Humble -- Meek -- Submissive

To make an analogy, I read some time ago about a U.S. Navy dive bomber pilot from World War II.  A dive bomber, of course, attacks its target by making a steep dive and dropping its bomb between 1,000 and 2,000 feet; this has the affect of turning an ordinary dumb bomb into a smart bomb as the pilot can place his bomb on the target with great accuracy.  On the particular mission I was reading about, the pilot was attacking an airfield when his wing was hit by antiaircraft fire.  The pilot held his dive and hit his target, and when he pulled up the fire in his wing was out.  Concerned that he might not make it back to his aircraft carrier, he considered ditching in the ocean to be picked up by a friendly submarine, but his rear gunner said he was injured and that he didn’t think he could deploy the raft after ditching.  So the pilot flew back to the carrier.

Since his plane was damaged, the pilot was forced to circle the ship until all the planes from the strike had landed.  If he had crashed on the deck during his landing, he would have fouled the deck preventing other planes from landing, so he had to wait.  Finally it was his turn.

Carrier landings during the pre-jet age were accomplished by flying around the ship and taking directions from a man with paddles standing near the stern of the ship, the Landing Signal Officer (LSO).  This was done to allow the pilot to see the LSO and his signals which would have been blocked from the pilot’s vision by the nose and wings of the aircraft in a longer, straighter approach.  While flying down the port (left) side of the carrier, the pilot is reading the signals from the LSO before making the final turn.  At the proper moment the LSO gives the cut signal, the pilot chops power and the plane falls to the deck where its hook catches a cable.

However the pilot in this story, instead of getting the cut signal got the wave off signal, meaning come back around and do it again.  After getting waved off a second time, the ship radioed that he should make a bigger circle and turn in from farther out, because he was approaching too fast for the normal procedure.  The pilot had to approach at a faster speed because of the damage to his wing.  A big hole in the wing meant less lift, which meant a faster stall speed.  Go too slow and the plane stalls and falls into the sea.

Around he comes, this time making the turn from farther out, and the LSO gives him the cut signal while he is farther from the deck than in a normal approach.  “Normally,” the pilot would write later, “when you come aboard, you’re almost over the end of the carrier deck and he gives you the cut . . . you’re right there: bang, bang!  But this time he gave me a cut way out, and I could see the stern of the ship!”  The danger here was that if he cut too soon, he would slam into the stern.

Still, when the LSO gave the cut signal, the pilot pulled the throttle back to zero and the roar of the engine faded.  “Oh, I had to trust him,” he said -- in other words, he had to have faith in the LSO – “I can’t do anything else.  I just got to do what he tells me.  He knows what he’s doing, that's what he’s there for.”  The aircraft, with its damaged wing, glided in and the hook caught an arresting gear cable.  The cut had been timed perfectly.

You are the pilot and God is the LSO.  It is His work and He knows what he is doing.  He knows where His sheep are, and where you need to go to find them.  You have to trust Him and exercise faith.  If you have faith, then you must have hope, and what is it that you should hope for?  Eternal Life through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  If you have faith and hope, then you must have charity.  If you do not have one, then you don’t have the other two.  So pray to be filled with charity.  One of the things that charity is is being humble.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf echoed President Ezra Taft Benson in General Conference a few years ago in warning against pride.  Believing that you are a better missionary than others because you are working harder than others is fraught with danger.  Believing that you are better than anyone for any reason is to place yourself in the hands of the devil as he seeks to lead you carefully down to hell through flattery and deceit.  Avoid these dangers at all costs by humbling yourself and praying to be filled with charity.

Missionaries should always be striving to humble themselves and exercise faith in the Father, whose work this is.  On on particular morning while on my mission I tired to do just that; I prayed to God that He would guide me and my companion in what streets we should tract that day.  After praying we looked at the map of our area and focused on a few streets.  We then prayed again, saying that we felt directed to these streets by the spirit and asking if we were right, and we felt a confirming spirit.  We went and tracted those streets, and found a woman who was baptized within two months.

This woman said she had been baptized in Hawaii when she was much younger, but a diligent search could not find her records.  While the search for her records was ongoing I prayed that they would be found, even though that would cost me a baptism.  I wanted to put the will of the Lord ahead of my own desires; I wanted to be humble, meek and submissive.  As it turned out, her records were not found (back in the day some wards did not always do a good job of sending records of new members to Salt Lake City) and we had a baptism.  But more importantly, this woman was one of the Lord's sheep, He always knew where she was, and she was found by us because we humbled ourselves and asked for His direction.  Oh, we had to trust Him, we could not do anything else.


Source: Ambrose, H. (2010). The Pacific. New York: Penguin Group (USA).

