Posts Tagged ‘Missionary stories’
Sandinistas
“Everyone get down.”
A rock crashed through the front window of the bus. We didn’t have to be told twice. Some passengers ducked in their seats. We got on the floor. My heart raced.
The bus sped up. I looked at my companion. It was hard to see him in the dark. He seemed terrified. We held on to the seat legs for support.
“Dios mío,” said one of the women. Children cried. Rocks crashed through the side windows. Glass sprayed all around us. The bus driver laid on the horn.
A man shouted something in Spanish out the window. A rock hit him in the side of the face. Blood spattered the seat next to us. Several women screamed.
Chickens flew in the aisle. More rocks smashed windows in quick succession. The bus hopped over obstacles in the road. Men, women and children bounced up and down.
A shot rang out, then another. They came from behind us. One last rock hit the back window. The bus veered to the right in a sudden turn. The crashing rocks ceased.
“Are you alright?” I asked my companion.
Elder Morales didn’t reply. A woman next to him sobbed. He spoke to her in Spanish. He tried to comfort her. The bus slowed to a more reasonable speed.
After a moment I saw the lights of the main street ahead. The bus driver stopped at the corner. He got out and swore. “Damn those kids. Look what they did to my bus.”
We all piled out after him as fast as we could. Women gathered their children who still cried. Men stood around the bus driver. They asked him to keep going.
“They would have burned my bus if I stopped,” the driver said. “I’ve had enough of this. I’m going home.” He got back in his bus, closed the door and sped down the road.
I helped Elder Morales clean the glass out of his hair. His ear was bleeding. I gave him my handkerchief. We began the long walk back to our house outside the barrio.
We worked in Reparto Schick all day, every day. The dangers of that poor neighborhood just outside of Managua prevented us from staying there at night. We had come from a day full of meetings and visiting the people in their homes. It was Sunday, February 5, 1978.
We worked with a small church group called a branch. The leader of the branch got up in church that day and renounced his position. Then his assistant renounced. He said he didn’t want the job either. We spent the afternoon trying to convince them to stay.
“What are we going to do, Elder Morales?” We walked at a fast pace away from the shouting and fires that still burned in the barrio. “President Jimenez can’t quit like that.”
“Elder Malone, you’ve got to understand these people. There are so few that are willing to lead a church. This is the third time he’s been Branch President.”
“I know, but he can’t quit. He has to be released.” Elder Morales looked at me with a kind of sadness. He seemed so much older and wiser than his nineteen years. He was from San Jose. One eye was lop-sided. I could never tell exactly where he was looking.
“We’ll talk to President Garcia. Let him handle it.” I liked that. Give the problem to the District President where it belonged. I was going to miss Elder Morales.
This was our last full day together as companions. I was being transferred the next day to work in Bello Horizonte as a zone leader. All the missionaries in my incoming group of fourteen were about to become zone leaders. It happened with the passage of time.
The only cars on the road that night were taxis and a few busses. Very few people had cars. Sometimes a church member who drove a taxi would pick us up. Not that night.
The shouting in the distance grew louder. Army trucks rolled past us going toward the barrio. A helicopter flew in the distance. Its powerful light searched the ground below.
“Elder, I think we had better get off this road. Let’s cut through the field.” We were about five minutes from our house. The commotion was growing louder. Elder Morales agreed.
The stench of a dead dog filled our nostrils. The light from the helicopter revealed it was infested with maggots. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, Elder.”
Elder Morales began to cough, then sneeze and gag. He grabbed at his face. Tears flowed from his eyes. Surely the scent of a dead dog couldn’t do this. Then it hit me.
Tear gas has a powerful effect even after several minutes. The helicopter light shone fully in our faces. A voice in Spanish over a loudspeaker demanded to know why we were there.
Neither one of us could talk. The wind from their rotor blades whipped around us. Tears blinded my eyes. My tie whipped up in my face. I held my hands up high. So did Elder Morales.
“Don’t shoot,” Elder Morales managed to shout. “We’re missionaries.” It must have been the white shirts that saved our lives. And Sandinistas don’t wear ties.
“CIA go home.” I had to laugh. The voice over the loudspeaker spoke English. It was intended for me. I waved in reply. Both arms. I waved them off. Get out of here.
We arrived home a few moments later. The doña had the usual rice and beans waiting for us. That night she added a little chicken and some plátanos in my honor.
“You’re late. Did anything interesting happen today?”
I looked at my companion.
“We had a great church meeting,” he said. “Please pass the rice.”
Shades of Grey and relative truth
In 1978, civil war broke out in Nicaragua, just after I left the country. My Mission President went from Costa Rica to Managua to help the missionaries get out of the country. As he was literally leaving the chapel where he had told the missionaries to gather, the Sandinistas came running in from the other door and stopped them.
