Toils and Tears, Smiles and Squeals

Tolstoi begins his epic novel Anna Karinina with the assertion that “All happy families are the same. Unhappy families are unhappy each in their own way.” I am inclined to believe that the same might be said about missionaries, based on our observations with just under 100 such young men and women, and a small number of older senior missionaries. But the problem in analyzing our data is that the group size in our sample is altogether too small for the latter group. Yes, we have had some unhappy missionaries, missionaries who were stressed tremendously, having a hard time coping, ailing spiritually or emotionally, and in some circumstances physically. But for the most part those have been temporary transient stages of missionary development. And that is the great miracle of a mission, that through the atonement of Christ and their own resiliency, young and inexperienced individuals are tempered, strengthened and transformed, and older, often wiser, individuals are also fortified, humbled, enabled and changed for the better as well. How does this happen? 

The missionary call letter does not declare the purposes that God has in calling people to His work, nor really give much of a hint of the hardships and trials that will accompany acceptance of the task. It does explain the expectations that one will leave behind other pursuits, live to a higher standard, and devote essentially all of their efforts towards the missionary purpose to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them develop faith in Christ and his atonement, learn to repent so that they can with a clean heart and life make the covenant of baptism and receive the amazing gift of the Holy Ghost to always be with them.

I have asked each of our new missionaries why they are here. What made them want to come on a mission in the first place? Adventure? Duty? Love for others? Seeing the impact of a mission on other friends or family? A testimony of the Gospel? The responses are often similar, but give me a clue as to the hardships ahead, and the degree to which they have already come to know the transforming power of the Atonement of Christ. Some have a glimmer of what God designs to make of their lives, but others do not see the magnitude of their potential and God’s blueprint for their lives. Watching that dawn on them as they try to help others come to know Him better (and thus discover Him for themselves as well) is nothing short of amazing. 

I have also asked them why they are HERE, rather than in Pawhuska, or Peoria, or Pretoria. Why Asia, why Vietnam, why Now, with me? Partly this question is for me as well. Why has God given them into my care? And what does he expect me to do with them, to teach them, help them through, or help them learn?

Probably it is time for some more specific (though nameless) examples. Elder ___ was not very experienced with life, and yet he was remarkably experienced. He had no worldly sophisticated savvy, was a terrible writer, horrid speller and had not been technologically experienced. He hadn’t even known how to use an ATM to withdraw his support allowance. But although his life had been tough, he had an enormous capacity to love, and an irrepressible optimism. This made him a candidate for everyone's "favorite companion" list, and also a remarkable example of Chirst. He quite easily became a "living epistle" of Him. He was here to be that "utility player companion" that I could put with anyone and ensure a good outcome, but also a wonderful example to members of how one could overcome obstacles (family, economics or otherwise) with the knowledge of the gospel. He learned to create unity in his distict, companionship and branches. And we learned to add the life skills that will enable him to step upward and forward once he is finished.

Elder _____ came from an average cultural LDS background, and it might be thought, had come for all the wrong reasons- response to the expectations of others, boredom with life, and who knows why. "I dunno" was the fully truthful answer to my query "why are you HERE?" The language didn't come easily because he wasn't sure if he wanted to learn, or really know why he should learn. For a long while he went through the motions, more or less, or maybe less than more, without much emotion. But his companions loved him; we loved him and we patiently tried to minister to him until meaning began to come into his life. He stopped just floating along and began to see that unless he cared about those people he was meeting with, talking to, and studying to prepare for, he was just useless to them. Then it started to happen that he began to figure out his purpose here, and to find the Lord's purposes for him. What an amazing awakening! In missionary work though, the truly remarkable thing is that sequence is repeated many, many times, in every mission. How truly remarkable that is, miraculous one might even say.

This process is not limited to the young. Sister ___ began her mission with a hope to be an influence for good. She had some ideas about where she might serve, and how, but for various reasons none of those seemed to work out. It took a long time for her call to arrive, but it did and she rejoiced.. Of course the options for older senior sisters are more limited due to concerns for health, safety and the general challenges of companions suited to working together. But she started out, accepting her assignment, and then quickly finding her calling as a missionary. She began to see places where she with her skills and talents, could make a real difference. Most remarkably, her desires not only transformed her, but spread to other members of her family who were themselves strengthened in their faith and dedication to the gospel. The power of Christ's atonement began to touch them, to heal their hearts, their relationships with Him and with each other, and the results will be wonderful.

