Shane is serving his mission in Belem, Brazil. Belem means Bethlehem.
He is near the equator, so it is Hot, 90-95 deg. all the time, and very
humid. He loves the people and they have been very kind and receptive
to the gospel. We are very grateful that he has been blessed with
the gift of charity and love for the people. That's a gift we would
all do well to pray for daily for ourselves.
He says the average monthly
wage there is about $100, yet the price of a lot of the food and clothing
is as high or higher than here, so I don't know how they can even support
their families. Yet they are generous with the missionaries.
A few years ago when the church started growing so quickly in South America,
the brethren could see that the financial drain on the church would be
more than it could handle. So as they fasted and prayed about it,
they instituted the program of having the members there feed the missionaries
their noon meal every day except P-day and I think Sunday. All the
blessings and growth and activitiy that came out of that one decision were
amazing. There is a very interesting conf. talk that tells about
it.
Here we are asked to feed
the missionaries maybe once a year, as a pair of missionaries labors in
two or more stakes. Where Shane spent his first 4 months, there was
a tiny branch with 8 missionaries assigned to it, so the members were feeding
the missionaries a large meal as often as every other day! I wonder
if we would be willing to do that--esp. when some of them make only $100
a month.
With those salaries, you can see that there is no way most of them could
support their own missionaries. Shane said our $375 a month is really
supporting 3 missionaries, so we should get three times the blessings!
I can handle that! In a religion class I'm taking, the teacher says
that 90% of the young men in the Church in South America serve missions
compared to less than 30% of ours, that where about 50% of our young people
marry in the temple, 85-90% of theirs do, though their temples are often
so far away. Where our young men bring 7 or more white shirts on
their missions, their young men are lucky to have 1 or 2. Remember
when we had the shirt drive for Brazilian missionaries last summer?
I don't know who instigated that, but it would be a project worth repeating.
Shane said half the people come to church in their regular street clothes,
because that is all they have.
He didn't have a big culture shock when he arrived because we had talked
to people and knew somewhat what to expect as to the poor living conditions--but
he said it certainly made him aware of all the blessings we take for granted.
He said all of us would have millionaire status over there.
I have been reading Hugh Nibley's book, Approaching Zion, the past few
weeks. In his book, he discusses consecration and expresses some
very strong feelings about the prosperity of the Saints and the negative
impact it has on us. I wondered if we were really doing so poorly
in that regard and what our Heavenly Father thought of us. So I made
it the object of much prayer and pondering. Many new thoughts came to my
mind--so much so, that I actually got a notebook and jotted down about
three pages of thoughts. But they all seemed to be on missionary
work--which is not what I had asked about. But as I read over them,
I could see that they were tied into our prosperity. Anyway, I labeled
it as a "possible talk on missionary work sometime" and put the notebook
away.
Then just two days later, on Sunday, Bro. Padfield asked if we'd give a
report on our missionary and a thought. I just share this background
information in case it lends any credence to my words.
In the Dec. Ensign there was a nice long article on the church in Chili--the
kind of article I'd have probably skipped over if I hadn't had a missionary
in South America! It stated that 1 in every 38 people in Chili was
a member of the church. I was amazed. Also, that Chili now
had one of the highest standards of living in the Latin American countries.
Bruce R. McConkie was quoted as saying in 1977 (when the church was l/9
the size it is now) that he foresaw the day when the church would be the
most powerful influencing leaven in that whole nation! Don't we wish
that were the case in every country of the world. In a newspaper
article about Pres. Hinckley's interview for 60 min., I'm quite sure it
said that 70% of the people in the U.S. don't know about our church.
There is still so much missionary work to be done! The gospel brings
so many blessings to people and nations. We try to solve problems
through wars, politics, social programs, but the world just gets worse.
In the gospel lies the solution to all problems.
So, other than living righteous lives ourselves and teaching our children
to do likewise, maybe the next most important thing we could do to help
solve the world's problems would be to help increase the missionary effort
with our time, talents and our means.
When it comes time for one of our own sons and daughters to serve a mission,
most of us are able to come up with the $375 a month. We don't think
too much about it--we are just grateful they want to serve! When
Pres. Woodward came to our home to set Shane apart, he said, "Don't cry
when your missionary leaves; cry when they come home, because of the wonderful
extra blessings that will come to an end."
We gladly give the money when it's our own child; but if our concern and
love is truly for the gospel and sharing it with the people of the world
that need it so badly--why should we care whose child it is; it is the
spreading of the gospel we are really supporting, not just a person.
In the scriptures, there are so many blessings promised to those that help
the poor--what better way to help them than to bring them the gospel.
And there are many poor is spirit, if not temporally.
Since we are blessed with quite a bit of prosperity in our ward, I found
myself wondering why "others" with such abundant material blessings don't
support missionaries other than their own more often than probably happens.
Then I had to ask myself. Why "Others"? "Could I do it?
Could our family commit to support a missionary for 18 or 24 months at
$375 a month when we didn’t have a missionary of our own out in the field?