The Miracle of Forgiveness

On April 18, 1942, then Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle led sixteen B-25s in an attack on Tokyo and other Japanese cities.  The unique thing about this raid is that the bombers took off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Eight of the Doolittle Raiders were captured by the Japanese: Dean Hallmark, Bob Meder, Chase Nielsen (from Hyrum, Utah), Bill Farrow, Bob Hite, George Barr, Harold Spatz, and Jake DeShazer. Three of the raiders, Hallmark, Farrow and Spatz, were executed by the Japanese. Bob Meder would die of starvation during captivity, and George Barr was so close to death when he was liberated that his mental and physical recovery would take two years.

After Meder's death, Hite wrote the governor of the prison protesting the treatment of the prisoners.  Hite then asked "will you please give us the Holy Bible to read?"  Meder's death must have caused the Japanese some trouble because changes were made, among them that the prisoners were allowed to share a few English books, including the bible.

"It was the first time that I had ever -- and I think any of us -- the first time any of us had really read the Bible from cover to cover," said Hite. "I was sort of like a man being in the desert and finding a cool pool." Hite went on to say, "Instead of hating the enemy that we had such hate for, we began to feel sorry for them. . . . It was almost a miracle to realize the sort of thing that happened to us . . . we were no longer afraid to the extent that we had been . . . we no longer had the hatred."

Jake DeShazer's story would be the most remarkable.  One day he was cleaning his cell when a guard looked in and yelled Hayaku! (hurry up). DaShazer responded by telling the guard to "Go jump in a lake." The next thing he knew, DeShazer was knocked on the head by the guard's fist. The Raider kicked the guard in the stomach, and the guard hit back with the steel scabbard for his sword. Jake then threw some dirty mop water at the guard, which had the affect of cooling the guard off. Still, DeShazer was surprised that the guard had not cut his head off.

After the incident with the guard, DeShazer, who described himself as an agnostic, turned to the Bible and the experience would end up turning his life upside-down.  Jake felt that he needed some sign of God's existence, and as he read the Bible he felt that God was indeed present, reaching out for someone so abandoned, mistreated and hopeless as he was.  When he read for a second time Romans 10:9 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" Jake started praying. "Lord, though I am far from home and though I am in prison, I must have forgiveness."

As he continued to study the Bible and pray his heart was filled with joy. "I wouldn't have traded places with anyone at that time," he would later say. "Oh, what a great joy it was to know that I was saved, that God had forgiven me my sins." DeShazer went on to say that "Hunger, starvation, and a freezing prison cell no longer had horrors for me. They would only be for a passing moment. Even death could hold no threat when I knew that God had saved me. Death is just one more trial that I must go through before I can enjoy the pleasures of eternal life. There will be no pain, no suffering, no loneliness in heaven. Everything will be perfect with joy forever."
 
The more DeShazer read, the more he knew that he had to change. He especially loved reading 1 Corinthians 13:

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. . . ."

 DeShazer felt that his sins had been forgiven through Jesus Christ, and that he, too, would have to forgive.  He had another run in with a guard one day.  The impatient guard slapped Jake on the back, yelling "Hayaku, hayaku!, shoving him into his cell and slamming the door on his bare heel.  The guard kicked his foot until DeShazer was able to free himself.  "The pain in my foot was severe, and I thought some bones were broken. But as I sat on my stool in great pain, I felt as if God was testing me somehow."

DeShazer was tempted to take revenge the next day when the guard came on duty, but instead he called out "Ohayo gozaimasu!" (good morning). This drew a strange look from the guard. The next day, however, Jake gave the same friendly greeting to the guard. This went on morning after morning until the guard came over and spoke to the Raider. Jake, using what little Japanese he had managed to pick up while a prisoner, asked the guard about his family.

Not long after this conversation, Jake saw the guard pacing with his head bowed and hands folded in prayer. The guard explained that he was talking to his mother, who had died when he was a little boy. From that moment on the guard treated DeShazer well, never shouting at him and never beating him. "One morning he opened the slot [in the cell door] and handed in a boiled sweet potato," said Jake. "I was surprised, and thanked him profusely. Later he gave me some batter-fried fish and candy. I knew then that God's way will work if we really try, no matter what the circumstances." He concluded, "How easy it was to make a friend out of an enemy because I had just tried."

The examples of DeShazer and his fellow prisoners stand out to those who have suffered far less than they but who still struggle to forgive.

How to Have Every Good Thing

In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon talked to a group of Nephites about how they could have every good thing.  The recipe is simple: Faith, Hope and Charity.

God spoke to prophets and the prophets spoke to the people, and the people began to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, and by faith they began to “lay hold upon every good thing.”  By praying to God and asking in the name of Jesus Christ for good things, having faith that they would receive, they did receive those good things.
 
