to make sure that I have done everything I possibly need to. Capped by the anxiety and fear of what awaits me on the other side. A life forsaken that is to patiently waited. 

Eight hours and 152 miles later we all sit in a circle. I can remember these same faces many of them from years earlier. As I think back to the first time in that circle in the same exact home the memory is immature. Faces that explained youth and inadequacy, uncertainty and ambition. Some suffocating a testimony and others turning up the pillows and cushions in hopes they could find one before the adventure really got serious. Tonight is different though.

As I scan the room on this night the faces are different, you might even say changed. Their countenances expresses joy and happiness, contemplation and reflection, peace and comfort. Those that suffocated the testimony gently hold it in their possession understanding the purity of it and that it won’t get away from them if the take care of it. For the few that were turning the house over to find it, well they have in a way grown the most. Their youthful face are now rich in maturity, as if the know better who they are and what their purpose in life is to be. 

After a long night of combat with my assigned spot on the floor I retreat the the lazy boy down stairs. Months and months just replaying back through my wrestles mind. Even on little sleep the past few nights I am running on the most natural high of anticipation and emotion as possible. 

Peace of them Temple should calms ones soul. Standing in the room again looking at the now mature faces that have given their all I am humbly rushed yet once more into feelings of true charity, gratitude and appreciation to God for the privilege to be counted among them. My joy that moment was comparable to that of Alma when he recognize his brethren still in the Lord and their strength in learning gospel and studying of Gods word through the scriptures.

Baggage is now checked and its approaching time. I have participated in this routine more that my fair share. It is a much different adrenaline rush when its for you. Nobody can concentrate on smiling nice for the picture. We all know that once we walk through that security gate its over. We will never be able to turn back to the life that have provided so much for us. 

I try to avoid the process as long as I possibly can. President has began giving his hugs as normal and Sister Ware hers. The emotions of the other morning are back and as vibrant as ever. I turn to Sister Ware to see her face mobbed with sadness and tears. I have waited one long year for this hug, however I would do anything to change the circumstances. She held me with the loving embrace that only a mother can. It was the comfort and confidence I needed to experience. President for the first time I have seen also sheds tears as everyday citizens wonder why a bunch of young men and women are so worked up over walking through airport security. They can’t know that blood sweat and tears of what we have just done. They can’t comprehend the daily battle in Gods war to be won. Only we our closely woven family have forged the bond. A bond that can only be forged through sacred  emotional experiences. 

The engine is roaring for take off, about 50 yards from the plane and the only thing getting me there is my bodies natural ability to put one foot in front of the other. The heat is scorching through my suit and I am taken back to the hill in the distance one of the countless places there the memories are rich. That hill reminds of my first christmas from home. I see peoples faces, smell the food, remember the tears. 

After a little more than an hour in the air, I see the rocky mountains that are familiar to me since childhood. Its a weird experience to be taken from one extreme way of life to another. In a matter of one hour everything will change. I walk of the plane to absolutely gigantic mountains that I haven’t seen in literally years. Just the feeling of my feet on Utah soil was ironically invigorating and motivating. 

The race is on now, as we try to look collected and calm through the airport. We know that in just a matter of minutes we will see the faces of our loved ones that have supported us through our ups and downs. Only having a chance to Skype twice a year and communicate weekly through email makes a 2 year reunion more special that people can understand. 

We have all stayed together through the end. Yet as we turn the corner to descend down the escalator we see at the bottom a multitude of people with banners and signs crying and cheering for us. Really it was for us, I am only able to put my arm around my best friend and cup my mouth as my emotions are a clear as ever. I spot my mom first and hug her with no intention of letting go.  There the emotional bond is made as we shed tears I only wish I could have bottled up. To serve as a memory that we had returned with honor. 

Big Trouble

Example #1
In Alma 38:8 an aging father tells his son of a pivotal moment that changed his life. This event
shaped his life and changed how he lived.

Example #2
In Alma 39:3 a father speaks harsh words to his son when he discovers that he has explicitly disobeyed instructions and made poor choices. The father is particularly upset about his son's choice to be intimate with a harlot.

Example #3
In Alma 43:4, the narrator begins his description of a conflict between two tribal like groups. He describes the leaders and moral state of each side.

Example #4
A heated dialogue between to captains of armies begins in Alma 44:1. There is a disagreement and the argument turns violent when one of them charges the other with a sword.

Reviewing Other's Posts
In Clark Nielsons Post entitled "Baggy Old, Ragged Jeans" he wrote a section about people of consequence. In this part of his post, he talked about an experience with his boss that is related to my description of a father expressing his disappointment in his son. Although Clark was not the son of his boss, the father and the boss both express their extreme dissatisfaction.