It's been a great week here and Elder Honema'u and I have seen so many miracles. I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve with him because he has taught me so much in just one week!!
As missionaries prepare to go home, they are asked to write a letter to the Mission President and his wife. Interestingly enough, they won't give you your passport until you give them this letter. (I have seen many missionaries typing frantically the day they are supposed to leave). I figure that I would share this letter with you. It's pretty long, so it's understandable if you fall asleep half the way through. Many of these stories I have written about so hopefully you still enjoy the letter.
President and Sister Checketts,
I have found that the Lord instructs the individual on a wide range of levels. As one comes to be more spiritually prepared, having eyes to see and ears to hear, the individual is able to comprehend grander principles pertaining to the kingdom of God. Such has been the case and will continue to be the case as the opportunity to reflect on the previous two years has presented itself. Truly it is only from the mountains of our experience that we can come to understand the valleys of our trials. Although various experiences and lessons have changed my life, I have found one cannot contain two years’ worth of learning and growth in the fine print. I pray that whomever reads this will have the direction of the Holy Ghost that they may not only learn as I have learned, but receive revelation that, as applied, may at once bless their lives and of those they love--thus bringing them closer to the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, even, Jesus Christ.
When asked what from my mission what has caused me to change, it is very easy for me to say that every experience helped cause me to develop. Being reproved betimes with sharpness usually had a more immediate effect while others have taken and continue to take time to shape me. I am grateful for each of these experiences even though they have come with a wide array of emotional roller-coasters each giving me perspective and in the end being for my good.
One of the first of these roller-coasters came with my assignment to visa wait in the Massachusetts Boston Mission. When I received the news that I would be going to the other side of the United States and others closer to their final area of assignment, I was confused. I couldn’t understand what had happened. It seemed that the Lord was determined to put me as far away from my assigned field of labour as He could. Nevertheless, I grew up in Primary, I had sung the words, “I’ll go where you want me to go dear Lord,” and now I was really going where He wanted me to go. After arriving in Boston, I sat with the Mission President who told me they had just opened up the Mandarin Chinese language unit in that mission the week before. Upon the program opening, they found that in the entire mission there was one Elder from Hong Kong who could speak Mandarin. As a result he, the Mission President, had requested from the mission department any missionary that could come to serve for whatever period of time. Three months later, I sat in the same chair, Mission President across from me, having a conversation as I was about to leave for Sydney. We reflected together on the events of the past three months including the organization of the first Mandarin Chinese branch in Boston in over 30 years, the baptism of Julianna, and the plan for developing the program for incoming Mandarin speaking missionaries.
After what felt like the blink of an eye, the Elder Wilde who arrived in Boston Logan International Airport was not the one leaving to Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport. What I learned there has only continued to be nourished as I have journeyed through this great and marvelous work. I learned, in more ways than one, that the Lord’s plan is perfect. He knows where He wants you and me to be and He is in charge of this work. If we think for a second that we are the beginning and end of this work, then we underestimate the character of God and need to repent. However, at this point I had an understanding that this was, is, and will be the Lord’s work but it was not until an experience about three months later that everything became internalized. It was then that I became a missionary who understood his purpose not only intellectually but also emotionally and spiritually.
A former investigator that my companion and I reconnected with was preparing to be baptized. The baptismal interview had been conducted, the programs printed, and the ward prepared. We were excited because up until that point everything else that week had not “gone our way.” During that week, we had been in a district meeting when the four of us received a parking ticket. The missionary who had driven parked too close to an intersection and because we had not informed him, all four of us were blessed to split the ticket. (Tip: In NSW one needs to be parked at least 10 meters away from any intersection.) A day before we got the ticket, two investigators stopped investigating the church. They could not come to believe and would not pray to know that Jesus Christ lived. It’s safe to say that we needed this one. After we had concluded our daily planning session, we saw that this soon- to-be recent convert was calling us. I answered the phone to which our investigator said that he could not be baptized that weekend. He said he felt coldness, opposition, and barren. For nearly 45 minutes my companion and I talked on the phone with him hoping that anything we could say would convince him otherwise. It was to no avail.
It was the first time I had cried since I said goodbye to my family at the doorsteps of the Missionary Training Center half-way around the world from where I was that night. I remember getting on my knees and pouring out everything I was feeling. I remember telling my Father in Heaven that I could not do it anymore, it was getting to be too much. I had done everything asked of me and still our investigator had just dropped his baptismal date. As I finished speaking, I just waited and listened. It’s hard for me to describe what I felt next as it had never been anything I had felt in my life up until that point. A mixture of comfort, love, excitement, and assurance came over me, then the following words as if someone were physically standing next to me came, “This is my work, it’s done in my way and my time,” then the scripture, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10) took precedence in my mind. In that moment, I knew that this man would soon be baptized. Two weeks later he was.