If we have faith, then we must also have hope.  And what should we hope for?  That if we live righteously and have faith in Jesus Christ, then someday we will be able to return to our Heavenly Father and live with him because of the Atonement of Christ.  But then Mormon tells us that we cannot have faith and hope if we are not meek and lowly in heart.

 If we are proud and puffed up, our faith and hope is in vain or good for nothing.  If we are meek and lowly in heart, and confess by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ – if we have a testimony that Jesus is our savior because we have had a witness of truth from the Holy Ghost – then we must have charity.  If we do not have charity, warns Mormon, then we are nothing.

Mormon said that “charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.  Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail –

“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”  (Moroni 7: 45-47).

So, what is charity?  To have charity means that you have patience, that you are kind, that you do not envy others, that you are not prideful, that you do not put yourself ahead of everyone else, that you are slow to get angry, and that instead of striking back when someone hits you that you turn the other cheek.  Having Charity means that you rejoice in truth, that you shun evil, that you are humble and submissive to your parents and your Heavenly Father, and that you have faith and hope.  Charity is love, but it is more than that, it is the pure love of Christ.  We are to love as Jesus loves.

Charity also means separating behavior from the individual, which allows us to love the sinner even as we hate the sin.  If we have charity we can say, "I love you, you have value as an individual, but this particular behavior is a problem."  Charity makes it easier to use "I messages" instead of "you messages."  If we have charity we can be bullet proof as having compassion and understanding can protect us from taking their behavior personally, "That's just Sally being Sally."

President Thomas S. Monson has said, "I consider charity -- or the 'pure love of Christ' -- to be the opposite of criticism and judging.  In speaking of charity, I do not . . . have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance.  That, of course, is necessary and proper . . . I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient.

"I have in mind the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others.  There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted.  True charity is love in action.  The need for charity is everywhere.

"Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited.  The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, 'To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike.'"

President Monson also tells us that "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down.  It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily.  It is accepting weaknesses and shortcoming.  It is accepting people as they truly are.  It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time.  It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."

President Monson concludes, "In a hundred small ways, all of you wear the mantle of charity.  Life is perfect for none of us.  Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life.  May we recognize that each one is doing [his or] her best to deal with the challenges which come [his or] her way, and may we strive to do our best to help out."

Because charity will never fail while everything else will, and because if we do not have charity then we do not have faith or hope, I think that in order for us to be watertight, we must have charity.

Mormon tells us that when we pray that we should pray to be filled with this love, and I add my voice to his and say that we should do this.  It is never too early to start, and we should continue to pray that we may continue to be filled with charity, that we may be purified and that we may truly be like Jesus.  And we must be careful to always have faith and hope, and to always pray and study the scriptures, so that we may never lose this charity once we have been filled with it.

"Tight Like Unto a Dish"

In yesterday's post, President Monson referred to the story of the wise man who built his house upon a rock and of the foolish who built his house on sand.  A big storm came and blew down the house of the foolish man.

In the Book of Mormon, Helaman – who was the son of Helaman – had two sons who he named Nephi and Lehi.  He did this to remind them of their ancestors who were also named Lehi and Nephi, the father and son who left Jerusalem and traveled to the Promised Land in the New World.  Helaman told his sons Nephi and Lehi to build their foundation on the rock of their Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ.

“And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”  (Helaman 5:12.)

Also in the Book of Mormon, the brother of Jared was commanded to build several barges or boats.  These boats were said to be “tight like unto a dish.”  We are supposed to liken the scriptures to ourselves, so the question is: how can we be “tight like unto a dish”?

Let’s look more closely at those barges.  They didn’t have any windows and they couldn’t build a fire inside of them.  They were to ride on the top of the sea, but could also go underneath the sea – they were sometimes “swallowed up in the depths of the sea.”  That sounds a little bit like a submarine to me; submarines are one of my favorite things.  A submarine has no windows, definitely no screen doors, and no fireplaces, and they can ride on top of or below the surface of the sea.

So if the barges sound a little bit like a submarine, what does it mean to be “tight like unto a dish”?  The word in our modern language is “watertight.”  When a submarine is underneath the surface of the sea, she has all of her hatches closed to keep the water on the outside.  When all the hatches and other openings are shut a submarine is watertight.  Ships on the surface are also watertight, that is why their hulls displace water and float on the sea.  If a hole were punched into the side of a ship, or if a hatch were open on a submarine, they would fill with water and sink.  Ships and submarines have internal compartments or rooms and these compartments have hatches that open and close.  By closing all their hatches, a ship and submarine can stop the water from filling more than just the compartment open to the sea.