One of the hardest moments for any missionary is when they come face to face with their own weaknesses, and in particular the weakness from prior sinfulness that was not fully cleared away before they started to serve. Knowing now that they really cannot do what they came to do with any degree of unworthiness, they are faced with the painful prospect of possibly being sent home in embarrassment and shame, facing up to the accusor in their conscience, or trying to sear that conscience long enough to complete their mission, salvage "face" and continue the ruse. The fear of facing consequences is immense, and makes for stress and unhappiness. But with courage bolstered by the security of love, and not a few prayers from many at home, these unhappy moments can themselves be the catalyst for the most amazing transformation. Elder ___ when faced with the options he might have to return to a disapproving family remarked they he would probably just get off the plane somewhere and disappear, rather than endure the barrage of questions, the pressure of silent scorn or other emotional insults he knew would emerge in his family culture. But with time, with significant effort to repair and repent, the Balm of Gilead interrupted that progression to alienation and loss, and replaced it with a sweet confidence in the Savior, and an even sweeter unity and confidence within the family. When I think on this, I cannot doubt the statemet of Elder Renlund that "Repentance is Joyful." That indeed may be the best interpretation of 2 Nephi 2:27, "Adam fell that men might be (sinful), and men are that they might have joy (through repentance.)"

I don't know what Tolstoi would say were he to have listened in on our hours of interviews, read through the weekly letters that detail the transformation, but I think in the end he might conclude that missionaries are tried and challenged in many ways, but they are all healed, transformed and made better in the same ways-- only in and through the Atonement of Christ, the Author and Finisher (if not also the Prompter) of our salvation. Most certainly I have been.

Memorials and “Final” chapters

What we hope most to have accomplished in the few months we have lived, loved and wandered among the peoples of Vietnam is to have embodied in some way the example and teachings of Jesus Christ. Looking backwards as we now can on the paths we have taken in this journey, and more especially on the lives of the people we have met, loved and served, we see so many interesting stories, and so much of the sorrows, sadness and struggles of life, mixed wonderfully with moments of joy, happiness and fulfillment. As in Vietnamese cuisine, the sweet, spicy, salty, hot and savory, together with flavors and sensations not well described in English, come together to make a marvelous fusion of experiences that intensify and reinforce the feeling of satisfaction and fulness. So is life as a servant of God on a mission to bless his children. There are many flavors, textures and sensations that enrich us.

But unlike a meal which comes to a pleasing climax and resolves with a little “mouth decoration” as desserts here are termed, in a mission with real people and real lives, the course is often not finished and fulfilled by just one person. We are forced to put aside many books seemingly in mid-sentence, still hanging on what verb will dominate the remainder of the story and which object will be the consummation of the phrase. We know there are yet many chapters still to be written, twists and turns in plot and theme before the grand story is revealed and the Author’s mind and will are revealed.

We first met Brother Sharp two years ago on one of our first visits to the Mekong. We stayed in the village hotel, with it’s hard bed and the geckos prowling the walls for any insects that ventured in. We met him and his daughter at the head of the dirt path that lead in a kilometer or so to their home on the edge of the rice paddies. Flat and green, yet soured by a dry season that meant salt intrusion, those fields seemed in some ways a metaphor for their lives. He and members of his family had joined the church while living in Cambodia and had felt unity with the saints they met. They weren’t looking for “the true church” per se, but enjoyed the fellowship and accepted the doctrines. But when they moved back to Vietnam to resume work as the opportunities improved, they were far from the pleasures of that fellowship, and the dry ground invited other influences into their lives that soured the crop a bit.

So while they welcomed our visit, they had a different perspective on their spiritual needs at that time, and their affiliation with the larger international church didn’t seem essential to what they sought day to day. They prayed, they sang, they gathered together from time to time, security forces willing, and that was enough.

Our path took us back to their province 18 months later. Sudden losses had entered the family when a son-in-law had passed away suddenly, as though hit by lightening, and their daughter was now struggling to keep that arm of the  family going. As we shared their sorrows and thought about the blessings of being able to bear up the burdens placed on us, we invited them to consider whether temple worship might not offer them strength and comfort. Again we were warmly welcomed as friends, but understanding and hunger for the full plate of gospel blessings was still not evident. I had thought it unlikely following that visit that we would see them again. But circumstances can change.

While planning our trip for the Mission Branch conference this past weekend, word arrived that Brother Sharp had himself passed away and would be buried the following day. We couldn’t make the five hour trip for that, but determined to include a visit there in advance of the branch conference.

