Rome Forum
November 2015
Conquering the Unexpected
When new missionaries arrive in Rome, there is a feeling of
great excitement and zeal for the work.
Sometime during the first or second transfer (sometimes the third), they
start saying how hard a mission is and that it isn’t what they expected. In addition, there is always the inevitable
bout of home sickness.
A recent article stated we can compare these times to the
Zion’s Camp that the early saints experienced.
It was a difficult assignment and many of the saints complained. They experienced all kinds of challenges
including hunger, fatigue and illness.
Many of them wished they had never gone on the trek.
Zion’s Camp was not what those involved expected. Your mission is obviously much different than
some of the preconceived expectations you had before you came.
In our day we have difficult times, too. In our mission we have had experiences with
persecution, physical trials, illness, temptations on the internet and by
Satan’s angel’s, family problems at home, loss of scholarships, loss of
employment, missed weddings, births, ordinations, and baptisms, and mental
struggles that have tried and tested many.
We believe these trials, like those of Zion’s Camp, are
refining you. You are the future leaders
of the mission and of the Church. From
your ranks we will see future elder’s quorum presidents, relief society
presidents, youth leaders, bishops, stake presidents, and general
authorities. You will become patriarchs
and strong teachers.
After withstanding the trials of a mission, you will be
blessed with temple marriages and become loving fathers and mothers.
For those who complete honorable missions, we echo the
statement of Joseph Smith to the members of Zion’s Camp “The Lord has accepted
our sacrifice and offering, even as he had Abraham’s when he offered his son
Isaac”. And like Joseph Smith, we ask
Heavenly Father to “ bless us with eternal life and salvation”.
In
the end, Zion’s Camp was a refiner’s fire.
Many of the soldiers involved grew spiritually and became great leaders
in the church. Nine of the original
Apostles, all seven presidents of the Seventy’s quorum, and all sixty-three
other members of that quorum had all served in the army of Israel that marched
to western Missouri in 1834.
Instead of giving up, complaining all the time, or losing their
testimonies, they put their trust in God, met the challenges, and endured to
the end.
As a mission, we have accomplished much, and we will
accomplish even more. May the Lord bless
you and protect you as He always has His worthy saints.
Presidente and Sorella Waddoups
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