Service
Thinking of Myranda in the Missionary Training Center this week, memories from decades ago entered my mind. These memories were of some experiences that I had in Brazil as a missionary.
Throughout my life, I’d heard of missionaries preaching the gospel. I’d heard story after story of how their words changed a person’s life. In my mind, that was what we were called to do. After being in the mission for a while, the Church began to encourage missionaries to do service. They suggested we find people who needed service and just help them. They also suggested that we could do service for community organizations. It was new and they were encouraging us to do service by districts or zones.
My memories contain only a few times we completed service projects. Some of them were: painting a home, helping to build a home, helping dig a well (using a shovel), helping build a wall, weeding a garden/yard, etc. (I have photos of when we did some service on my mission. I wish I could find my photo albums from my mission other than these two from Facebook -- my albums are in storage as we're living with my parents. It would be hard and time consuming to find them. These at least prove I did serve 😄).
The memory that stands above the rest was our first service project. I was in my first area. We met as a zone and went to an orphanage. I was a fairly new missionary and my language was still weak. We spent hours painting and cleaning/sterilizing the orphanage. As we were finishing up, we spent some time chatting with the workers at the orphanage. When we headed out to catch our bus, a man asked why we had served the orphanage. We said that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we wanted to serve others.
The man then said something that seared into my memory, “Wow, your religion is a practical religion. You practice what you preach.”
I wish that as a missionary I’d had a stronger sense of the strength of service. There was certainly a lot of service that could have been done in that impoverished part of the world.
As I write this, several thoughts have entered my mind:
In Sacrament meeting, when we lived in Ammon Idaho, Darin Merrill shared the poem of Auou Ben Adhem. It touched me and I hope to be one of those listed who loves his fellow men...
Abou Ben Adhem
BY LEIGH HUNT
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
If I were to begin again as a missionary, I would have been looking closely for opportunities to serve and bless those around us. My mission was in some of the poorer parts of Brazil, there certainly were many opportunities to serve and we could have arranged to take some of the local members and especially the youth and could have blessed them and their lives as they served.
A couple of other things:
Over a month ago we thought we’d finished mowing the lawn for the final time this year. This week we realized the lawn looked a little shaggy, so Tanner mowed it one last time. It looked terrific.
One Christmas time, as we neared our parent’s home, I saw this beautiful, massive star shining in the night sky. As we approached I noticed that my father had built a star and hung it on the swing he built for the canal.
This summer we were able to clean out the storage shed enough that we could get to the star. Tanner and I worked for several hours this week to get it out, replace burned out lights and get it setup. It was fun working with Tanner as we planned and worked to position the hoisting rope through the top of the swing. Tanner did an excellent job of tossing a weight (attached to a rope) until it finally passed through the top of the triangle swing and we were able to pull the star to the top.
Throughout my life, I’d heard of missionaries preaching the gospel. I’d heard story after story of how their words changed a person’s life. In my mind, that was what we were called to do. After being in the mission for a while, the Church began to encourage missionaries to do service. They suggested we find people who needed service and just help them. They also suggested that we could do service for community organizations. It was new and they were encouraging us to do service by districts or zones.My memories contain only a few times we completed service projects. Some of them were: painting a home, helping to build a home, helping dig a well (using a shovel), helping build a wall, weeding a garden/yard, etc. (I have photos of when we did some service on my mission. I wish I could find my photo albums from my mission other than these two from Facebook -- my albums are in storage as we're living with my parents. It would be hard and time consuming to find them. These at least prove I did serve 😄).
The memory that stands above the rest was our first service project. I was in my first area. We met as a zone and went to an orphanage. I was a fairly new missionary and my language was still weak. We spent hours painting and cleaning/sterilizing the orphanage. As we were finishing up, we spent some time chatting with the workers at the orphanage. When we headed out to catch our bus, a man asked why we had served the orphanage. We said that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we wanted to serve others.The man then said something that seared into my memory, “Wow, your religion is a practical religion. You practice what you preach.”
I wish that as a missionary I’d had a stronger sense of the strength of service. There was certainly a lot of service that could have been done in that impoverished part of the world.
As I write this, several thoughts have entered my mind:
In Sacrament meeting, when we lived in Ammon Idaho, Darin Merrill shared the poem of Auou Ben Adhem. It touched me and I hope to be one of those listed who loves his fellow men...
Abou Ben Adhem
BY LEIGH HUNT
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
The First Presidency has recently emphasized the importance of missionaries serving others in an article from the JustServe website. “As we reach out as members of the Church and others who are not of our faith in an effort to minister to people in need, we create a spirit of love and cooperation that transcends differences and connects us as children of God” (First Presidency, Just Serve: A Blessing to the Mission).
It’s not fun to admit that, as a missionary, I struggled with this concept of service. Perhaps it was because of the amount of sacrifice it took. When I served my mission, we were encouraged to do our service on Preparation day (P-day). P-day came only one day each week and that is when we wrote to families, read letters, walked to the market to buy food for the week, and sometimes played volleyball or soccer with Church members.
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
The First Presidency has recently emphasized the importance of missionaries serving others in an article from the JustServe website. “As we reach out as members of the Church and others who are not of our faith in an effort to minister to people in need, we create a spirit of love and cooperation that transcends differences and connects us as children of God” (First Presidency, Just Serve: A Blessing to the Mission).
It’s not fun to admit that, as a missionary, I struggled with this concept of service. Perhaps it was because of the amount of sacrifice it took. When I served my mission, we were encouraged to do our service on Preparation day (P-day). P-day came only one day each week and that is when we wrote to families, read letters, walked to the market to buy food for the week, and sometimes played volleyball or soccer with Church members.
If I were to begin again as a missionary, I would have been looking closely for opportunities to serve and bless those around us. My mission was in some of the poorer parts of Brazil, there certainly were many opportunities to serve and we could have arranged to take some of the local members and especially the youth and could have blessed them and their lives as they served.A couple of other things:
Over a month ago we thought we’d finished mowing the lawn for the final time this year. This week we realized the lawn looked a little shaggy, so Tanner mowed it one last time. It looked terrific.
One Christmas time, as we neared our parent’s home, I saw this beautiful, massive star shining in the night sky. As we approached I noticed that my father had built a star and hung it on the swing he built for the canal.
This summer we were able to clean out the storage shed enough that we could get to the star. Tanner and I worked for several hours this week to get it out, replace burned out lights and get it setup. It was fun working with Tanner as we planned and worked to position the hoisting rope through the top of the swing. Tanner did an excellent job of tossing a weight (attached to a rope) until it finally passed through the top of the triangle swing and we were able to pull the star to the top.
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