My wife and I were lucky enough to be spiritually and physically available when the missionaries needed help teaching some young women. These girls were recently graduated from high school and had a friend who was on a mission. One of the girls lived in the same apartment building as the missionaries and through small talk, the Elders offered to teach her what her friend was doing on a mission. They met several times and the Elders were in need of additional priesthood to help accompany them on lessons. The lessons with one grew to lessons with three. Each one of them was baptized. Each one of them is continuing to grow in the gospel. They have each received their patriarchal blessings, been to the temple for Baptisms for the dead, serve in callings and have born their testimonies publicly and privately. Each of them had challenges prior to joining the church and those trials continue since they have joined the church, but they are growing.
Recently, one of the girls expressed a desire to serve a mission, but was struggling with the decision as it would be going against the wishes of her family. Another one of the girls organized a group of letters and testimonies about serving a mission and words of encouragement for her friend. We were asked to contribute.
This is the letter my wife and I wrote.
Dear E,
We love to go to the temple. Part of the reason is the day date it gives us each month. But another part is the learning and growth involved. It’s the same reason we pray, read the scriptures, visit with missionaries and serve in our callings at church. It’s all about growth. We think going to the temple also often gives us an eternal perspective. It reminds us of who we are and why we are here. Because of that perspective, it’s not a huge deal to serve someone else, or devote 20 minutes to study the scriptures or to remember to pray. We are hardly perfect at it, but we are learning and growing. We’d be up for more opportunities for growth, but it’s a challenge with four children, a full-time job, mortgage and car/loan payments. But, when we retire, we are looking forward to stretching ourselves spiritually and serving the Lord in whatever capacity He sees fit. But for now, we’re just going to keep making it up as we go and do our best.
You have an opportunity to serve now. There’s a window where you can learn and grow so much faster than can be done any other way. Serving a mission can be pretty extreme. But it’s extreme in the way that you pray so much, read and study so much, and grow so much. You will learn how to feel the Spirit. You will learn how to adult. You will learn about priorities and you will learn the doctrine. Think about the number of hours you are busy each day. Now wipe out all those responsibilities and time wasting activities we all do each day. This is what a mission is. It’s the gift of time. Time given to us to learn and grow. It’s not a requirement at all, but it’s an opportunity for all of us to become more like our Heavenly Parents.
Having said that, we feel somewhat unqualified to suggest to anyone that they should serve a mission, having only served 5 months between the two of us. Serving a mission is a very personal thing. It is a decision that you need to make for yourself and whether you serve is between you and the Lord. We have seen lots of growth in ourselves over the years, but we were well into our late 20’s when we felt like we were at the spiritual maturity that we felt most return missionaries are at. Which isn’t to say that return missionaries are perfect either. That’s the beautiful thing about life. There is always some growth to be had, some pressing forward to do. When we relax, we risk struggling. We are each floating in a slow moving river. When we are trying to be our best self, we are swimming upstream, making slow progress at becoming better. When we stop trying, we float downstream.
When our boys grow up, we would hope they would serve a mission, but we want them to choose for themselves. We feel the same for you. We would love nothing more than to see you go and serve the Lord and would be even more excited to see who the Lord would help you to become. You’re already such a fantastic person and have a beautiful spirit. We’ve seen you grow so much already. We know if you choose to serve a mission, you will help others come unto Christ, and by helping them, you will also have come unto Him yourself.
If you feel like you don’t have anything to offer, then you couldn’t be more wrong. Everyone has something to offer. The Lord will magnify any effort and you have a lot to give. With what you have to offer and with the Lord magnifying that effort, we expect you would be a great missionary and a rock in the church to those who know you. If you choose not to serve a mission, we know that you will brighten the lives of everyone you meet at school. Just as the Lord loves each of us regardless of our individual righteousness, we will love you whether you serve a mission or not. Just promise us that you will always remember that you are a Child of God. He loves you and wants the best for you. Trust in Him in all things and you will never go wrong.
~T&J Bruce
We wrote this letter a couple weeks ago and submitted it to be added to the letters. As we prepared the Come, Follow Me lessons for this week, we were struck with the lessons for our children and how it related to this letter we just wrote. We wanted to focus the lesson on three key things that we wanted each of our boys to learn.
- Each of us are literal children of Heavenly Parents.
“However many generations in your mortal ancestry, no matter what race or people you represent, the pedigree of your spirit can be written on a single line. You are a child of God.” (Boyd K. Packer)
I think as parents and teachers, this to be our number one goal when raising children in the gospel. If we can instill a sense of their eternal heritage, regardless of the choices they make in life, they will always have that all-important lesson. We are each literal children of Heavenly Parents and they love us. “I am truly grateful that Heavenly Father loves me enough to remind me who I am.” (Jenny Oaks Baker)
- We need to follow Jesus Christ and live by His teachings
How do we follow Jesus Christ? The simple answer is to do as He would do but in order to do what He would do, we must first know Him. We can know Christ by reading His scriptures, Praying, following His prophets and by Listening to His Spirit. “As you learn to hear the voice of the Lord in your life, you will be drawn to hear who you really are.” (Wendy L. Watson Nelson) Two of my favourite quotes are from Adam S. Miller’s book Letters to a Young Mormon. In it, he said, “Get close to the scriptures. Do anything you can. God is in there” and “To Pray is to practice remembering God.” Do what is necessary to feel the Spirit in your life. Having the Spirit will help each of us stay close to the Lord.
- We need to become labourers in the vineyard and help others to come unto Christ.
The two great commandments are to Love the Lord and to Love Thy Neighbour. “Having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and keeping His commandments are and always will be the defining test of mortality.” (Quentin L . Cook) If we strive to live the commandments, we will stay close to the Lord and help others to come unto Him.
Our invitations will be important, but our example will be key. “You must never underestimate the power of your righteous influence.” (Elaine S. Dalton)
In short, these 3 simple lesson we want to teach our children can be summed up in 3 words. “Believe. Love. Do.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)
~Todd Bruce
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