When I first started this blog I posted about integrity.  In discussing how effectively watertight a ship or submarine is they use the term "watertight integrity."  If all of the hatches and openings are closed to the sea, and if all the hatches to the interior compartments are closed and dogged shut, then the watertight integrity is good.  If even one hatch or opening is left open it can doom a submarine.  In May 1939, the submarine USS Squalus sank to the bottom of Long Island Sound when her main induction valve -- which drew in air for the engines when on the surface -- was stuck open.  Quick action by the crew prevented the forward compartments from flooding, allowing 33 men to be rescued.

A submarine submerges by filling ballast tanks with water and surfaces by forcing the water out of those tanks.  A submarine also has a negative tank which can be emptied of water in case of emergency.  Then there are trim tanks in which water levels can be adjusted to keep the boat level when under the surface.  If the submarine's trim is even slightly off her forward momentum can drive her either deeper until she reaches "crush depth" or shallower until she broaches the surface.  Even when properly trimmed, a submarine will gradually sink deeper unless she has forward propulsion from her engines.

Watertight integrity is especially important for a submarine because the deeper a submarine goes the greater the pressure of the water on the hull.  If a submarine goes too deep, the ocean can literally squeeze it to death.  Imagine pushing both sides of a squeezebox or an accordion together.  That can happen to a submarine; it’s the opposite of an explosion, so they call it an implosion.  In a submarine, as water enters one compartment, the pressure of the ocean can eventually force the bulkhead or wall separating it from another compartment to collapse.  Even a small hole in the outside of the submarine can be a serious problem.  Water from the outside can shoot into the submarine like a laser as it is forced through the small opening by the pressure of the ocean.

We want to be watertight when we face temptation as well as other challenges in life.  Some temptations might seem small, but as with a submarine, a small hole can lead to bigger problems.  To avoid the bigger problems we have to take care of the little things.

So, how can we achieve watertight integrity? In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon talked to a group of Nephites about how they could have every good thing.  Watertight integrity would certainly qualify as a good thing.  To have every good thing we must have faith, hope and charity.

"Come Together Under Christ and Do All Things as One"

The following is an excerpt from a letter I had the chutzpah to write home while on my mission:

“Before I came out I thought that I had what I call an eternal perspective. Since getting out here I have developed that perspective. Such a perspective has helped me endure most of the challenges I have faced out here.

“There is a new video out that we have been using; we have been showing it to both members and investigators. It is extremely good; no matter how many times I see it I never get tired of it. It’s called Together Forever. It is about families being together forever and it tells the story of four different people and how they came to see the importance of families and the Gospel.

“Maybe it will help my family see that it’s not the trip or the activity that’s important, but the togetherness of family. In the Fifth Discussion we talk about sacrificing our own interests for the purposes of God. The purposes of God are to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. His purpose for families is that they should be together forever.

“Individuality is the biggest enemy to companionships out here. In a good companionship, both missionaries can be assured their goals are similar, that of teaching, baptizing and working hard. So it is with eternal companionships. Individualism can hurt and deter the relationship. The wife wants one thing while the husband wants another. The result is confusion and lack of communication. Communicating is the most important activity in any relationship.

“There are two vital activities in a missionary companionship: 1. companionship inventory and, 2. Companionship prayer.

“I have seen a few companionships go sour because we weren’t having companionship inventory. This is a time set aside once a week where companions resolve concerns and set goals. If this is done there is a greater understanding throughout the week.

“Then there is companionship prayer. It is stressed that we should pray as companions in the morning, at breakfast, when leaving to go to work, at lunch, when going back out to work, at dinner, when going back out, and then before bed. Eternal companions probably don’t need to pray together quite that much, but certainly once a day at least.

“On April 24, 1988, at the Maples Pavilion on the Stanford University campus was held the San Francisco Regional Conference. The final speaker was President Thomas S. Monson. He talked about a daily pattern for our lives. This was to make sure that our home was a home of prayer, of fasting, of faith, of learning, of glory, of order, and of God.

“President Monson told a story of how throughout his marriage he and his wife have followed a system. They knelt in prayer every evening. One night he would pray, the next night his wife would. In all the time that they had been married they have never had an argument. One day he had an interview with President David O. McKay and related this story. President McKay responded, “I thought my wife and I had a monopoly on that system.” Their results were similar to that of the Monsons.

“Isaiah chapter 53 gives us a true lesion in fasting. Faith is the first principle of the Gospel. Read Alma chapter 17. Learning goes back to prayer and fasting. As we learn more, we have more questions.

“We should have a unified goal and strive to be closer to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. There should be order in all things. Prioritize and ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ Keep the things of God first in your life. ‘When ye are in the service of your fellowmen, ye are only in the service of your God.’ Strive always to have room for Christ in your home.

