We attended our second zone
conference this past Friday. One of my favorite things about Zone Conference is
hearing the young missionaries who will be going home before the next Zone
Conference bear their testimonies, and share how they feel about their mission
experience. I listen to those testimonies and I realize the missionary program
of the Church is truly inspired. I cannot conceive of any other situation you
could place young 18 and 19 year old men and women in, where they could learn
as much about the important things of life as they do on a mission.
When I was on the High
Council we were blessed to hear the testimonies of returning missionaries. But
that was typically one and on occasion two. In Zone Conference on Friday we
heard the testimonies of 7 missionaries who would soon be released. They all
expressed how grateful they were for the mission. One Sister said she was even
grateful for the hard experiences even though not at the time.
Another missionary after
being out a little while had to return home and have his heart valve replaced.
Once he got home, he realized how special the mission experience was and how
much he missed it. He was so grateful that he was able to return to the mission
field and complete his mission. He said he would not trade the experience for
anything. They talked about the importance of praying for strength during the
hard times, and these missionaries do have hard times. One missionary said the
difficult experiences were like a refiner’s fire, but now looking back he
mostly only has memories of the good experiences.