The last kilometer of the trip to the blue and white house was now paved in concrete, but the sun was still hot and much  of the path very exposed. The rice was again planted, now just showing sprouts for the first rainy season crop, the paddy partially flooded already from the first week of rain. We found the house, where now were two graves, one still in the final stages of construction, and the other completed but not fully adorned as a more prosperous setting might have required.

As we hugged, and held hands, shared faith and offered comfort a renewed sense of unity and a deeper desire seemed to arise in the hearts of not just the widow or her children, but also in the hearts and minds of their many friends to whom Bro Sharp had been the group minister, ex officio and pro tempore. “Will you come and bring us into the fold, we who have been cast out, and forbidden from meeting” by those in authority or of greater means, was the plea both spoken and implicit as we talked.

I had not ever dedicated a grave before, not in English, much less Vietnamese, but the blessing of comfort and hope from the ministering of authorized servants with priesthood keys, seemed clearly to have brought us there for that purpose, and through the accomplishment of that end, the beginning of a new chapter.

I have wondered how the spirit led early missionaries to Benbow farm where so many were waiting to receive the gospel and who became a vital infusion of strength and faith into the developing church. And I have wondered how missionaries found my ancestors living and working the farmland many, many miles from Stockholm or Uppsala. It is less a mystery to me now, as I see how farmboys from tiny villages in Nghe An become missionaries and then branch presidents, how the children of officers and magnates from distant towns and counties receive the gospel and rise up to bless their fellows and families as Zion is established. And I can see how the congregations of the faithful, through their prayers and entreaties, also bring the servants of God to their doors to minister, and comfort, and teach. It is only the beginning of course, and the many chapters and sequels yet to be written will no doubt be even more engaging and marvelous, but it is a tide of gathering, of refining, of building, that will not be turned back. And it will metaphorically turn the intrusion of salt that sterilizes the land into a salting of the earth that redeems and seasons the abundant harvest.

Wheat fields ready for harvest Simtuna, Sweden- Quê ngoại của tôi

Conference Season

In Vietnam the dry season has a particular meaning for rest, rejuvenation and preparation. In some areas the more lax work schedule meant also that certain vices like drunkenness and abuse might creep in. Once the rains begin however, the workload shifts into higher gear though, and signals it is time to put away idle mischief and wrong-doing. 

Growing up as a boy in Utah with a good number of relatives on various sides of the family, I became used to the “reunion season” that came in conjunction with summertime each year, and on occasional other days of note. I had a lot of cousins, most of whom seemed so much older than I and whose names I could never recall, given that we only saw each other one time each year in many instances. But it was evident to me that the older aunts and uncles really thrived on being together and seeing the changes in the rising generation of nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren. Getting together with those same cousins now continues to be joyful, and one aspect of life we have missed while serving far from any of them. Yet in another sense, we have become more united with them as we have read and shared in their missions to far flung corners of the world that we are unlikely to ever visit. (See http://belgiancaldwells.blogspot.com/ and TrinidadThackerays.blogspot.com/, for example.)

The gathering of Latter-Day Saints for conferences is a habit instituted from the earliest beginnings of the church, but I believe has even more ancient origins in Old Testament festivals and holy days, the Passover in spring, the days of atonement and new year in the fall, with lesser festivals in between. For modern Latter-Day Saints, these are similar times of reunion, a true gathering of brothers and sisters in a wonderful extended gospel family. There is the same joyful renewal of acquaintance I witnessed among my older cousins, aunts and uncles as a boy. And there is also the same marveling at the growth of the younger ones among us, new additions to the family, new skills and experiences gained, and new responsibilities taken on.

Mission presidents have the opportunity to preside over the conferences of nascent church units each year and that has been our privilege with the first conferences of the recently formed districts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In Hanoi the shared sense of becoming something significant was evident as the District had to rent a hotel ballroom in order to accommodate all those who wished to attend, and the number attending this signal event exceeded by 10% the average attendance at Sacrament meetings of the three (now four) branches included in the District. And of course, any reunion has not truly happened unless it is recorded in countless photo groups of family members!

