Adding Letters

I sat in my desk waiting anxiously for the clock to reach 10am. Its monday morning and every missionary knows that monday morning at 10am your 8 hours of preparation for the week begin. Also known as 8 hours of freedom. I look over at my companion and his gaze into space of gratitude. He gently closes his scriptures and falls upon his knees. I am instantly forced to work on the Christlike attribute of patience. My fingers instantly begin tapping the desk, painfully I watch the clock go from 10:05am to 10:10am no 10:15. Finally he stands up with the most precious smile on his face. He says “give me a few minutes Elder and I will be ready too”.

By 11am we arrive to the library to begin our weekly emails home. The typing marathon begins with a limited time of an hour and a half to communicate the weeks events home. My mother doesn’t know that my new companion is EXACTLY SUPER 110% obedient to the mission rules that I am now 45 minutes behind in my email. She probably thinks that I have died or something. With 5 more minutes left in my emailing time I begin my last email in a mad rush. The time limit is now up and my companion is directly behind me arms folded with a look on his face of “Elder don’t you know that our time is up?” I don’t think I look that dumb but apparently I do. I proceed to quickly finish my email and log off. 

Ironically it takes us another 10 minutes to exit the library because he has to make sure that every living soul with two legs hears his grand and important message to bring them salvation. You think that is bad? You should join us for our 2 hour shopping at Walmart that should only take 20 minutes. My companion salivates at the multitude of people swarming around the store. He has been commissioned to make sure that every person he has the opportunity to talk to hears what he has to say. Heaven forbid we just be polite and smile at everyone on our one day “off” but no we must have a meaningful 10 minute conversation with each one. Without sharing more you just know that the 8 hours of what should be a break and a taste of freedom is actually the hardest day of the week.There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. This fine servant of God has added letters to the law. 

It changed me, had I changed it?

Physical Experiences:

• Rapid pumping from my chest, hyperventilating with gratitude and fear.
• The bags are heavy, it feels wrong to lift them into the truck. 
• Embracing friends who feel the confusion as I feel brings a sense of belonging and comfort. 
• My eyes burn with yet more tears, my head throbs with exhaustion physical and mental. 
• I float across the room taking in the view I feel so light as I look around the room to others i care so much about.
• When my feet touch the ground my body is overcome with familiarity. 
• Our pace quickens, my heart is begging to burst we turn the corner to have my heart swallowed with bittersweet joy, happiness and accomplishment.
• Her hug tells me its over, there is nothing more left to do. She grasps tighter never to let go. I am relaxed with a sense of fulfillment.

Scenes:

• The bed is empty of pillows and blankets, cluttered with a few miscellaneous items yet unclaimed.
• The blacktop heat suffocates the air and chokes the ability to breath. Keys are absent and the suitcases are stranded in the back seat.
• I have walked in the house so many times, yet this is as odd as it was the first time. Only familiar faces can calm the anxious heart.
• Clean and pure in white I sit. The atmosphere is truly celestial.
• Bags are checked and the security gate is next. Watching the ground get farther and farther in my cramped seat.
• Mountains are in sight, the airport is as confusing as ever. People congratulating us on our arrival. 

SPEECH:

• My voice shows pleading as I speak.
• President Ware words always express confidence as he thanks me for my efforts.
• We all laugh and joke but you can tell within our voices that nothing is a joke, fear is the real king at the moment.
• Testimonies spoken express reflection and thought. 
• “you go first” “no you go first.” “your the leaders you go first.” 
• “Stay together, we walk out together.”
• We would fight through tears to express love and gratitude.

Emotion In The Moment:

• Had I done enough in my time. It had changed me, but did I change it? 
• Tears of absolute gratitude and humility
• The brotherhood as goodbyes are said
• Reflection while driving to the home.
• My heart was overflowing with joy.
• Tears sprinted down my face as the plane took off and I left behind a world only I could comprehend.
• Tears of joy and accomplishment as i embraced family and friends.

PEOPLE OF CONSEQUENCE:

• President Ware
• Members of the church
• Companions
• Missionaries
• Family
• Friends
• Guy on the plane.

Rough Around the Edges

Mission farewells are possibly my favorite. The summer after my Senior year of High School, boy, there was a lot of 'em. It was the summer after the age changed from 19 to 18 for guys to leave and there were weeks I was at 2-3 farewells instead of my own ward. These were all the guys I grew up with, some I barely knew and some who were my very best friends.

It was a typical Sunday. Trying to bounce from one Sacrament meeting to the next and make it on time to hear all my boys speak. This meeting started out pretty average; a hymn, opening prayer and the sacrament service, then a speaker and it was time for the missionary. FINALLY what I had come to hear.

 He was a football player, one I'd heard more about than I actually knew. I'd become better friends with him throughout my senior year but I'm not sure how justified I was in being there. He was tough. Maybe a little rough around the edges. In no way was I prepared for what he was about to say. I have no idea what the majority of his talk was about, probably Christ, his path to his mission, something along those lines (that's what they're all about right?). All I remember is the story he told. 

The story was called "The Room" By Joshua Harris. I had never heard the story before that day. But I remember listening to that boy who was a little rough around the edges tell this story. This AMAZING story of the Atonement made my eyes start to swell. Tears started rolling down my cheeks and it hit me harder than any hit that boy had taken in any game, and trust me, he was a line backer. Never had I known that literature, a story, a simple silly story, could make me feel what I was feeling. After that meeting I barely made time to say goodbye to him. I gave him a quick hug and rushed home, afraid the tears would come back.

 About a week later I looked that story up and read it again, and again, and again. Each time the story elicited the same response as it did that Sunday prior. To this day it is a story I hold close to my heart. 

The First Visitation

There I sat on the couch of the Washington Kennewick Mission home. Before me sat my parents for the next two years. President and Sister Greer, my mission President and his sweet wife. I had only known them for a few hours at the most. In this short time of being within President Greers presence you just new he was a man with a great gift. I wasn’t sure what it was, but within a matter of minutes I had found out.

His ability to bring to life the scriptures and their teachings was something Elder Holland would even appreciate. I was about to be taught a lesson I thought I was prepared to teach as a new missionary. The first vision as I previously had known it. 

President Greer shared with us the first vision as told by Joseph Smith. “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me….. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing o the other- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

I had heard this a million times. Then President Greer asked if what Joseph describes was really a vision. I was taken back, what else could it have been. Ya he saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. It was a vision… I thought. 

President Greer took us deeper into Josephs words. “I SAW a pillar of light…. I SAW two Personages, they SPAKE unto me.” Joseph didn’t just imagine this, he experienced it. He was visited personally. It was a visitation of the Father and Son, not something he just dreamed up. 

That night I was taken deeper into the scriptures and church history. The first vision is now the First Visitation for me. All because of a few words being magnified in a different perspective.