“A home without love and unity is a lonely bay. Too often we find ourselves alone in our own activities. Remember that predicated on our righteousness all of this, even the loneliness, can last forever. So work to leave that loneliness behind. Come together under Christ and do all things as one.”


I should like to add an excerpt from another talk given by President Monson entitled “Heavenly Homes, Forever Families”:

“We are frequently reminded by song and spoken word that ‘the home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place nor fulfill its essential functions.’

“Actually, a home is much more than a house.  A house may be constructed of lumber, brick, and stone.  A home is made of love, sacrifice, and respect.  A house can be a home, and a home can be a heaven when it shelters a family.  Like the structure in which it dwells, the family may be large or small.  It may be old or young.  It may be in excellent condition or it may show signs of wear, of neglect, of deterioration.

“In a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, on December 17, 1832, the Master counseled: ‘Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.’ (D&C 88:119)

“Where could any of us locate a more suitable blueprint whereby he could wisely and properly build?  Such a house would meet the building code outlined in Matthew, even a house built ‘upon a rock’ (see Matthew 7:24-25), a house capable of withstanding the rains of adversity, the floods of opposition, and the winds of doubt everywhere present in our challenging world.

“Let the Lord be the General Contractor for the family – even the home – we build.  Then each of us can be subcontractors responsible for a vital segment of the whole project.  All of us are thereby builders.”

The Mission to the Lamanites and the Conversion of Frederick G. Williams

The prophet Joseph Smith received revelations in the fall 1830 calling Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt and Ziba Peterson on a mission to the Lamanites -- the native Americans then living in the Indian territories bordering the state of Missouri.  Leaving in late October, they arrived at a village in Ohio called Kirtland; here they would stay for four weeks, baptizing some one hundred converts, before continuing on to Missouri.

Among those baptized in Kirtland were Frederick and Rebecca Williams.  Frederick Granger Williams, a doctor and a prominent member of the community, at first had some reservations about the restored gospel as taught by the four elders. "The Elders presented him a book of Mormon which he was determined not to read," wrote Lucy Ellen Williams Godfrey, Frederick's granddaughter, many years later.  "He would read a little would lay it away but soon was reading it again. He became converted and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Once converted, Dr. Williams was ready to give his all to the work.  "When the Elders were going on they desired F. G. Williams to accompany them," wrote Lucy Godfrey, "which he did furnishing part of the outfit which left his wife alone with four small children to get a long as best she could. He was gone ten months on this mission to the Indians."

Another descendent of Dr. Williams, his biographer who also happens to share his name, has written: "By accepting the invitation to serve, Williams in effect became the first "senior" missionary in this dispensation, as well as one of the first married missionaries of the restored Church to leave his family for an extended period.  His willingness to sacrifice the comforts of home and family for a season in order to serve the Lord -- while paying his own way and at the same time supporting the missions of others -- would be a pattern that thousands more would emulate over the years."

The missionaries traveled south to the Ohio River, where they found passage to St. Louis; then, as it was late in the year and there was ice at the mouth of the river, they proceeded by foot, in deep snow, across Missouri to Independence, Jackson County.  As it would happen, the elders did not receive permission from the Indian agent of the U.S. government to preach among the native Americans, but the mission to the Lamanites would nonetheless have a major impact on the church and its history.  The Saints in New York would soon decide to move to Kirtland, Ohio and, after the prophet Joseph received a revelation declaring it to be Zion, to Independence, Missouri.  Frederick G. Williams would first meet the prophet in Independence before traveling with him back to Kirtland.

Years later, in August 1841, Parley P. Pratt would write an open letter from Manchester, England, to the authorities and members of the church, in which he would recall the mission to the Lamanites and the elders with which he served:

"It is now eleven years since I first embraced the fullness of the gospel. . . .  I was one of those who took the first mission to the western states, in which the fullness of the gospel was first introduced into Ohio (commencing at Kirtland,) Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and into the Indian territory, among the Lamanites.

"When countless millions shall throng to the courts of the New Jerusalem which is soon to be built in Jackson County, Missouri, upon the consecrated spot, then perhaps it may be remembered that in 1830, in the depth of a howling winter five men penetrated Missouri's wilds, and traveled on foot from St. Louis to Independence, Jackson Country, wading in snow to the knees the greater part of the way for 300 miles; and all this as may be said, without money or friends, except as they made them. These are the first footsteps ever made in that state by Latter day Saints -- these first placed their feet upon that holy ground, where shall stand the great temple of our God, the resort of nations, and the joy of the whole earth. . . .

"Of those five men, Peter Whitmer is now in his grave, two [Oliver Cowdery and Ziba Peterson] are turned away from the fellowship of the church, and the other two, F. G. Williams and myself are yet alive, and blessed with the grace of God we are yet counted worthy of a place among you. Thus I find myself a monument of mercy, spared like an oak amid the tempest, and to God be ascribed all the glory; for were it not for his peculiar longsuffering and goodness I might now have been an outcast from the commenwealth of Israel, or cut down by untimely death without beholding in this life the establishment of Zion."