Demanding to know what side of the conflict they were on, President Muren responded with the phrase, “tonos de gris,” which means shades of grey. He did not stop but kept going right out the door and was able to get that group of Elders out of the country. Gratefully, all the missionaries eventually made it safely out.
Social or Cultural Mormons
Can a person be a member of the LDS faith and not believe some of the doctrine or accept the official story of the history? Absolutely! We call them social or cultural Mormons and there are countless numbers of them within the church. Many of these kinds of members come from multi-generation pioneer LDS families.
If you survey an average congregation in the LDS faith, you will find that there are a surprising number who just don’t care about some of the doctrine and care even less about the history. They are there because it is their family tradition and they derive satisfaction from the social interaction among good people that they know.
Looking for the middle ground
They feel uncomfortable when they hear statements from their leaders that the LDS church is either the kingdom of God or it is nothing. When someone says that Joseph Smith was either God’s prophet or he was a great fraud, they feel unfairly pressured to have to put their view of the man in such black and white terms.
Isn’t there some middle ground where good people can participate in the Mormon faith without having to take sides about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, the idea of angels visiting Joseph and the concept of priesthood keys and authority? There is so much good in the church. Why does it have to be classified as true?
The American Mormon culture
There are many members of the LDS church who do not fit the stereotypical image of conservative, orthodox, Republican, white-collar, all-American family. The church membership is actually quite diverse, especially as one travels outside the confines of the Intermountain West where the church flourished and is the strongest.
Culturally, as a church and a people, we seem to have become stagnated in the mindset of the 19th century view of Mormonism that still conflicts with the outside world. The church is growing beyond the Mormon corridor but is experiencing a sort of consolidation in the traditional strongholds of the faith – the center of Zion.
The one true church
Many good people who recognize this cultural myopia and parochialism that exists within the LDS faith have expanded their views and horizons beyond the mores and restraints of the traditional, orthodox Mormon worldview. There are so many good people out there that are doing great things to serve their local communities.
Because these progressive thinking people have expanded their views they have come in contact with different ways of thinking about the religious experience and about their own Mormon upbringing. The idea of belonging to the one true church has come to be offensive and difficult, if not impossible to defend in their minds.
God’s chosen people
They see and are embarrassed by what appears to be a contest of right and wrong between our zeal as a missionary church and the good people who are not already a part of the elect kingdom of God. Whereas previously they were uncomfortable with a perceived exclusivist approach, they now are adamant that we are wrong.
We are judgmental, they cry. Why can’t we accept everybody else just the way they are? Why are we trying to convert people when they are already happy and doing much good in their own faith? The idea of rules for membership becomes chafing. Why does the church have such high standards that drive people crazy?
Pointing out the flaws and faults
A large percentage of the LDS membership either does not know or does not care about some of the troubling issues of our early history and growth as a church. It is frustrating to progressive thinkers that so many within the faith are not as well versed as they are on these issues and the supposed quandaries that they present.
So they become more vocal and strident in pointing out the flaws and faults of the church and its leaders, both historical and current. Their frustration increases when their audience either shrugs its collective shoulders or ignores their efforts to educate them on the problems that they see in the church. How can they not care?
Many faithful members do know
While there are many who don’t know and don’t care, there are just as many who are very knowledgeable in the issues and problems that are troublesome to our liberal minded members. It’s just that we have found answers within our own hearts and minds many years ago that satisfy the potential cognitive dissonance.
We quietly go about our lives, secure and confident in the knowledge that we have found answers for the most important elements of our faith. We invite others to taste of the peace that comes from knowing that there are answers and that there are many solid and bedrock truths upon which we can build our lives and our faith.
Raise a warning voice
For some reason, when we try to share our certainty about the truths we have found, we are sometimes misunderstood to be arrogant or presenting our faith as superior or more complete than theirs. Yes, if you invite someone to share in your happiness then you are presenting what you have found to be of great worth.
This is a difficult task to perform. We are commanded to raise our voices to let the world know of the events pertaining to the founding of our church. We have been asked to be bold in declaring that God has called prophets in our day and that he has sent angels to ordain and teach truths that have long been lost from the world.
Some truths are not relative
And thus we arrive at the heart of the conflict between orthodox conservative Mormons and progressive liberal Mormons. What is truth? Can one say with any degree of certainty that they have found the best and most complete source of truth without excluding the many other sources of truth that are found in the world?
Truth is reality. Some kinds of truth can only be received through revelation. I have never seen God or Jesus. I was not there when Joseph received the First Vision. So for me to be able to know those facts, they have to be revealed to me by the Holy Ghost. Some truths are either revealed of God or they remain unknown.
