Thursday, April 16, 2015

        

Beverly wrote most of the blog posts, but Glade wrote the following message for the final entry.

Anytime in my life when I have served the Lord in a calling I have felt His power and blessings helping me.  I have also felt the adversary’s power trying to dissuade me in my efforts.  These two opposing influences were so strong and clear to me while on the mission that I knew and was strengthened beyond any previous experience in my life that what I was doing was very important to the Lord and I was meant to be serving the faithful Honduran and Nicaraguan people in the temple.

There was not a day of the nearly five hundred we served in the temple that I didn’t feel physical pain.  On the worst days I was brought to my knees, “Father, I cannot do this today.  Please carry my load.”   Without exception, on those days I was given clear and immediate strength and presented with evident opportunities to spiritually raise and share a member’s experience as he provided the saving ordinances for his family.  The Lord’s power and nearness was a confirmation so evident that my relationship with Him has changed forever.  I knew that He was in charge and was directing the work.

I was asked to officiate approximately four hundred and fifty endowment sessions throughout the mission, most of them accompanied by Beverly.  Attendance in many of those was at or over capacity.  In some there were few attendees.  I lamented that those sessions with many unfilled seats left me feeling a void of the spirit. During one of these sessions, burdened with my thoughts, my mind for a brief moment saw every seat not occupied by a mortal participant occupied by a beautiful Latino from the other side, dressed in white, and a face of radiating joy.  The Lord had taught me an important lesson about the temple by using the “imagination of my thoughts” and “mounting them up as on wings of eagles” as described in D & C 124: 99.  After that experience the size of the session mattered not to me.  I felt the spirit of the work from every individual member and from those present spiritually but not seen, waiting for their work to be done. 

When we submitted our missionary papers to headquarters to receive our call to serve I indicated that on my first mission forty-eight years ago I had gained a love for the Latin American people.  Upon arriving in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and for the following twenty-three months I realized how deep that love and motivation was imbedded within me.  I felt the Lord empowering me to smile and speak with, and often embrace those with whom I worked, attended church, and associated with in other ways.  I was touched by the Spirit while studying the Gospel in Spanish in ways that I had not felt in English.  While serving this people in the temple I felt the Lord guiding and telling me that I was exactly where He wanted me to be, doing what he wanted me to do and doing it at the right time of my life.  This gave me peace and a purpose of being that had too often been absent in my life. Following the mission I am still strongly pulled to the scriptures and other words of the prophets translated into Spanish.

Beverly had no Spanish experience prior to our mission.  In fact, she indicated on her papers that she would prefer not to learn a foreign language.  We submitted to the Lord’s will and indicated we would serve where needed most. Understanding nothing, Beverly resisted the language initially and I soon learned that if I were to be her sole source of understandable communication I could not cloud our relationship by speaking to her in Spanish all of our time together in the interest of helping her learn.  Our individual challenges and our common commitment to the Lord and to each other brought us closer than at any other time of our marriage. Her qualities of hard work, determination, commitment, and faith were to me very inspiring motivators. As down as she would sometimes be after not understanding anyone day after day, she would always bounce back with a fierce determination, relentless in her study of the language, always greeting the participants in the temple with a kind smile and eyes that said unmistakably, “I care.” Just like our marriage our mission could not have succeeded without the hardships and our covenants made forty-five years ago at the altar of the temple.  We have never known a more humble and faithful people than those whom we served on this mission.  The Lord knew our needs and provided us the experiences to strengthen our faith and humility. This was necessary for our understanding and love of the people.

We are blessed with eight wonderful children.  Each has chosen faithful, gifted spouses with whom they have been sealed for eternity in a Holy temple. They have all been blessed with bright, healthy children and are raising them to serve the Lord. What a blessing and joy that is to us! We felt the strength and blessings of their prayers throughout our mission and were empowered to do our best. By their encouragement and support spiritually and physically they manifested their love for us and their love for the Lord. Our mission was an expression of our love and gratitude to the Lord for the blessing of our family and to our family for placing their faith in Him. He is our Savior and Redeemer and the light of our life.