Dear Missionary for Jesus
Dearest Missionary,
You have been practicing some of the new calling the last few weeks. You have been getting to know the other missionaries that you will learn with, the language of Portuguese, a tongue used by those of Brazil, and other countries found in Europe, Africa, even in parts of Asia. You have interacted with multiple teachers, the first from Curitiba, Brazil, and others who are Americans that have served there.
The language will be a large part of your mission. But the mission for Jesus, dedicated to Him, is bigger than that. It requires discipline and hope, gratitude and fortitude. All the good things. You started with a fever, but you managed with some perseverence, streaming some of The Chosen, seeing and learning of the Lord, how He came to the people and ministered to them.
We did a little ministering, you and I. We visited the seasoned couple who lived closer to the church. We made a visit to the younger couple with their new baby, they closer to the river . People of faith. You stayed socially close to the long time family friends that we have enjoyed, once closer neighbors and now across the woods and the creek.
That is where we have lived most of your life. While you were a baby in the mid-coast area of California, you quickly made your way across the country with us to this fine hamlet, a town known to some as a post office, between other towns outside of the Washington beltway. The 495 loop, a place I have been managing this last year. Making money, making our way.
To support you, to provide for you and us, as a family, all of us dedicated to the Lord and His Church.
Some might not understand. Many do not. Even those who think they do. Many think us misled. We see those misgivings among many that we come in contact with, even friends, family, and loved ones. Jesus Himself faced doubters and malefactors. Even He, the most perfcct, as we hold and revere Him.
The quest is on. You are asked to love and share and progress and be the light that we know that you can be. Be all you can be, says the Army jingle; this is the Lord's Army.
We, soldiers of that Army of Christ, understand that the Book of Mormon in no way refutes the Holy Bible, but in so many ways bolsters it. It pushes the Bible into our hands and hearts, making its way into our lives from ancient worlds to the climes of now, the 21st century.
Now! What about now! My mother, your grandmother that you were not able to meet much in this life, proclaimed from my farewell pulpit that the pig gave all, as the cow shared milk without giving up all. According to her sermon at the end of the 1980s, at my occasion to travel towards South America...
We did farewells differently back then: my parents spoke, as did my bishop, and my step-parents too. My step-mom, a Methodist, read words of my sister newly transferred to BYU-Provo.
You gave some inspiring words today. Your mother recorded them for your siblings, and for more family elsewhere. My own may or may not hear them. You may see them in two or more years. I know that they love and appreicate you.
We all do. You friends and cohorts, your teachers and adult leaders.
I know that Jesus loves you above all, as only He can do. He is the reason for the season, and the season for all of us is etnernal life.
I thought of Paul going into Italy, the Anatolian peninsula, Greece or come what may. Syria. I wanted to include him in my sacrament benediction, but it was not included. I brought up the "ultimate" missionary in elders quorum. To our group of holy warriors, men with various experiences. We talked of the modern day challenges to have hope and faith, and be steadfast as witnesses of Christ.
You are now in it to win it! You mentioned "adulting" yesterday. Yes, there is that. You represent yourself as a young man, newly turned legal, but you represent your family name, and your home state, and your country, and your faith. You are an emissary of all of them, but most of all the Lord Himself. Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One from the beginning.
From Genesis to Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, Isaiah to Malachi, John to Revelations, on and on until this bright day, among the gloomy rumors and darknesses that at times hex us.
Christ and His way will prevail. As our recently passed Prophet, Seet, and Revelator preached, "Israel means that God will prevail."
That is so.
We need to get on the Good Ship of the Gospel, as another modern apostle has taught.
Was it Elder Wirthlin?
All are in lock step with the modern, restored, Church of Son in modern times.
How do we know? For those with eyes to see, and ears to hear, look and listen. Come and see, saith He.
His Spirit will whisper it to you, or shout it, or get into your bosom and will not let you be.
You will contemplate the messages of Jesus, and His kingdom, and His authority.
You will hear competing voices among Christendom, and outside of it, among other organized religions, and the pagans or the agnostics and atheists outside of us all, the believers in the Almighty. Be He God the Father, Allah, Yahwei, Krishna or Vishnu, or some Enlightened Buddha, all of us want to be right, and righteous, and blessed.
That is the goal. Redemption, Salvation, Eternal Life.
You are on the way.
I am thankful for your spirit, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, your perseverance.
Your love, your testimony, your personality, your unique talents and efforts.
I love you, we love you.
Thanks for being a little Saint Paul. In the tropics and sertao of that great nation and place.