Truths received by revelation
The five pillars of the LDS testimony require revelation: God lives, Jesus is the Christ, the Savior called Joseph as a prophet, the Book of Mormon was brought forth by the gift and power of God and the church that Joseph established is authorized of God to administer the ordinances of salvation that God requires.
Without revelation from the Holy Ghost we can’t say that we know these things. It’s just not logical. I have studied the Book of Mormon and the Church that claims to be God’s only church authorized to administer the ordinances of salvation. With revelation from the Holy Ghost I can say I know they are what they claim to be.
Summary and conclusion
In some things in life, it is wise to take a position characterized by my Mission President’s response to the Sandinistas – shades of grey. We do not always know all the facts of some situations and should withhold judgment until a later time. However, in some critical matters, we must take a position and know for ourselves.
It takes work and determination to obtain knowledge about the five pillars of an LDS testimony. But I, and millions of others over the years, can say with great certainty that God does reveal knowledge about himself and his prophets to those who diligently seek it. This revealed knowledge does not come in shades of grey.
Elder Packer was right about bearing testimony
I was first introduced to this scripture in seminary as we studied church history. I was impressed with the basic promise of the Lord to Joseph and Sidney that he would inspire them and back up what they said when they spoke. “That’s wonderful for them,” I thought at the time. I’m glad the Lord gave them this promise because it must be hard to always know the right thing to say.
A powerful mission president
One of the joys of my mission was being taught by a man whom I already greatly admired for his devotion to religious education. I had attended several Know Your Religion lectures presented by Joseph C. Muren in the year before I left for Central America. Halfway through my mission I was delighted to learn that he had been called to preside over the mission in which I was serving.
Zone conferences with President Muren were simply amazing. I don’t know how or why I was so blessed, but I will never forget the excitement I felt as President Muren taught us the principles of the lacing together effect. He helped us to understand how natural it is for new converts to want to share their newfound faith with beloved family members and friends close to them.
A unique interpretation of scripture
During one particularly spiritual Zone Conference, President Muren taught us the importance of being teaching and testifying missionaries. We weren’t having too much success getting the investigator to pray in the first discussion. He powerfully demonstrated how he would like us to conclude the first discussion by kneeling in prayer and inviting the family to join us as we did so.
He then shared section 100:5-8 and testified that the Lord would put words into our mouths to know what to say that would bless the family the most with what they needed at that exact time we were there. I remember thinking to myself at the time that this was going to be a leap of faith for me to go from something the Lord gave to Joseph to something I should use in my labors.
Applying the scripture in our work
So out we went to be a bit bolder in our teaching, testifying and challenging. I vividly remember the first time we went to our knees at the end of a first discussion. The family looked more than a little surprised but followed our lead. After explaining what we were about to do, I opened my mouth to pray. Something special and sacred happened at that moment that is hard to explain.
After thanking Heavenly Father for the blessing of being able to teach that particular family about Joseph Smith’s first vision, I began to bless the family. I found that I was not asking Heavenly Father to bless them, but that I was pronouncing blessings upon them that I knew they needed. I was astonished, as was my companion, but not nearly as much as that special family.
Powerful results of faith
At the conclusion of the prayer, I opened my eyes and witnessed a grown man sobbing as he was overcome with the spirit. His wife and three children, who were teen-agers, still on their knees, moved closer to him and we quietly watched as they shared a sacred family hug. Slowly, we stood and silently waited. When the man stood, he extended his hand and thanked us profusely.
“How did you know?” he asked. “What do you mean?” I replied. “How did you know to say those things you did? You blessed us that we would have family unity and good communication between us. You blessed us that our love for one another would be strong and that we would be able to overcome any financial difficulties that we might be experiencing at this time.”
The Lord stands by his promises
“I didn’t know,” I responded, “but your Heavenly Father did and he inspired me with what to say that you needed to hear.” We made an appointment to return in a few days and quietly excused ourselves as it was evident that the family had some things that they wanted to discuss among themselves at that time. The spirit was strong with all of us and we fairly floated out of there.
As my companion and I talked about this sacred experience I found myself saying, “You know, President Muren was right. The Lord sends His spirit to bear witness to whatever we feel inspired to say when we do it in the spirit of solemn meekness and love.” Now, not all of our discussions went like that but we sure had a lot more of them after that with similar results.
Service over the years
Fast forward seventeen years. By this time I had a family and had served in several teaching and priesthood leadership positions in the church. Our little inner-city ward was dwindling and I was juggling multiple callings because of lack of people to share the load. I was beginning to feel a little burned out when we were privileged to attend a multi-stake conference with Elder Holland.
This was 1994, just before the death of President Benson and before he was called as an apostle. I greatly admired the man, having read many of his BYU talks over the years. I was impressed that Elder Holland was concerned about the one, even though his assignments brought him into teaching environments where there were hundreds, if not thousands who gathered to hear him.
