My Uncle got his mission call just like every other 19-year-old young man who had made the decision to serve the Lord for two years. He was going to teach the people of the Philippines. That is until he got scared and ran away. That’s right! My uncle ran away. No one knew where he had gone or how to find him. However, running away doesn’t work when you come from a family full of determination, it would be easier to escape in the belly of a whale. With a lead that Dan may have interest in a girl from Houston, Texas, my dad, Wilson, and his brother Bill flew from Phoenix to Houston. They didn’t have any other information, they just rented a car and followed the Holy Ghost. When they finally knocked on the door where Dan was, he was completely in shock–how did they find him? He agreed to come back home, and he went to the Philippines to serve his mission.
“Heavenly Father loves us more and knows us better than we love or know ourselves. We can trust the Lord and lean not unto our own understanding.” -Gerrit W. Gong
A year earlier, a man from the Philippines had a dream that a young man would come in one year with a specific message for him. That young man was my uncle Dan. He shared the specific, special message of the restoration with this man, and he joined the church with gratitude.
This story was so fun to me, as it screamed modern day Jonah and the whale.
Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. 17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
As I have pondered these two stories they both give us the assurance that the Lord knows us personally. He is keenly aware of where we are and where we need to be. This builds a stronger feeling of security when it comes to trusting the Lord to lead us. If he can deliver Jonah out of the stomach of a big fish, and lead Dan’s brothers to locate him in the middle of the large metropolitan of Houston, then he can direct our every turn. He will perfectly manage the details of our lives.
“He is in the small details of your life as well as the major milestones.” – Dale G. Renauld
How important each one of us are in our role of the Lord’s work. A year before Dan was called on his mission, a man he was to teach had a dream where he knew Dan would come in a year. The Lord knew Dan’s heart even more than Dan did. He had faith in Dan, enough to ensure someone else across the world that he would come. This is all so amazing to me. When we are asked to pray for missionary opportunities, we can have confidence that the Holy Ghost will not err, and that if we do our part, the Lord’s work will move forward through us. Just imagine, we could be answering someone’s prayer, fulfilling a dream, but one things for sure we will be sharing the greatest message on earth.
“Sharing the gospel is not a burden but a joy. What we call “member missionary work” is not a program but an attitude of love and outreach to help those around us. It is also an opportunity to witness how we feel about the restored gospel of our Savior. As Elder Ballard has taught, “A most significant evidence of our conversion and of how we feel about the gospel in our own lives is our willingness to share it with others.” -Dallin H. Oaks
-Sherri Jorgensen
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