This past week I (Eileen), attended medical training in SLC with 18 other missionaries called to medical positions. Many in the training were physicians, two were social workers, and the remaining were nurses or spouses. The locations of missionary service were quite diverse, with assignments to Africa, Argentina, Mongolia, the Philippines, and U.S.
The training was wonderful covering many topics with specialists coming in for each hour of training, such as: ophthalmology, dermatology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, mental health, insurance coverage and computer programs. The final speaker was Elder William Jackson of the Seventy. He was warm and personable and had something to say about each location the missionaries were going to. It impressed me that he really has his pulse on the health of the missionaries. He receives letters weekly concerning sick or injured missionaries, those who are hospitalized and those who might need to be transferred to a service mission.
Midweek we both received notice from the Church News that our stake president, Alexander Dushku, had been called as a General Authority Seventy. Even though we were in different MTC training classes, we started exchanging texts about it. We both love President Dushku and appreciate so much the blessings he gave us when he set us apart for this mission.
Early Friday morning we started our drive to Independence. Our plan was to drive to Kearney, Nebraska on the first day so that our second day's drive would be shorter and allow us time to go to the store Saturday afternoon. As we were beginning our journey, I (Russell) thought how different our trip was going be compared to what I had thought as a child my possible future trek to Missouri might be. For some reason I, like many other members of my generation, had embraced the myth that the members of the Church would someday walk back to Missouri in connection with Christ’s Second Coming. Eileen even joked when we first were married that she had a wool hooded full-length coat that she referred to as the coat she would walk to Missouri in.
From prophetic statements, we understand that certain locations in Missouri will play significant roles regarding our Lord’s return. And it makes sense that some members of the Church will
be associated with these events. But as to the means of their travel or the breath of the Church membership involved in such an effort is only speculation.
In an article titled Missouri Myths, Graham W. Doxey noted, “One of the quotations I hear frequently repeated is part of a sermon by Joseph F. Smith in 1882: ‘When God leads the people back to Jackson County, how will he do it? Let me picture to you how some of us may be gathered and led to Jackson County. I think I see two or three hundred thousand people wending their way across the great plain enduring the nameless hardships of the journey, herding and guarding their cattle by day and by night. … This is one way to look at it. It is certainly a practical view. Some might ask, what will become of the railroads? I fear that the sifting process would be insufficient were we to travel by railroads.’ (Journal of Discourses, 24:156–57.)"
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