We could write a letter each week or month to one of the missionaries in
the ward or to a relative on a mission. It would be a good learning
experience for the children." Then I thought-- Boy, I
don't know, the blessings would be nice, but that is a lot of money for
us. After all, our car is 10 years old, and we have this big mortgage
and LaMar is getting relatively close to retirement. I just don't
know. Well, then I asked myself, how about $100 a month or
$50, could we do that?--maybe that would support a missionary in some of
these countries, or help flood the world with Books of Mormon.
I don't know if you ever do this, but then I start testing myself with questions. I would like you to answer these questions for yourself also:
(l) Do you believe that your family could commit to support a missionary, and God could bless you that you didn't miss the money at all? Like paying tithing or a generous fast offering. I answered "yes" to this question. Sure I believe He could do that. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever.
(2) Would He do that? I had to answer "I don't know." He certainly could, but whether He would--I don't know. I'm sure you've learned by now that that is how the Lord works. The scriptures are replete with examples of how sometimes he rescues a person--and sometimes He doesn't. He requires us to have faith, to choose to do something good not knowing with certainty what the outcome will be.
(3) Do you believe that whichever way He chose to deal with you--whether He made all the money up to you in other ways, or whether it was a sacrifice and you felt the pinch--that whichever way it went, it would be the way that would be best for you and your children in terms of learning, growth, and blessings?
If we can answer "yes" to question #3, then it shouldn't matter which way He chooses, because we trust that He will do what is in our best interest.
I certainly have no authority to make any promises to you, but I will say that the thought has come to me many many times these past weeks that one blessing that would come to a family supporting the missionary program would be an added blessing and influence on the children or grandchildren of the family that they would have an increased desire to serve a mission when they came of age--and that would be no small blessing! Pray about that yourself and see if you receive the same feeling.
We could support one missionary after another our entire lives if our faith and means allow. Just imagine what that would do for the missionary program of the Church and for our own families!
I heard a speaker recently who said that added prosperity means increased responsibility. I pondered that awhile until I felt I understood what he meant. For example, if you are given this much prosperity____________, and 2/3 of it________ is needed for food and raiment, then you have 1/3____ surplus left over, over which you have stewardship and a responsibility to the Lord.
But if you are blessed with the abilities and talents for making money
and are given this much prosperity ______________________________________________________________________and
your needs (you notice I say needs not wants) are still this much ________,
(the same as the first person),
then you have much more surplus that you are responsible for to the Lord--to
use as he would if He were in charge of it--to build up the Kingdom of
God on earth and to care for our brothers and sisters. You have stewardship
over this surplus and will be held accountable for your stewardship.
When I looked at it this way I could understand more clearly why riches
are such a hard test and why so many of us fail.
We all complain about the Federal Government and how they squander and waste our money that they have stewardship over, often for their own selfish interests. Since everything we have is really the Lord's, I wonder if that is how he sometimes feels about us and how we spend the abundance with which he has entrusted us on ourselves instead on building his kingdom and helping our brothers and sisters. I find that to be quite a sobering thought!
One of my favorite sayings is no matter how hard you try, "you can't outgive the Lord". But it might be a fun experiment to try--it could be a family home evening project!
Well, in closing, I don't really know if all these thoughts were meant just for me and my family or to pass on. But I figured it couldn't hurt and might help. We all must ponder and pray about them for ourselves and ask the Lord, "What wouldst thou have me do," and have our hearts prepared to follow the promptings given to us, having faith that he loves us and wants only to give us additional blessings.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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Additional story on consecration
(if time permits):
In 1938 the church was given
a revelation on consecration. The brethren asked Brigham Young to
go among the people and find out what surplus property the people had,
with which to forward the building of the Temple they were commencing at
Far West. Before he started he asked brother Joseph, "Who shall be
the judge of what is surplus property?" Said he, "Let them be the
judges themselves, for I care not if they do not give a single dime."
(As in Israel, the amount
of the free-will offering was left entirely up to the giver, since it was
he who was being tested.)
The results, Brigham Young
reports of his journey, were laughable--nobody had any surplus property!
One "would say, 'I have got so many hundred acres of land, and I have got
so many boys, and I want each one of them to have eighty acres, there is
no surplus property.'...I would go on to the next one, and he would have
more land and cattle than he could make use of to advantage" and he would
say, "We have no children, but our prospects are good, and we think we
shall have a family of children, and if we do, we want to give them eighty
acres of land each; we have no surplus property." No matter how well-to-do,
the Saints would insist, "I have use for everything I have got," therefore
no surplus.
There were exceptions,
"...and once in a while you would find a man who had a cow which he considered
surplus, but generally she was of the class that would kick a person's
hat off, or eyes out...or you would once in a while find a man who had
a horse that he considered surplus, but...he had the ringbone, was broken-winded,
spavined in both legs, had the pole evil at one end of the neck and a fistula
at the other, and both knees sprung..." p. 349-50
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