Lakeview Ward, Missionary Homecoming, February 16, ‘25 Russell's talk
Last Fall, prior to General Conference, I decided to ask God what he would have me learn and for Him to help me hear His answers during the conference. For me, it seemed like most of the talks touched on submitting our will to that of our Heavenly Father. Elder Christofferson’s Burying Our Weapons of Rebellion, Elder Soares’ Aligning Our Will with His, and President Nelson’s The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again in particular drove home the message to me that I needed to change and do a better job of following my Savior’s example and submitting my will to God’s will!
In his talk, Elder Soares reminded us of the parable found in Matthew 13:45-46, in which “the Savior spoke of a merchant man who was searching for goodly pearls. During the merchant man’s search, he found one ‘of great price.’ However, in order to acquire the magnificent pearl, this man had to sell all his possessions, which he promptly and joyfully did.
“Through this short and thoughtful parable, the Savior beautifully taught that the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a priceless pearl, truly the most precious treasure that should be desired over all else. The fact that the merchant instantly sold all his possessions to obtain the valuable pearl clearly indicates that we should align our mind and desires with the will of the Lord and willingly do everything we can during our mortal journey to attain the eternal blessings of God’s kingdom.”
Elder Soares continued, “During our sojourn in mortality, we often wrestle with what we think we know, what we think is best, and what we assume works for us, as opposed to comprehending what Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best, and what absolutely works for [His] children within His plan.
“When we choose to let God be the most powerful influence in our life over our self-serving pursuits, we can make progress in our discipleship and increase our capacity to unite our mind and heart with the Savior. On the other hand, when we don’t allow God’s way to prevail in our life, we are left to ourselves, and without the Lord’s inspiring guidance, we can justify almost anything we do or don’t do. We can also make excuses for ourselves by doing things in our own way, saying in effect, ‘I am just doing things my way.’”
Life in a mission office revolves around a six-week schedule. Transfers take place every six weeks, which includes receiving new missionaries from the MTC and sending home those who have completed their missions. At the end of one of these three-day processes early during our mission, a series of events took place that I will probably never forget. It was a Saturday, after our helping instruct the new missionaries and they being assigned their first companions (trainers), they departed the Independence stake center parking lot around noon, each companionship in their own car.
Elder Wunderly, one of our trainers that transfer, was a great missionary. He later served as a zone leader. Elder Wunderly had the afternoon and evening planned to give his new trainee the best first day in the mission-field that he could.
That afternoon and evening I received eight phone calls from missionaries with car various problems. The day was busier than usual but not all that abnormal, and I was still struggling to find joy in my calling.
One of those calls, around 8:00 PM (near dusk), was from Elder Wunderly. He told me that he had lost the key fob to his car. In answer to my question of when he had last seen the keys, he explained that he had yet to see them that day. He said that at the stake center when he went to the car that the AP’s had assigned him, he got in and could not find the key fob, which should have been left in the car. Elder Wunderly called to the elder who he thought had previously driven the car there, asking where the keys were. He was told to check in the side panel of the driver’s door. Elder Wunderly checked there, but the keys were not there, or in the center console, or behind either sun visor. By this time the other companionships were all leaving the parking lot. Elder Wunderly pushed the car’s start button, and the car started. So, he assumed the key fob must be in the car somewhere. And as they had an appointment soon, he took off figuring he would find it later.
I asked Elder Wunderly how many times he had turned the car off and on since he had left the stake center that afternoon. He said several. I then told him that which I’m sure he knew already, that the car key fob must be either in or around the car, on them, or someplace they had been since they last turned the car off. I told him to pray about it and then look, and if they couldn’t find the keys in 20 minutes to call back and I would go into the office, pick up the other set of keys to the car, and then meet them where they were parked – which was somewhere in Kansas.
As I didn’t want my first trip to Kansas to be in the dark, I was praying that they could find the keys also. After about 15 minutes the missionaries called back. They found the key fob under the windshield wiper! We both signed in relief and thanked heaven that our prayers had been answered.
The next morning, while I was getting dressed, I had the thought, “You missed the miracle; it was that the car did not start.” My thoughts immediately imagined the missionaries returning to their apartment and leaving their car parked overnight in a parking lot with the keys on the windshield. My guess is that the car would have been stolen within a couple of hours. I called Elder Wunderly and told him that we had both missed the miracle. I asked him to grab the car’s key fob and go unlock the car from quite a distance. The car key fob worked! There was no reason that the car should not have started the night before with the car keys being on the windshield, just as it had done several times earlier the day before. We had prayed that the car keys could be found, and they were, with God’s help and in answer to our prayers. But God knew what we really needed, which was to look for the keys while it was still light. Neither the young missionaries nor I had recognized that evening the real miracle of the key fob failing to start the car and the blessing it was that it had not.