The experience for the southern saints was no less singular. Instead of using a hotel however, they crowded into all the rooms of the villa in Thu Duc now serving the new branch by the same name. The chapel space and large classrooms were each filled to capacity with saints, some of whom were seeing the new space for the first time. Video and audio feeds from the chapel were broadcast in the entire building so all could feel and see the spirit of the Lord. And then after the conference sessions were over they spilled onto the covered portico and grassy grounds to celebrate with a shared meal while the concluding business of ordinations and settings apart needed to complete the goal of more fully “establishing the church” were carried out.

The road map was laid out for the next six months of District growth and development, along with a view of the longer term organizational and personal development needed, which include matching the District Leadership to the branch training and support needs, as well as continuing to sustain a similar path of organizational development as the smaller branches migrate from being very basic units to more “adolescent” branches, and ultimately mature branches yearning to be wards. From the early 2017 division that created the Quan Sau branch for example, the growth in missionary work and strengthening and finding members has seen them grow from a very small unit to one that can now support and sustain a three-hour meeting schedule, and are ready to organize a small primary for the rambunctious boys who come with parents and relatives each week. Like time-lapse photography, the conferences allow us to see dramatic changes in the church from a few hours of meeting together twice a year.

For our missionaries, particularly our senior missionaries who serve quite far apart and can often feel isolated or disconnected from each other and the greater good they are part of, we have found it useful to organize semi-annual reunions or conferences as well. The most recent one, nestled tightly in between the two District Conferences, was held in the highlands of Vietnam, about 40 km from Buon Ma Thuot on Lak Lake. The setting was quiet and restful, and the landscape and views across the lake and valley were beautiful, particularly in the still of the early mornings. We learned a lot from being together, and the conversations over meals and on outings were as important in building comraderie and esprit de corps as the updates on our efforts and fine-tuning our mission culture.

In some areas there is always harvesting to do

The day's work quickly threshed

I enjoyed seeing more into a sub-culture of Vietnam in the area, which is populated by many M’Nong and Ede people, among others. Their characteristic “long houses” are extended family homes which do not feature the traditional “ban tho” or ancestral shrine seen in most traditional Vietnamese homes. It was also remarkable to see the prevalence of Christianity among these groups. Christian churches by my rough observations easily outnumbered Buddhist shrines along the routes we traveled.

Men and Women enter separately traditionally

Feed corn put out to dry- the wandering cow liked it until the slingshot-wielding boy on the porch got to him!

Christian Burying ground- note the number of small infant plots

Zone Conferences are also wonderful reunions as well for us. The three zones all held day-long conferences following their respective District Conference. While coming far more frequently than most other conferences, they also serve to establish the church more firmly, not through sustaining new leaders, but by giving young leaders the chance to practice training others, by providing spiritual uplift and renewal of friendships and ties with other missionaries. We discovered in one for example, that we had almost an entire MTC group of nine missionaries serving together in different capacities in one Zone. They loved being together again, and some were entreating me to make them companions again!

Although we plan and prepare these in counsel with the zone leaders and sister training leaders, I am always pleased when new things come out of them. Sometimes in order to really learn, we need to be standing and speaking. Then revelation comes. The “aha!” light comes on in our minds and important answers are given. That has been the most important lesson we have learned, and tried to impress on our fellow-servants. Christ leads his church and instructs his saints, and he does so particularly when they gather together in one accord, in conferences.

For example, we talked a lot about the ritual of baptism, and why we need to experience a ritual rather than just signing our name on a form to enter the church. The connection to our covenant in being baptized to “always remember him” then became apparent. I can’t recall how many times I have signed my name to something- reports, checks (back in the paper check days), receipts, invoices, deeds and who knows what else. But I can clearly remember the experience of being baptized by my father at age 8. It is indelibly etched into my memory, and helps me to always remember Him.

Passing by, my new friend invited me in!

We also talked and thought a lot about Christ’s atonement, by which I mean his willingness to personally assume the pain and suffering for sins (our own or those of others, such as Adam) that would separate us from God, our Heavenly Father, thus allowing us again to enter His presence, in complete purity and wholeness. It’s a concept that can be difficult to grasp. But as my assistants demonstrated teaching this, they likened it to an everyday experience here, a rice cooker. The hard grains are ultimately made delicious by the addition of water and controlled heat, and so our lives are changed and made delicious when we allow the Savior’s love (“living water”) to surround us and enlarge our souls. Don’t see it that way? Well, it made sense at the time.

I thought of how much of my life I have dealt with cancer- diagnosis and treatment. Then I saw that Christ offers us both the correct means of diagnosis, as he lovingly guides us through the spirit to recognize our sins and weaknesses, and then to the complete and total healing that can come as we bring those burdens to him who carries “healing in his wings.” It is the quintessence of “personalized medicine” for the soul. We don’t have to look very far in our lives to find “types” of Christ, things that teach us what he is like, what his sacrifice means, and how we can begin to bring it into our lives, whether to soften us up and make us more “delicious” or to heal the gaping wounds in our spirit, both those that are self-inflicted through our own folly, or those that are imposed because we were a bystander, or even an intended victim.

I’ve become a fan of conferences, these marvelous times of renewal of relationships, of strengthening one another, of being edified and bolstered, of receiving revelation and insight. Thankfully there are still a few more such experiences ahead in my life.

Approaching the handoff zone

When the snow had been shoveled off the track at our kids’ high school in Maine, track practices could begin. Most years that was possible by April. Among the conditioning workouts and the individual event training soon came the rehearsal of skills for the various relay events that my children occasionally were part of. For each of these events, whether a sprint relay like the 4x100, or a mixed distance event like the medley or the  4x800 meter distance, or some other combination, unquestionably the most critical few seconds are those when the baton is passed from one runner, nearly spent and exhausted, to the next, standing fresh and eager to run. Well executed, the transition could mean the difference in a place on the podium and a team record, or frustration with time lost or even a disqualification for passing the baton outside the specified area. Watching them learn and practice their timing, communication and coordination skills made me appreciate their results all the more. But execution when they were engaged in the excitement and exhaustion of the race was often more challenging than they had anticipated.

In the medical field we have learned that a similar high risk situation is the transition in care, from one baton-carrying provider to another, whether that be doctors, nurses or others. And since these kind of transitions happen many times each day, even small risks multiplied by countless patients mean that someone somewhere is going to suffer when a key detail of their care is missed and the baton falls on the track, or remains in the hand of the prior runner.

Mission presidents in some respects are relay runners too, and care providers, who have to hand off to the next runner an important baton. Well actually it is a host of batons. We don’t get spring practice to rehearse the process with the next phase runner. But we do benefit from some institutional experience and a standard checklist to follow covering a few of the critical hand-overs that must occur seamlessly. But since each mission president functions in a very different setting, even though the title may appear similar, the task ahead for us is uncharted in many respects.

One of the rather unique, contrary to prevailing wisdom kinds of things about church leadership is the very short hand-over allotted to many offices. For Mission Presidents the overlap between arrival of new and departure of the old is rarely longer than 24 hours and may be an hour or less in some circumstances. Couple that with the sleep deprivation of jet lag and it would seem almost certain that the baton will fall to the ground somewhere.  But there is wisdom in this approach, foolish as it seems to conventional wisdom. The mission president must approach his task with enough of a feeling of inadequacy, and enough of ignorance, to always seek the guidance he needs from above, not from the former occupant of his new chair.

While this is especially important for the missionaries to whom he will minister, it also has value with regard to dealing with members and other church leaders. The young missionaries, whom of course we love and think are the best, get to start afresh with the impressions they will make as they meet with their new president, free from any detailed briefing and hence bias from me.

So what is on the checklist? Aside from the details of how to find the washing machine, and the wifi password in the mission home, we will provide to the new mission president a sample suggested schedule for his first month. I sat down to look at that the other day and mapped something out that included visits to interview missionaries in their apartments or districts, some zone conferences, meetings with the district presidencies, speaking in various branches, a couple of days for a whirlwind trip to visit saints in the mission branch and meetings with his counselors in that branch, undoubtedly some last minute temple recommend interviews as people in hords head to the temple in July, and all culminating with a rather significant departure of the very best of his missionaries- 10 of them, almost 20% of his forces. He might take a peek at that and decide to never unpack!

With that schedule in mind, I see my next few weeks filled with 1) efforts to try to resolve problems that have lingered so that he doesn’t need to even know about them, and 2) endeavors to fortify the members and missionaries such that there is a sort of “autopilot” effect for the first few weeks. We have met with two dozen people this week on varying matters of progress- missionary applications, priesthood ordinations, temple recommends and support applications- as we have worked in Ho Chi Minh City, An Giang, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, Can Tho and parts in-between.