Frederick G. Williams would have a prominent place in the history of the church in the Kirtland period, and you may yet read more about him for he was my great great great grandfather.


[Source: Williams, F. G. (2012). The Life of Dr. Frederick G. Williams: Counselor to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Provo, Utah: BYU Studies.

Adversity: The Refiner's Fire

George Q. Cannon, at age 23, was called in 1850 to serve a mission in Hawaii; in fact he was one of the first ten elders sent to islands.  When Elder Cannon left for home after four years, he left behind 4,000 converts to the church.  Such astounding success, however, might serve to obscure the difficulties he and his fellow missionaries faced.

The chief difficultly lay in learning the language, and some elders never overcame this obstacle.  But Elder Cannon persisted, never letting an opportunity pass to talk to the people and improve his understanding of the language. He “also tried to exercise faith before the Lord to obtain the gift of talking and understanding the language.”  Then, one day while speaking with some native neighbors, George Q. Cannon “felt an uncommonly great desire to understand what they said.”  He would later report that he felt “a peculiar sensation in my ears,” and that this made him so excited he that he jumped up “and exclaimed to Elders Bigler and Keeler who sat at the table, that I believed I had received the gift of interpretation!”

many young missionaries experience loneliness and homesickness while they are away from home and George was not exception. He would write in his journal, “It was then that I found the value of the Book of Mormon. It was a book which I [had] always loved. But I learned there to appreciate it as I had never done before. If I felt inclined to be lonely, to be low spirited, or homesick, I had only to turn to its sacred pages to receive consolation, new strength and a rich outpouring of the Spirit. … Especially can I recommend it to those who are away from home on missions.”

Heber J. Grant had a very different experience in Japan, where he was called in 1901 to open proselyting.  Not surprisingly, he found a meager harvest due to differences in cultural and religious background – not to mention the language barrier.  Heber made the effort to learn Japanese, but it was a frustrating endeavor.  Additionally, he discovered that a high standard for worthiness and conversion was required before people could be baptized because it was found that a few had joined or tried to join with less than honest intentions.  One person was only interested in using his membership for personal gain, while another demonstrated himself as having no real understanding of the principles he had been taught.

Heber was discouraged and he began to question whether he was adequate for the task as he compared his labors with the labors of the early missionaries in the U.S. and in England, where it was not uncommon for converts to be hauled in by the hundreds and thousands.  Wilford Woodruff had baptized hundreds during a period of just a few weeks in England, for example.  Reason dictated that comparing England and Japan was unrealistic because of the vast differences in their composition, but that did not seem to alleviate the concern and anxiety that Heber experienced.

With the lack of success in proselyting, Heber shifted more focus to the other purpose of a mission president, the training and development of his missionaries.  Frequent training and testimony meetings were held which provided the missionaries the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to associate with a member of the Council of the Twelve.  Heber believed that the motivation and incentive, as well as the skills and abilities he might plant in the young elders under his charge would be transmitted by them to their families and associates and, in turn, by them to their descendants.

Despite all of the adversity experienced in Japan, Heber was in no hurry to return home.  As he reported during the October 1903 general conference, “When I received my release, I felt that I could not come home; that I must stay at least six months more; and the first night, instead of being happy, as one usually is when released to return home, I felt sad, for the first and only time in Japan.  I did not go to sleep until three or four o’clock in the morning, and I felt I must cable home and ask permission to remain.”

The next morning he had a change of heart.  “I disliked to have to tell you that I had been there 15 months and done nothing,” he said.  “I wanted to stay six months more, to get some results from the active labor we had done there, so that I could come home and say I had done as well as other apostles who had gone out on missions. . . .  It was pride and not the Spirit of the Lord, that prompted this feeling.”

After returning home, Heber was called to preside over the European mission, where he would have more success.  Japan had been a refining fire, and this perhaps made the success in Europe all the better.  When he left England for home in 1907, he could count not only hundreds of conversions that had come about either directly or indirectly through his efforts, but also the new insights he had gained into the secrets of leadership.  Additionally, he had gained a broader perspective of the world and its people; new acquaintances who would play leading roles in church affairs in the future; and treasured memories he would often recall in years ahead for use in sermons or lessons.

Not all hardworking missionaries are as blessed as Elder Cannon when it comes to the spectator sport of teaching and baptizing. Many missionaries work hard but are not blessed with baptisms; meanwhile, other missionaries have baptisms even as they appear to work less hard. It may seem perverse that "bucket" (lazy) missionaries have baptisms while hardworking missionaries do not.  Yet the hardworking elders who are not baptizing much, if at all, may be receiving the greater blessing.  Adversity is a refiner's fire and those who are truly tested are truly blessed.  Through time and experience, the mysteries of God are contemplated and understood.

