OUR REPLACEMENTS ARRIVE

This past week Russell celebrated his 62^nd birthday. He was quite sick most of the week with a bad respiratory infection, so we celebrated by getting take out egg-drop soup from a nearby Chinese restaurant.  Sister Canfield had made him a delicious birthday cake the week before which we were able to share with other office workers. I (Eileen) also made him some oatmeal raisin cookies which are his favorite.

Saturday morning, we picked up Elder and Sister Lindsay from the airport. They will be replacing us when we return back to the U.S.  We were fellow missionaries with the Lindsays on our previous mission. They are a humble, loving couple who are very capable to carry on the humanitarian work here in the Europe Area.  We love them dearly. Yesterday we oriented them to the area, taking them to the store and ATM. Despite being jet lagged, they were willing to spend their dinner hour discussing our role as Area Welfare Specialists with them.

Today in sacrament meeting I was asked to speak.   I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, but did the best I could under the circumstances. I have attached the talk below.

Eileen’s sacrament meeting talk:

I was asked to speak on a talk, given by Elder Gary Stevenson at the April 2017 general conference entitled "How does the Holy Ghost help you”. Elder Stevenson talked about visiting the home of a young family in his neighborhood. While he was there, the family invited him to stay for family home evening, telling him that their nine-year-old son had prepared the lesson.

Following the opening song, prayer, and family business, the nine-year-old began by reading an insightful question included in his handwritten lesson: “How does the Holy Ghost help you?” This question began a meaningful family discussion as everyone shared ideas and insights.

Elder Stevenson highlighted 3 eternal truths of what the Lord has revealed about the Holy Ghost.

First, the Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead. We learn this in the first article of faith: “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”²

Second, the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit, as described in modern scripture: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.”³ This means that the Holy Ghost has a spirit body, unlike God the Father and Jesus Christ, who have physical bodies.

Third, the gift of the Holy Ghost comes by the laying on of hands. This ordinance, following baptism, qualifies us for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.⁵ 

Elder Bednar has said:

The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead; He is a personage of spirit and bears witness of all truth. In the scriptures, the Holy Ghost is referred to as the Comforter, a teacher, and a revelator. Revelations from the Father and the Son are conveyed through the Holy Ghost. He is the messenger for and the witness of the Father and the Son.

Elder Boyd K. Packer said: The Holy Ghost speaks with a voice that you feel more than you hear. It is described as a “still small voice.”¹⁴ And while we speak of “listening” to the whisperings of the Spirit, most often one describes a spiritual prompting by saying, “I had a feeling …” Revelation comes as words we feel more than hear. 

I would like to focus my thoughts today on the personal revelation I have received through the Holy Ghost, in our missionary callings.

A little over 6 years ago, we had a stake fireside for all of the high priests and their wives in our home stake. There were a large number of high priests, some with young families, some even with wives who were pregnant. In this fireside, our stake president requested that we all set a date to be senior missionaries. My husband and I had always wanted to serve a mission together and set a date at that time for a few years out.  Well before our agreed upon date, I had some really strong promptings that we needed to prepare immediately to go on a mission, sooner rather than later. Those feelings did not go away until we actually had our mission papers submitted. We were called to Indonesia as humanitarian missionaries. 

I had a similar experience prior to going on our second and third mission. Serving another mission was something we were not even seriously contemplating.  However, I felt the promptings of the Holy Ghost telling me that the time was right to serve again. I truly believe that all three of our missions, were missions that God wanted us to serve, I just needed to have a little nudging to help me move along in the process.

During our second mission, we served in the missionary department as senior missionary recommenders.

The missionary call process is different for senior missionaries than for young Elders and Sisters. After reviewing all of the applicant’s information, we, and others would make recommendations for possible locations each couple might serve. The couple’s papers would then move forward with multiple recommendations provided, for the Apostle to issue a call.

It was both an honor and a tremendous responsibility to be a recommender for the senior missionaries. There were times that I would read a couple’s papers and it seemed very easy to make recommendations. The ideas just flowed and I felt good about the work that I had done. Other times I seemed to have a real challenge determining where the Lord might have a couple serve. I would think back to the instructions given through Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery.

In Doctrine and Covenants Section 9 vs 8-9 we read:

8) But behold I say unto you that you must study it out in your mind, then you must ask me if it be right and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel that it is right.

9) But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong.