Just as Christ calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, so He speaks to each of us “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39). I was once told that every missionary at one point or another will have their own “Sacred Grove” moment. In this they will have a sacred experience just as Joseph Smith did in the spring of 1820. This was and is one of many “Sacred Grove” moments that have and will impact the rest of my life.
On two other occasions I learned from valuable lessons that would forever cement in me the principle of obedience. I was with a number of missionaries waiting to get on a train in Boston to visit Fenway Park, a famous baseball stadium. There was only one train line to get out to the particular stop closest to the stadium and on that day it was especially busy. When our train arrived at the platform and the hordes of people moved in between each other as they looked to accomplish their own agenda, I felt prompted not to get on the train. It was against everything I wanted to do but again felt that we should not get on this train. I told the other missionaries who soon became agitated with me but thanks to the rule of having to stay with your companion, my companions stayed with me which resulted in the rest of the group stopping from getting on. After a few minutes, we got on the next train and proceeded towards the stadium. A few stations down the line, the conductor came on the intercom advising us that all passengers would have to get off the train at the next stop. The train in front of us, the one we didn’t get on, had just fallen over.
Later, during my mission we were preparing to catch the last bus home from a Family Home Evening activity. While trying to get out of the chapel and help clean up, we watched hopelessly as the last bus of the night steam rolled right past us. It was 8:40 pm and we had at least a 20 minute walk ahead of us. About half way there, I looked at my watch and knew that there was no way we would be home on time to plan if we kept walking. I looked at my companion and said, “When we get up to the next light we are going to sprint the rest of the way home.” My companion looked at me silently but his facial expression said it all. Needless to say, he was not excited. Nevertheless he agreed and sure enough when we hit the next light we took off. We burst through the door at 8:58 pm, took a minute to get oxygen in us, and opened our daily planning session with a prayer. We planned to do some finding the next day and prayerfully considered where we would go. We decided on a road that while yielding well in the past, had not recently. Trying to make things a little more fun, I asked my companion if we could both write the name of an individual that we felt prompted and determined to find. I wrote the name of the person I felt prompted we would find while my companion neglected to take part. Up until we left the door the next day, I prayed that we would find this individual. We turned up to our previously designed location where we would go finding before our lesson. The road was empty. We started walking up the road and there was no one. While walking up the road, we received text message. I read the message to my companion and as we turned around there was a university student walking. I immediately said, “Hello!” After talking to him for a couple minutes, we came to find out that this man had been wanting to learn more about Jesus Christ. Upon asking for his name and number, we found that it was the name we had written down the previous night during our planning session.
Obedience to the mission rules, commandments, and the Spirit brings the greatest spiritual and temporal blessings that one can have in this life. I know that my whole mission and all the understanding that the Lord has blessed me with would be completely different and perhaps nonexistent if obedience had not been adhered to. How grateful I am for the eternal principle of obedience that allows for us to experience this life and life eternal in the greatest degree of happiness that a loving Heavenly Father provides and lives in for himself.
I have tried to integrate various spiritual experiences that I will remember, that have changed me, and that I have learned from and in so doing have found great lessons. I would like to highlight but briefly two of these. The first is quite simple and straight forward: The mission is a microcosm for the rest of your life. Here one is nurtured, protected, and matured helping them understand correct principles to be in use for the rest of their life. It further helps one understand that by putting the Lord first not just now but for the rest of one’s life, the fullness of this mortal journey can truly be experienced. The second lesson I believe proves to be just as valuable and it is: To teach one to ask for, understand, and act on personal revelation. Revelation is essential in returning to live with our Heavenly Father and is needed every day, every day, every day not just in the mission field but in life.
In closing, I thank my loving Father in Heaven for the grand opportunity I have had to serve him and to represent his Only Begotten Son. In such fashion, I testify that he is the Messiah and is the only one in whom our exaltation is made achievable. He came to this earth to do the Father’s will and in so doing provides us with a redemptive and enabling power allowing every son and daughter of God to reach higher than ever before. Exaltation is our goal and discipleship is our journey through the illustrious, incomprehensible, and infinite Atonement of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I testify he lives and speaks to us collectively as well as individually. He is the Saviour of the world and my friend. Not only from Him flow the grandest rivers pouring out joy and happiness to all, but He supplies small, constant, and steady streams of tender mercies that continually draw us back to Him, the only source of living water. I pray we may each seek opportunities, daily, to regain the reality of the relationship we had with Him and our Father in Heaven prior to our coming to this mortal experience.
In the name of Him, even Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Bracken Wilde
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