No matter how much adversity one has experienced, or how much one has learned, they are still human and will continue to fall short of perfection because of their weaknesses and inadequacies.  The good news is that the Atonement is there for them, even if their failings are not great sins.  There will always be the opportunity to humble ourselves and have faith in Christ and to be lifted by His grace.

Sources:

Choate, J. M. (1987). George Q. Cannon. Friend.  Retrieved November 14, 2012 from https://www.lds.org/friend/1987/01/george-q-cannon?lang=eng

Nibley, P.  (1942). Missionary Experiences. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.

Wilson, W. A. (2000). George Q. Cannon: A Biography. BYU Studies, 39(3).

Gibbons, F. M. (1979). Heber J. Grant: Man of Steel, Prophet of God. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book

Missionary Prep

On the night of May 2, 1987, I attended the Senior Ball; the next morning I was up early for the first class of a missionary preparation program in the stake I grew up in.  High school was ending, my mission was beginning.  A few months earlier I had been lying in bed one Saturday morning when the realization suddenly hit me that one year from that moment I would be in the mission field.

The missionary prep program in my stake held classes early on Sunday mornings, with another meeting on Tuesdays nights.  The teachers were returned missionaries who taught us everything they knew.  But perhaps the most important aspect of that prep program was the fireside.  As often as once a week we had the opportunity of teaching a mock discussion to members, these discussions were called firesides.  Sometimes we would teach a return missionary who would put us through the ringer with arguments based on those they had often heard on their missions.

I attended this program for eight months and it provided real and practical preparation.  When I entered the Missionary Training Center I felt that I was so prepared that I would take the mission field by storm -- it didn't work out that way, but that is another story, suffice it to say that I believe that the Lord felt I needed a little humility.

The program wasn't an easy one, and at times during the first few months I felt that I could do nothing right as I taught mock discussions or as I role played handling objections during the Sunday classes and the Tuesday night meetings.  I believe that the adversary was working on me hard, trying to discourage me from going.  But I persevered and my confidence began to grow.

I attended the prep program for as long as I did because I could not leave on my mission until seven months after I graduated from high school.  Now, of course, the rules have been changed, allowing young men to leave immediately after graduation if they are 18.  A prep program of several months may no longer be practical, still I believe every prospective missionary could benefit from some instruction by return missionaries, but most of all from teaching mock discussions to members.

It was an advantage to me that when I arrived in the MTC, I already knew the first and second discussions and that I had experience teaching them.  It was an advantage to me that when I first taught a discussion to an investigator that I didn't have to worry about overcoming stage fright.  It was also an advantage to me when dealing with objections from real investigators that I learned and role played the answers in the prep program.

The U.S. military services gained advantages during World War II by rotating combat veterans back to the continental U.S. and assigning them to new units or to training units.  This allowed the veterans to pass on what they had learned in combat to those who had yet to experience it.  In the same way there is value in return missionaries passing on lessons that they learned to prospective missionaries.

If there is no organized missionary prep program in place where you live, I would recommend a little do-it-yourself project.  Get a copy of Preach My Gospel (it can be found online at: http://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service?lang=eng) and familiarize yourself with the discussions, then find members to teach mock discussions to.  In addition to learning and teaching the discussions, you should be learning how to teach with the spirit.  In addition to mock discussions, perhaps you can ask return missionaries in your area what they learned on their mission, or about common objections they got from investigators and how they handled them.  A little preparation in these areas before you enter the MTC will go a long way when you reach the mission field.

Weak Things Become Strong

One summer day when I was 17, I had a little bit of a meltdown at a church softball game; and as it happened, my father was there to see it. When I went to bed that night I found a note on my pillow suggesting that I read Ether 12:27: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

Joseph Smith said of James 1:5 that “Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine.” I will not try to compete with Joseph on this but my experience was similar to his. I had plenty of weaknesses, but the question now was how to humble myself and have faith. To find the answer I started reading The Book of Mormon.

At times I felt that it was a struggle to exercise faith, but there were also days when the Lord answered my prayers with needed help and with needed answers to some difficult questions. There were certain things that I stopped caring so much about, and an amazing thing happened: Some of those good things I worried about because they were not happening, started to happen. I had faith in Jesus Christ, I knew that my Heavenly Father loved me, I loved both of them, and this brought happiness.