What I did not share with Elder Wunderly, or even with Eileen until a year after this happened, was that there was a continuation to the thought, or inspired impression, I had that morning while getting dressed. It was essentially, “And that is not the only miracle that you have been missing lately; it took effort to get you here and not assigned to one of the places you had put down as your preferences.”
I thought I knew where good places for us to serve might be, and the preferences we put down were all good assignment recommendations, high in need, places not all could go, and utilizing skills we had acquired over years of experience. But I had trusted in my understanding and not in God’s. He clearly knew what was best for us and those that we might serve. I was, in some ways, like Laman and Lemuel, murmuring rather than listening to what God would have me do.
It wasn’t long after this experience that I found myself sitting in a hospital ER waiting room with a young sister missionary, while Eileen was with her companion as she was being treated. As we spoke about the uniqueness of the symptoms the young missionary was suffering with, her companion marveled at the miracle that she was here serving with this companion, someone with whom she shared this fairly rare condition. I couldn’t tell her what I knew: that there were actually three sister missionaries there that evening in the hospital that had shared that same medical experience. While I was still struggling to know why I was in Missouri, that night I learned one of the reasons why God wanted my wife serving there.
In an analogy comparing us to the Lamanite converts noted in Alma chapters 23 and 24, Elder Christofferson said, “Burying our weapons of rebellion against God simply means yielding to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, putting off the natural man, and becoming ‘a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.’ It means putting the first commandment first in our lives. It means letting God prevail. If our love of God and our determination to serve Him with all our might, mind, and strength becomes the touchstone by which we judge all things and make all our decisions, we will have buried our weapons of rebellion. By the grace of Christ, God will forgive our sins and rebellions of the past and will take away the stain of those sins and rebellions from our hearts. In time, He will even take away any desire for evil.”
Prior to retirement, I was paid to make things work efficiently. It was something that the world thought I did well. I was not to just fix problems but to anticipate them and make the appropriate changes so that future adverse situations could be avoided. On a mission it can be tempting to try and fix things that are beyond those within your own small sphere of responsibility. I had to continually tell myself that if God’s top priority were to have things run efficiently then he would not have let any of us serve. While from a long-term perspective it is easy to see that learning to work with and support others is what may be most important, on a day-to-day basis it can be hard to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
While we were in Missouri, Eileen and I started watching The Chosen. In one episode, Simon the Zealot and Judas are washing their clothes. Judas remarks that perhaps it would be a more efficient use of their time in spreading the Gospel if they were to pay someone to wash their clothes. At that moment, my thought was, “I do that!” My second thought was, “I have a problem.” Going on a mission and finding that you have things in common with Laman, Lemuel, Judas and (as my missionary companion pointed out to me) Jonah, can give you pause to reconsider your ways.
In President Nelson’s closing address at conference, he told us, “I have learned that the most crucial question we each must answer is this: To whom or what will I give my life? Today I call upon you to rededicate your lives to Jesus Christ. I call upon you to help gather scattered Israel and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. Come unto Christ and offer your whole soul to Him. This is the secret to a life of Joy!”
When President Nelson invited us to “offer your whole soul to Him,” it resounded within me as something I needed to do better at. Then when President Nelson told us “This is the secret to a life of Joy,” it reminded me of President Alder talking about the difference between fun and joy. Fun is fleeting, while true joy is eternal.
Sometimes as senior missionaries we struggle with what we are called to do. Much of what we do may not be fun. Dealing with the mission vehicles and finances often fit into that category. But the cause that they supported is the source of eternal joy.
In 1 Nephi 13:37 we read, “And blessed are they who seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; …”
It is my belief that when we volunteer to serve in God’s kingdom, regardless of where we are called to serve and in whatever capacity, that we qualify as seeking “to bring forth Zion.” The “if they endure to the end,” qualifier is what motivates me to keep serving.
Brothers and Sisters, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as a missionary, to be representative of Jesus Christ. I am grateful to have been able to serve under the direction of President and Sister Sommerfeldt. I love them and consider them dear friends. I am grateful for the assistance of my fellow senior missionaries (Bradfords, Youngs, Dunhams, Haueters, Dennisons, Halls and Johns), who helped me at times during the first ten months with my assignment as vehicle coordinator. While it may not have seemed to them that they did much, to me they were God sent. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served as an ordinance worker on Saturdays in the Kansas City temple for the last seven months. It was a welcome break from the world. Most of all, I am grateful to my wonderful companion, for her love and patience.
Brothers and Sisters, I know that we have a loving Father in Heaven who wants all of us to come home, after this life, to live with Him again. I bear you my testimony that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior, and that this is His church on the earth today. I testify that President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God and the Lord’s mouthpiece to world today. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Eileen's talk
Good morning. My name is Eileen Healy. My husband and I recently returned from serving in the Missouri Independence Mission.
