Valerie

Valerie joined the church several years ago. She was pregnant, and came to church alone. Her husband had no interest in the church. She hoped that some day he would show some interest, and in the meantime was hoping to raise her first child in the gospel. Her parents and brother were also hopeful future recipients of the gospel.

I was fortunate to be able to help the missionaries in teaching Valerie, and was honored to accept an assignment to be her first home teacher. We taught her the new member discussions, and began the regular home teaching routine. Things went well, and then her daughter was born.

On Suicide

One of the full-time missionaries currently serving in our ward recently received some sad and disturbing news. His father committed suicide. It has been known that his father struggled with depression. His mother left for a few minutes to run some errands, and while she was out, his father shot himself in the head. The missionary, a brand new greenie serving in his first area, has decided to stick it out and continue his mission. I admire his willingness to continue his valuable service during a time when his heart is probably very heavy indeed.

Not all Missionary Stories Have Happy Endings

So I thought I might throw in some missionary thoughts also. Unfortunately I really don’t have any spectacular mass conversion stories to pass along. Baptisms in my mission were modest in number. One of the experiences I remember often is teaching a family in southern Georgia. The father of this family was named Roosevelt Givens.

Another Parable of Another Sower

He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

There was once a sower who went to a foreign land among strangers to sow. Some seeds fell by the wayside and birds came along and ate them. Some seeds fell among stones on hard ground and sprang up quickly, but when the sun came up they withered and died. Some seeds fell among thorns and got choked. But some fell upon good ground and brought forth abundantly.

On Baptizing Thousands

I served in the Georgia Atlanta Mission in the mid 80’s. We once had a visit from Elder Robert E. Wells who was a member of the Quorum of the Seventy at the time. For those who do not remember him, he had a very stern face and a big booming voice. He had a commanding presence, and could be a little intimidating.

During a meeting with a room full of missionaries, he asked a companionship that was sitting near the front to stand up. He asked them how many convert baptisms they had during the past month. They admitted that they had not had any. He asked about the previous month, and with some relief, they reported having one baptism. Elder Wells thanked them and invited them to sit down. He then posed an interesting question.

Retention and the Parable of the Sower

I do not have very many burrs under my saddle when it comes to the church, but in this case I would like to expose one in the hopes of removing it. It has to do with the retention of new converts.

I Want to be a Missionary – Right Now!

I was told that a brother in our ward went out knocking doors with his young daughter last Sunday afternoon. What do you think of the appropriateness of this?

Take Our Missionaries, Please.

It is rare for me to come across full-time missionaries that I really like. Most of the missionaries I come across are quite forgettable, others are memorable for the wrong reasons. Living in a small and somewhat isolated ward missionaries are hard to avoid. There was a long stretch when we had three sets serving just in our ward. And when you get a few coming around that are into member guilt trips they can get to be a real drag.

Africa and Missionaries

I have been gone on vacation for a little over a week. I was visiting my parents in Western Wyoming. The timing of the visit worked out well, because just as we were preparing to leave my parents received their mission call. They will be serving in the Kenya, Nairobi, East Africa mission. I am very proud of them. It is an interesting call since this is the same area that they served together in the Peace Corps after college. While in the Peace Corps, about 40 years ago, there was no church presence in Africa, and as far as they knew they were the only members on the whole continent. Now that they return there are about 6000 members in Kenya alone. Much of our conversation centered around their future mission – they leave in November for 18 months.

I was flipping through my fathers church almanac and saw that Kenya has 6000 members and thought about how few 6000 members is. But then something astonished me. I saw that this number of members compares quite well to the number of members in countries like Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and similar places.

If Only They had the Gift of the Holy Ghost

A few years ago I was serving as a ward mission leader. I was talking with one of the missionaries about one of their investigators. He was expressing a little frustration, among the issues that were discussed, the missionary observed that the investigator: