Talk Given in Home Ward July 2015
We are missing a big brother at our house. But he isn’t
really missing at all in some ways he is closer to us then ever.
Our missionary is doing well he has been out for 9 months.
The language is not as challenging. He has enjoyed his companions so far and is
now a senior companion. He has received his Dear John letter and handled that
surprisingly well. It seems to us that Heavenly Father has been clear in
letting us and him know that he is just where he should be doing just what he
should be doing.
One of the fun reminders he has is an Elder who is serving
in his mission. The Sosa Sisters were some of his Dad’s favorite people on his
mission to Argentina. They accepted the Gospel and have remained in touch with
our family. One of those sisters’ has a son that is the same age as Steve and
is serving with him in the same mission. They are yet to be companions but have
recently enjoyed beat boxing together. Their acquaintance is a wonderful
reminder to both missionaries of the blessings that come from full time
missionary service.
Brothers and Sisters the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and
this is his church. I’m thankful today for the blessing of sharing with you
some of the recent reminders and ways that my knowledge of this has been
strengthened through the missionary service of my son in Chile.
In one of his first letters he wrote this:
And now on to the countless less actives I teach. By the way
it doesn’t displease me that I’m teaching a lot of less actives here. The
church in Chile isn’t like the church in Utah. It also isn’t like the rest of
South American where a missionary can get 50+ baptisms in his whole mission. The
Church is kind of weak for a lot of reasons. To demonstrate the ward I’m
currently in, Lautaro, has 1,700 members. Our attendance is about 80ish. That’s
also the worst percentage of attendance in the zone. So obviously there is a
problem. And to fix it we have to reactivate the less actives we have, we have
been progressing a lot too!
Jorge came to Church and brought a friend they stayed for
all three hours. He hasn’t done that in 2-3 years. What makes it even better is
the youth just got back from EFY (Especially For Youth Church Camp) so we got two young men in a room full of
spiritually Juiced youth!
In this letter he talks about two other less active men he
had been working with both return missionaries. One of them had a convert from
his mission contact him and that was helping his receptiveness to the
missionaries as well. I believe that as Elder Loertscher and his companion
prayed for this man the power of their prayer reached the heart of that convert
and motivated them to contact the missionary that had taught them the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Pres. Monson said, “As we love our God as we love our
neighbor, we can be the recipients of our Heavenly Father’s love. Of all the
blessings I have had in my life, one of the sweetest is that feeling the Lord
provides when I know that he has answered the prayer of another person through
me. As we love the Lord, as we love our neighbor, we discover that our Heavenly
Father will answer the prayers of others through our ministry.
Recently our family has had some trauma. I am very close to
my little sister we exercise together almost every day. Four months ago she got
married and she and her husband just purchased a home up the road from us. He
passed away suddenly. It came as a shock to us all. The night before the
funeral one of Stephen’s best friends from high school (Felicia) came to our
door. She said that she had just got a written letter from Steve in the mail
and that she felt strongly that she should come over and share the letter with
me. It was a letter full of scriptures. He said, I love this scripture and this
is why and I love this scripture and this is why. I asked her if she knew what
was going on with our family and told her about our loss. The first scripture
that he shared in a letter that was a month old and not even written to me was
from 3 Nephi and it said “Ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may
understand” He wrote about how we don’t get to understand everything and that
God has a plan and we need to trust the plan.
We don’t see the big picture we look up close at our lives
like one single confusing piece of a puzzle that only makes sense to us. God
has so much more material to reference and so many more pieces to use. This
friend felt silly knocking on my door and saying, “here is a letter your son
wrote me want to read it?” But she felt the spirit’s prompting and followed it
and it was a comfort to me. Somewhere in the world a member felt inspired to
reach out to the missionary that had taught them. They may never know that they
were answering a prayer that two full time missionaries were praying for a
member who needed reminding.
There are two big things that we can do to help the work of
God progress. 1st pray specifically for people by name and second
work to develop sensitivity to the promptings of the spirit and follow them.
When it comes to the people in our lives who no longer
gather with us in church or in our temples our concern is very intense at first
and then we fall into a place of acceptance and the fervency of our concern
fades. I think most would say that that is only natural and human. Natural and
human, similarly, the natural Man and that natural man is an enemy to God. As Latter Day Saints we seek to be followers
of Christ, under shepherds who are seeking to bring sheep back to the fold.
Prayer is the greatest tool we have. When used properly it leads to inspiration
and direction. Missionaries learn this very intensely but we can too.
When Steve was 5 he gained two older siblings through the
foster care program. We knew that these kids needed permanency because their
mother had passed away. Steve has always been a very loving people person his
capacity to love is very great. He really loved both of these kids. Jessica and
Cameron are their names. As Adults both completely left the church. Jessica
married a return missionary and convert from South Africa Xolani. He also has
had no interest in Joining with us to worship. This is a heart ace we have
grown used to. We would pray for them but not with the intensity we should,
that natural man had lulled us into a comfortable acceptance of their choice.
When Steve left on his mission it was a big deal for Jessica’s family
especially for my oldest Grand son Devon who is 9. Devon was very proud of
Steve and told his parents he wanted to serve a mission. Xolani put together a slide
show of Steve growing up for me, and Jessica and her family came to church to
hear Steve speak she hadn’t been to church in years. Steve told me in an e mail
that Xolani would sometimes send a little thank you message back from his
weekly Newsletters. Steve writes a group e mail each week and he always shares
his testimony about something. Those e mails are a beautiful collection of his
testimony on various subjects. Getting a little thank you ‘spark’ back from
Xolani was a big deal. Xolani isn’t antagonistic and he has always been
respectful and joined us for Family lessons about Easter and Christmas but has
been pretty clear that going back to church was not going to happen. 
Because Devon became such a fan of missionary Steve of
course he began to express his desire to attend church. Jessica called me up
one day and told me that she was going to take Devon. But miraculously the rest
of the family ended up attending as well including Xolani this shocked Jessica
and at first it shocked me to. What a pleasant surprise. When I wrote and told
Steve he was ecstatic he said he had been praying intensely for them. Well he
wasn’t the only one. We had a visit from the Elders a couple of months before
this they issued our family a challenge to make a list of names of people who
no longer attended Church, or were not members and the like. Then we were to
pray for the people on the list. The promise was that we would see some kind of
movement in someone toward living the Gospel. Of course Jessica and Xolani were
on our list. Our family decided after taking this challenge that we would continue
to keep a list.
Because of prayers offered by a missionary in Chile for a
family in Utah and because of Elders serving in Utah who visited a family and
asked them to take a challenge, the spirit was empowered. Prayers were heard
and answered and it has been months now, Jessica’s family is attending church
weekly. My testimony of full time missionary work has been strengthened, my
testimony of prayer has been strengthened, and hearts that were once soft to
the Spirit of Christ are returning.
In another of Steve’s letters he wrote about a 13 year old
boy they were working with and I Quote:
“This week a 13 year old less active we have been working
with for a while was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. We were super proud of
him. But sadly (and I hope the kids are reading this part) he was crying after
they announced his ordination because his parents are still inactive and don’t
want to support him and his aunt and cousins weren’t there either. Only his
uncle who we have been teaching him with (who is also the Elders Quorum
president) and one of his cousins. He felt sad because he felt alone. Audrie,
Sharp, Grace, Cael and Lily, you are all so blessed to have a mom and dad that
support you in the gospel and want the best for you. Please don’t take them for
granted and listen to them and heed there advice.”
The connection that we feel to our families is deep and can
not be broken by time or distance. Families are ordained of God our callings as
Parents, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, are the greatest callings we will
ever hold. The power to save is in the family unit.
In March Steve ended one of my favorite newsletters with
this:
“The spirit has been really strong in my life and I honestly
love how much I can see the Lord helping and blessing me. You guys the Church
is true. I would not deny it for any reason and I would just like to bear my
testimony to you all that through the atonement we can all be made clean and be
forgiven of our sins. God loves us and wants us to return to him and he will put
people and things in our lives to help us find this path. All we have to do is
open our eyes and look. I love you all. And I know that God loves you too.
Continue in Faith. –Elder Loertscher