Taught by a General Authority
As we gathered in our conference priesthood leadership session, Elder Holland began to teach us the importance of speaking and teaching under the influence of the spirit when we are standing in front of a congregation or a class. He then quoted D&C 100:5-8 and promised us that as we exercised faith in teaching the gospel, we would know what to say at the moment it was needed.
Even though I had witnessed this scripture fulfilled in my mission, I had not been as successful in my teaching assignments over the years since then. I tended to over-prepare and always had more material than I could possibly present. As a result, I found myself rushing through the lesson in an effort to fit as much in as possible. I always felt exhausted after these experiences.
Pause while bearing testimony
Elder Holland then did something that I have rarely seen anyone do with such effect either before or since. He told us that it is important that we pause after we teach a principle of the gospel so that the spirit can work on the people. He then dramatically demonstrated this by slowly bearing his testimony and pausing to let the spirit sink it. It was profound. Silence can be so powerful!
This was an answer to prayer. I was going so fast when I taught that the spirit didn’t have time to settle in people’s hearts when I bore my testimony. I felt extremely grateful and wanted to get back to my ward to try this out. I didn’t have to wait that long because Elder Holland asked for a volunteer to demonstrate this principle in action. I soon found myself at the front of the chapel.
Practice is part of preparation
He asked my name and said, “Brother Malone, I want you to simply bear your testimony, but I want you to pause after each sentence as you look your brethren in the eye. Now, go ahead.” I turned and faced hundreds of priesthood leaders including Bishops, Stake presidents, Elder’s Quorum Presidents and lowly ward executive secretaries and quorum instructors like me.
Maybe it was because I had a man who was about to be called as an apostle standing next to me but something sacred and special happened on that occasion that has rarely happened quite so powerfully since. I did as Elder Holland taught and watched in amazement as men quietly began to wipe tears from their eyes as I bore witness to the truths of the restored gospel that I love.
Give the spirit a chance to work
When I was finished, Elder Holland invited me to sit down and then said very slowly and very quietly, “You see brethren, the Lord stands by his promises. When we teach and bear testimony in solemnity of heart and in the spirit of meekness, the Holy Ghost is shed forth in bearing record to whatsoever we say because it is what the Lord inspired us to say at that moment.”
It was another one of those sacred moments for me. I was immersed in the spirit while I was bearing testimony. The Lord was strengthening me and bearing witness to me at the same time that I was bearing my witness to others. I love that special and sacred experience and wish that it occurred more often in my life. It took an apostle to teach me how to bear testimony with power.
Summary and conclusion
President Packer has said, “A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it.” Because this is such a powerful principle, it has been attacked by the adversary through enemies of the church, many of them former members who never quite got it. They like to call it lying for the Lord and claim that the bearing of testimonies to one another is simply a form of brainwashing in an evil cult.
President Packer is right. There is nothing that can equal the experience of testifying of the truths of the gospel while under the influence of the spirit of the Holy Ghost. D&C 100:5-8 can be one of the most difficult scriptures to internalize. It takes a great deal of faith to trust that the Lord will inspire us but I know from experience that he does send his spirit to bear record to our words.
Why LDS blogging just works
I don’t know this blogger and I normally don’t do this, but one of the joys of blogging is reading what others have felt important to share. I feel particularly impressed with this essay shared by Memoirs of a Married Mormon Man and felt it deserved additional readership. He writes that it will be his only blog post this month but it is worth it. Here is the heart of the essay:
A Missionary in Germany
“I recognized a smartly dressed elderly gentleman as he strode toward us. He looked as if he had somewhere to be. Someplace important. As he stopped in front of us, a wide smile on his face, he said hello to me. I smiled back, astonished at the happy coincidence, and introduced my companion to him as my father.
“He then turned to my father, and in fluent, though accented English, greeted him with, ‘I am so happy to meet you. I want you to know that your son stopped me on the street one day. Before we met, I had lost God. Because he talked to me, I have found God again. Thank you for sending him here. Thank you.’
“My father was speechless. I felt like I was in a dream. This man was obviously ecstatic to see us. At that moment, I don’t know who was happier: me, my father, or this newly converted gentleman. But I have a suspicion that our happiness pales in comparison to the joy the Savior must have felt knowing that a few more of his children had found their way to Him.”
LDS Bloggers have stories to tell
That’s why I love LDS blogging. You can find jewels like this all over the place with just a little patience and digging. By the way, I found MMM through a comment he left of one of the blogs I regularly read: Rough Stone Rolling. I wish there was some place where we could nominate great stories to the LDS bloggers hall of fame. Anybody? Now go read the rest of the story.