When we first submitted our papers we were pretty confident that we would be called to one of the 6 preferences we had listed on our missionary recommendation. When we opened our call we were extremely surprised to see that our call was to the Missouri Independence Mission. It was very unexpected and quite a bit different from any of the preferences we had listed. It surprised us so much that we didn’t even tell our children about our call for a few days. However, with time we discovered many reasons why we had been called to this particular mission. I am confident it was where God wanted us to be.
I was called to be the Mission Health Advisor. We had 185 young missionaries and 30 senior missionaries within our mission. I would like to share some of my experiences there, which let me know that I had indeed been called to serve where the Lord needed me.
A year ago last fall was a challenging period for me as the mission nurse. With our first transfer of new missionaries, many had mental health issues. Out of the initial group of missionaries in this transfer, 1/3 went home within the first 6 weeks in the mission field due to these sorts of issues.
One particularly trying experience for me occurred when a young missionary called me up and asked if she and her new companion could come talk with me. As they sat in my apartment, the new missionary described her feelings of depression and sadness. I was at a loss of how to help her. The words in my setting apart given to me by then President Dushku came to mind. In that setting apart, he spoke of how each missionary could feel the Savior’s love for them through me. I looked past this sister to a picture that was hanging on the wall behind her. The picture was a painting of Joseph Smith holding his baby. Joseph’s face radiated love towards his little one. I asked the sister to look at the painting and tell me what she felt. She said she could feel the love Joseph had for his baby. I then shared with her how confident I was that Heavenly Father had that much love and more for her. He wanted her to get the medical care she needed to help her emotionally. I then told her of Pres Dushku’s setting apart and said, “I believe that the Savior wants you to know how much he loves you. Can I extend to you, the love of our Savior, through a hug?” She held me tight and sobbed. I know she felt of God’s love for her. She returned home shortly thereafter and ended up successfully completing her mission as a service missionary. I know that God inspired me with the words I said to her that night.
A few weeks later I had a panicked call from some missionaries regarding a sister. I told the missionaries to call for an ambulance and I would meet them at the hospital. The sister taken to the hospital emergency room was serving in a trio of sisters, one very experienced missionary and two relatively new missionaries. It turned out that the sister was suffering from a condition which was rather rare, but one that I was very familiar with. Russell and I ended up escorting the sister home as she flew to Utah. Within hours of our getting off the plane, I received a frantic call from Sister Sommerfeldt, who was our mission president’s wife, telling me that the senior companion of the trio was also having severe medical problems. It ended up that two of the three sisters in this companionship had to return home early, both within a week of each other. I became very close to the third sister in that companionship. She also had that rather rare condition that the first sister was in the hospital for. Over the year, I helped this sister through some challenging times. What is the chance that I would be very familiar with a rare condition two sisters shared in the same mission, and who actually happened to be companions? I believe that my understanding of this condition helped me be more empathetic towards both of these sisters. I was grateful that I could in a small way help them through their trials.
I attended every ZC, both to do a brief health presentation, and also to observe the missionaries. One ZC I was observing one of our senior missionaries grimacing during the meeting. I asked her if she was ok, and she said she had an excruciating headache. I gave her some Tylenol and had her lay down in a darkened room. An hour later the headache had gotten worse. I insisted she see either her PCP, or I would take her to a doctor or ER of my choosing. She was able to get into her own doctor the next morning and an MRI was done. Two days later her doctor called and said she had a brain tumor. Sister Kearns was our mission president’s secretary, so we saw each other daily in the office. I pushed pretty aggressively for Sister Kearns to get the care she needed. I wondered at times if I was pestering her too much. She had the operation to remove the tumor last February and stayed on as a service missionary through her recovery. She was released at the end of her two year service this past December. In her departure testimony she thanked me for my help and in a separate Christmas card said to me, “I will be forever grateful you encouraged me to call my doctor”. Sister Kearns has a remarkable positive attitude, always appreciative to the Lord for his guidance and love. She has been a great example to me of how to endure your trials well.
A few weeks ago a sister texted me as I was headed to the temple on a Saturday. I was concerned about her symptoms and made some suggestions and said if she wasn’t better by Monday I would send her to the doctor. Sunday morning her symptoms had increased. I determined she needed to go the ER, and she was admitted that evening for several days of testing and treatment. During this difficult time, it was interesting to see how she accepted the challenges that had come her way and will continue to come her way. She testified of knowing of God’s love for her, that she had a Heavenly Father who was watching over her, and an earthly father who is in heaven who is also watching over her.