These visits have impressed upon me how much progress has been taking place while we have been here, and often while we were not looking. The gospel grows along family trees, and seeing now more and more families eagerly preparing to make eternal promises with each other and with God as part of his plan to bring to pass our eternal life and happiness emphasizes that powerfully. So where two years ago was just one hard working young man who was a member of the church, there is now a three generation family of engaged and growing members of the church. Where once was a small group of three members and a few other friends meeting to pray and sing in a tiny upstairs room, is now a group of often thirty members of all generations and ages in several extended families engaged in the work of loving and serving one another- even when they have differences of understanding, and bearing with one another’s weaknesses. I will resist the temptation to go on into boasting, but not the opportunity to “glory in the Lord” as did Ammon. It is a wonderful work and a wonder that has come to pass, and is still coming to pass.

It is often small details that seem to point out the Lord’s hand in this ministry. One such was evident today, as we traveled with Judy Battchi, a long term friend, who has been visiting, and just happens to speak Mandarin fluently. We visited my counselor, deep in the Mekong delta in the small village outside of Bac Lieu where he lives with one daughter. But today, of all days to visit, his other daughter from Cambodia, and who is also a member, though perhaps less frequently attending church there, was visiting. And with her she brought her Chinese husband, who speaks Vietnamese hardly at all, but who could easily speak with Judy and ask all sorts of questions that have been unanswered in their years of marriage.

The miracles, small and large, will continue, even as we stumble into the baton exchange zone, tired and panting, and therefore willing to hand the task to younger and fresher legs, and with complete confidence that the grace of a loving God will compensate for our inability or lack of practice in handing off each and every unfinished detail. Our checklist of checklists continues to grow!

Quantum leaps and Linear Thinking

We spent some time of late waiting on the road leading up to the ferry to cross the Mekong into Long Xuyen. We’ve been this way before, and on normal days the traffic backs up a bit, but the three or four ferries running simultaneously manage to keep the back up to a 30-45 minute wait. But add in the ending of the Tet holiday, when half of the populace is enjoying the last few days of their time off work, and another portion is trying to get back to their daily lives so they can resume work, and the shippers are trying to catch up with the shelves-emptying buying that preceded the holiday, and it should not surprise one that the waiting time doubles or triples.

Prior to the building of bridges such waits were just a part of the travel and one factored in the wait and the vagaries of such travel into one’s expectations. Then they started to build the grand suspension bridges across the Mekong that we have today, and suddenly the paradigm changes. And while traffic across the bridges can still slow down on holidays (as it did over the Ben Tre bridge the last time we visited there on a three-day weekend) the thinking has changed.

So it is with infrastructure. The bridge spans the chasm and suddenly every subsequent traveler ceases to dread the journey or ponder their life while they wait on the descent and ascent of the chasm.

That’s very much what we have been doing with this mission. We have been building the bridges across chasms of disbelief. We have been building the freeways (or at least the straight roads) that subsequent generations of God’s Army will follow to further the establishment of the cities of Zion. Things like robust visa processes still stymy us at times. Getting materials for use in the growing number of branches, or for use of our branch builders still occasionally get stalled in crossing. But more and more the basic matters become routine, proceduralized and sometimes simpler.

We have noticed that at times the work seems to perk along at a rather linear pace, proportionate to the number of workers. And we have been blessed to be a mission whose ranks have increased wonderfully over the past two years as others have commented. But sometimes, irrespective of the gross numbers, there seems to be a jump in the curves, a shift in the slope, an underlying change in the assumptions of what is possible.

We will discuss a question in the coming Mission Presidents Seminar that we posed with our leadership counsel a few months back. A question that asks what is possible, what it would take, to bring every area, every companionship, into the productive phase of the work.

We see fields that lie fallow during certain seasons of the year, but then are brought into production with re-plowing, planting and the maturing of the tropical sun and rains. Similarly, we have been learning how to prepare the paddy, how to engineer the watering and drainage in our young branches, how to nurture the paddy rice so that it can be transplanted into appropriately spacing and then flourish until it is ready for the harvest.

We have spent a little time again in the Mekong, which though it is the breadbasket of this country, is not yet ready to be brought into regular cultivation in the harvest of the Lord. But the land is sometimes so fertile that the harvest can hardly be restrained. This is the one place where we have seen the conversion of entire extended families to the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a humility, and a hunger, that when exposed to the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, seem to allow a rapid harvest. And in that we rejoice both in the harvest, and the Lord of the Harvest.

We sometimes are still caught doing linear thinking when the Lord is seeing a quantum leap. And we understand more fully his assertion that he will “hasten his work in his time” in conjunction with the prophetic words of Elder Holland, “You are witnessing the birth of the church in a day.” We are grateful that this is our day.