Rolling Forth

In the stake house gymnasium, I put down my portable x-ray machine long enough to ask a young future missionary a question, "How did the missionaries find you?"

He replied, "The missionaries didn't find me. I found them."

Interested, I wanted more details. He said that when he was 14 years old, he asked a classmate of his, "What makes you so different from all of the other boys in our class?"

The young man replied, "I am a Mormon. If you'd like to know more, I'll bring you a Book of Mormon tomorrow."

The next day, his friend brought him a copy of the Book of Mormon, which he soon started to read. As he read, he immediately received a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and asked to talk to the missionaries.

His mother gave permission for him to have the missionary lessons, but at the end of the lessons she would not give permission for him to be baptized.

Each day, he would approach his mother and ask her to sign his baptismal permission slip. Each day her response was the same, "Absolutely not."

After many repeated attempts, one morning this young man got up early and knelt down beside his bed and pleaded with Heavenly Father. More than anything else, this young man wanted to get baptized into the Church. He got up from his knees and went into the kitchen. Again he asked his mother for permission. This time her response was dramatically different.

"Sure," she said, "I'd be happy to sign the permission slip for you to get baptized."

With the signed slip, the missionaries immediately baptized him into the Church.

Now, the interesting thing. This young man's mother swears to this day, that she can't remember saying, "yes," or giving permission for him to get baptized. That morning is a complete blank in her memory.

Four years have passed. The young man has remained active in the Church. He now is of age to go on a mission. He again approached his mother, this time about leaving on a mission. Again she replied, "Absolutely not." She emphatically stated, "You have to go to college first."

What she doesn't know is that in the past year, her son had received a patriarchal blessing which told him there are many converts who are waiting for him to teach them and baptize them. He couldn't stand the thought of making those people wait more years to receive the blessings of the gospel. He simply told his mother, "I can't wait! I have to go NOW on a mission."

"You are so stubborn!" she finally said. "I know that no matter what I say, you're going to go on that mission. So go ahead. I give my permission."

Once his dental work is completed, he will submit his mission papers to go serve. 

For the last two weekends, Trudy and I, along with four others of our dental team, have gone on what we call "jornadas."  The first week, we traveled a couple of hours to Amatitlan, then the next Saturday drove four hours to Quetzaltenango to conduct dental screenings on a total of almost 100 future missionaries. Like this young man, these soon-to-be missionaries are an impressive bunch.

 As I took x-rays on each one, I would ask, "How long have you been a member of the Church?" The responses ranged from six months to four or five years, but almost every joven (young person) was a recent convert to the Church. Most of these young men and women will be called to serve in Central America, but some of them will teach people in faraway places like Africa, Asia, the United States and more. The work of the Restoration is rolling forth and beginning to fill the whole earth.

Future missionaries waiting in the hall

Elder and Sister Clason handling the paper work

Elder (Dr.) Hogge taking x-rays in the gymnasium.

After the jornada, the future missionaries travel to our clinic
to have their dental work done. Can you tell by the smile
on this girl's face that she just had her 4 wisdom teeth
removed?