Every morning and evening in our personal and companionship prayers we would ask for the gift of the Holy Ghost to enlighten our minds that we could be open to inspiration. We would also ask for the gift of wisdom. We considered our calling a sacred responsibility. We felt that the potential missionary couples we worked with were our friends, even though we had never met them.

The first couple I was assigned to work with was fairly easy to make recommendations. The second couple was more difficult.  This couple wanted to serve outside of the United States. Both spoke French and they needed good health care. I thought immediately of France and Tahiti. As the day wore on something seemed wrong. All weekend long I thought about this couple, prayed about them and discussed their situation with Elder Healy. The recommendations I knew seemed appropriate but the location didn’t feel right. I thought I had exhausted all my French speaking foreign options, but then Elder Healy suggested Montreal.  Monday morning, I followed his suggestion of making a recommendation to a French speaking Canadian mission. Sure enough that is where the couple was assigned. This was a huge lesson to me regarding the importance of the continual process of thinking, pondering and studying a problem out in your mind until you receive the peaceful assurance that you have made the right choice. We had this kind of experience quite frequently. We knew we absolutely needed to be in tune with the Lord in order to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost when they came.   

When we arrived on this mission over a year ago we were very busy and quite overwhelmed. We determined that the best way to receive the help we needed with our calling was to attend the temple regularly.  We knew that would be difficult, if not impossible unless we planned ahead.  We set a date in August when we would attend the temple in the Hague. We drove there on Friday, did ordinance work for some family names and returned again on Saturday morning to do sealings. As we were getting out of our car I heard someone call over to me. I looked over and to my surprise I saw Tom and Anita Herway. Tom had been our bishop when we lived in Belgium 17 years ago. Anita had been our children’s seminary teacher.  We knew them quite well, however we had only seen them once briefly in 16 years.

We learned that Tom was retiring soon and they had come to the temple that day fasting and praying seeking guidance as to how they should proceed with their mission plans. Russell mentioned that our last mission had been in the Missionary Department working with senior missionary assignments and that we would be happy to help them understand the process if they had any questions. We assumed we would part company once inside the temple. Tom and Anita briefly spoke to one another and then decided to come with us.   Anita also said that she felt that meeting us was in some way an answer to their prayers.  We agreed that after the temple session we would go and get something to eat and talk and visit.  Midway through the sealing session I had the thought, Tom speaks Italian. I don’t have total loss of memory yet, but I really doubt that I remembered this on my own after 16 years of not interacting with them.

Over lunch we answered a wide variety of questions concerning senior missionary callings.  By this time, we all knew it was not a coincidence that we had met.  We explained that a position had recently opened up in Italy for a Welfare/Humanitarian couple to serve helping with the refugee crisis. While living in Belgium there were many refugees in our ward. Tom had worked with the refugees both as a bishop and also as a stake president in that area. We thought they might be well suited for this position.

Since Tom said he knew Elder Kearon well, Elder Healy suggested that he send Elder Kearon an email stating that he was putting in his missionary papers, but that he should make no request for a specific location or type of missionary assignment. Sunday afternoon the Herways sent an email to Elder Kearon. On Monday morning the first thing Gilles Francois, our Europe Area Welfare Manager, said to us was, “We will have to send you to the temple more often!”  He then related that he had received an email that morning saying that President Kearon had found a couple for the Welfare Department to serve in Italy.  That couple was the Herways. It has been humbling to watch Tom and Anita’s missionary call come forth with the background and perspective we were privileged to have.  

There are times in your life when you recognize that events are not luck or just coincidence, but that there is a divine purpose in why you are where you are at that exact moment. This was one of those times.

I would like to close with the words of a hymn:

Let the Holy Spirit guide;
Let him teach us what is true.
He will testify of Christ,
Light our minds with heaven’s view.

Let the Holy Spirit guard;
Let his whisper govern choice.
He will lead us safely home
If we listen to his voice.

Let the Spirit heal our hearts
Thru his quiet, gentle pow’r.
May we purify our lives
To receive him hour by hour.

Text: Penelope Moody Allen, b. 1939. © 1985 IRI

I bear witness of the power of the Spirit and am thankful for this wonderful gift which has been given to me.  I know if I will heed His promptings he will guide me as I move through life.

The Healys with the Lindsays

This birthday cake was definitely a work of art

Sister Canfield with birthday cake she made for Russell

The Healys, Lindsays and Canfields from the Europe Area Welfare Department