Still, there were some lessons that I needed to go on a mission to learn. I was blessed with several good examples in the mission field.  One of my first zone leaders was a pretty amazing missionary, and at the end of my first two months in California he was called to be an assistant to the mission president. Subsequent to that, his former companion who was still one of my zone leaders told me about that elder’s amazing transformation. When he first arrived in San Jose, this elder was extremely shy and quiet -- he said all of five words in his first two months, but he set a goal and did a lot of soul searching. As noted, he eventually became an A.P.

One of my first few companions was also very shy when he first arrived in the mission field. He was so shy that he didn't even speak at his farewell. He had a twin brother and the meeting was for both of them, but my future companion did not show up to the meeting until the last five or ten minutes, and he sat in the back of the chapel. The bishop saw him and asked if he would like to come up and bear his testimony, but this elder just waved him off. He was probably trying to act cool, but in reality he was scared to death. 

This missionary couldn’t even order himself a hamburger at a fast food restaurant he was so shy.  But then someone explained to this elder that it was all just intimidation, and he realized that he was allowing the girl behind the counter to intimidate him, as he was other people. By the time I met him, some two years later, it was obvious that he was not intimidated by anything or anyone.

Those who go on missions have an amazing opportunity, they can humble themselves, have faith, and through the grace of their Savior, they can have their weaknesses become strengths. What is really amazing is how much they can learn in just two short years. I learned more in my two years than in all the years before or since, though I am still learning.

Yet another of my zone leaders argued that we should not measure success by leadership positions we held or even by how hard we worked, much less by the number of baptisms we had. Rather, we should measure success on a mission by the strength of our relationship with the Savior. Consider that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God” and “how knoweth a man a master whom he hath not served.” Missionaries have a wonderful opportunity to come to know their Savior as they serve him.

Those who did not have the opportunity to serve a mission, as well as those who did serve and have returned home, still have this amazing opportunity. They still have opportunities to serve the Lord, to humble themselves, have faith and have their weaknesses become strengths. Some return missionaries may be surprised to find that there is still a need for this kind of opportunity; they may be surprised that there is still much to learn, that there is still a strait and narrow path to walk and much more yet to be endured.

No matter how much adversity one has experienced, or how much one has learned, they are still human and will continue to fall short of perfection because of their weaknesses and inadequacies. The good news is that the Atonement is there for them, even if their failings are not great sins. There will always be the the opportunity to humble ourselves and have faith in Christ and to be lifted by His grace.

Everyone has down times occasionally, and everyone experiences feelings of inadequacy – though they may have experienced a mighty change of heart, they don't always feel like singing the song of redeeming love. This is in no small part due to the conditions we face here in mortality and the ideals or teachings we aspire to live by. Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the Seventy has written that there is a gap between reality and the life we strive to live in keeping the commandments and following the Savior's example. We are commanded to “be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” and yet we keep falling short.

Some people respond by discarding the ideal. They say it is too hard so why even try; we will be much happier if we accept reality and do not try to live an impossible ideal. Others ignore reality and say that they have already reached the ideal, even as they continue to fall short just like the rest of us. Falling short does not mean that we are willfully rebelling against God, it only means that we are human. The Atonement is not just for sinners – though as Paul said, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” -- it is also for those striving for perfection; for those who have gone from bad to good and are trying to go from good to better.

We strive, we stretch, we reach, and still we fall short; yet by humbling ourselves and having faith in Christ we can by lifted by His grace. We stretch and struggle, but as we humble ourselves and have faith our weakness becomes strong unto us through the grace of Christ.

I sought to humble myself and have faith while on my mission, and sought my own transformation. What I found, regarding my quiet personality, is that shyness is easy to overcome but that didn't mean I was going to become a great conversationalist. I can still be very quiet, but when talking about a subject I know a lot about, like military history, or when bearing testimony, I can find the words, and even more, I can speak with power. I am not telling you this to brag, for – at least when I am discussing the gospel and bearing testimony -- it is the spirit that is giving me the words. I can testify to the truthfulness of Ether 12:27, but not just from my own experience, but because of the transformations I have seen in others.

Some of the worst things that happen to us are the things we do to ourselves; the doubts we entertain, the grudges that we carry, the habits we pick up and the sins we commit. Nephi saw the Son of God, yet he felt to say once “O wretched man that I am” because of the sins and temptations which so easily beset him. We may sometimes feel as Nephi did; if so we should say as he did “Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul. . . . Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever: yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.”

And I would add, “Let me not forget, O Savior, thou didst bleed and die for me, When thy heart was stilled and broken, On the cross at Calvary.”

“He died in holy innocence, A broken law to recompense.” But he lives! "He lives who once was dead," “He lives, all glory to his name! He lives, my savior still the same. O sweet the joy this sentence gives, I know that my Redeemer lives.”

God lives, Jesus is the Christ, the Holy Messiah, this is His church, Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true, and there is no sorrow which God cannot heal.