Monday afternoon of that week, Russell, myself and the Sommerfeldts visited her in the hospital so that she could get a priesthood blessing. As we were walking down the long hallway to the elevators, I mentioned that I thought there were 2 missionaries ahead of us. How many well-groomed young men in suits do you see walking around as a twosome in a hospital? As we entered her room we were surprised to see 11 missionaries from this sister’s district in the room. All were dressed in missionary attire, despite it being Pday when they can dress in casual clothes. It was moving to witness a circle of priesthood holders surround this sister, participating in a priesthood blessing for her.
Despite a very serious diagnosis, I am very mindful of the tender mercies which showed God’s love and awareness for this sweet sister. Her ER doctor was a member of the ward she was serving in. Her hospital specialist happened to be a bishop of a ward in Independence. Her companion had medical training to give me accurate reports of her treatments. She had a diagnosis within just a few days of her first symptoms, which seems quite miraculous.
The following week the miracles associated with this sister missionary continued. The hospital neurologist said that she needed to see a neuroimmunologist after being released, and that he would put a referral in for her to see one in Kansas City. Someone from the neurology clinic called me just a few days later on Saturday morning to make an appointment for this sister. What clinic calls on the weekend to set up appointments? I was even more amazed when this young sister was able to get an appointment for the following Friday.
A few days later I went with her to see the specialist. The neuroimmunologist was a fairly young woman from India. The doctor felt that our young missionary sister should be hospitalized immediately for an extended period of time for intravenous medical treatment. I explained that if the situation was that serious then this sister would most likely need to return home for treatment. The doctor asked where the missionary was from. The young sister said Idaho, to which the doctor commented that she loved the mountains and had done her fellowship in Utah. I asked the doctor if she knew a doctor named Melissa who was a neurologist at the University of Utah? The doctor said she studied under Melissa and considered her a good friend. Melissa happens to be my niece. The doctor said it was Melissa that she had thought of trying to call in SLC to get our sister missionary into treatment as soon as possible. At this point, I think both the young sister missionary and I were amazed at the series of miracles that God was providing for the sister missionary. But for the doctor from India, the series of “coincidences” pretty much blew her mind.
That sister recently returned home to Idaho and is scheduled to see a specialist very soon. It was all through the miraculous “coincidences” that occurred, that this was able to happen.
I would like to talk for a minute about my dear friend Sister Creer. The first time I met Sister Creer I wondered how someone so young looking and cute could be a senior missionary? I didn’t know at that time that we would fill a void in each other’s hearts and would become best friends. A few years ago, Sister Creer was serving a mission with her husband, guiding the youth of the Church on trek, when he suddenly passed away. Subsequently, as she desired to serve another mission, she connected with our mission president and came to fill the position vacated by a senior missionary who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Over the last 11 months as I have spent time with Sister Creer, we have shared heartaches, our testimonies, family news, lots of racquetball games, challenges and joys from our missionary service, and most of all a friendship knowing that surely God must have known we needed each other and put us together in this mission. I am so grateful for the beautiful attitude and testimony she has, never faltering in her desire to do what is right, despite the challenges which she has faced and still continues to live with. She is a wonderful example to me of “enduring to the end” with a positive attitude. I am so grateful that I was able to serve with her.
The Missouri Independence Mission (MIM) is a place of great historical significance. I have heard it said that we were serving in the Alpha and Omega mission. It all started within this area and will end there. Within the MIM boundaries are Adam-ondi-Ahman, Liberty Jail, and the Independence temple site (dedicated by Joseph Smith) is just a block from the mission office.
From my experience, it is not the physical location of where you serve, or even the type of calling in which you serve as a missionary that are most important. Rather it is the individuals, God’s other children, that you meet and work with that really matter. The relationships you build while serving, and the influence you make on others as they watch you serve, may be the important [fruits] of your service.
We have all heard the scripture about missionary work found in D&C 18:15, “If it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” We generally relate this joy to convert baptisms.
I suggest we might also consider how it might relate to our posterity. While speaking to prospective senior missionaries, Elder Rasband told us in General Conference, “I also promise that as you serve, you will feel the love of the Lord in your life, you will know Him, He will know you, and ‘how great shall be your joy.’ Your dedicated service to Jesus Christ will inspire and bless your family, your grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. ‘Peace, and love will be multiplied’ in their lives for years to come. I promise.” (Oct. 2023 General Conference) I place great hope in this promise from an apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am grateful to have been able to serve with my husband on another mission. It has been wonderful to spend so much time together working towards a common goal. I am grateful for my wonderful mission president and wife, President and Sister Sommerfeldt. They became very dear friends to me and my husband. They were actually called in-person by President Nelson to serve as mission leaders. They sacrificed much to serve the people of the Missouri Independence Mission.
I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and my older brother Jesus Christ. I know that this church is true and that the work of gathering Israel is happening. I love the missionaries and I love missionary work. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
