Spiritual Survival in Southeast Asia

It is good to be home again after a separation of 17 months from my family during two tours of military duty in Southeast Asia.

While I was away I came to realize what an important role my family plays in the development of my soul. Only with them could I ever “endure all things,” since a prolonged solitary life soon strips away motivation and enthusiasm. While alone, the tendency is to turn increasingly inward, to give undue attention to your own needs. This trend leads to spiritual “bad health.” Family life is just the opposite. The love and concern of family members is conducive to good spiritual health, and you learn to turn outward as you give attention to the needs of others. I soon learned that “it is not good that man should be alone.” (Gen. 2:18.)

But of all I endured during the war, it was loneliness that got me down the most. Loneliness cankers the soul in its own way. When we are with those we love, we govern our conduct to please them as well as ourselves. When we are alone, that external stimulus is removed, and with it goes much of our drive.

It was that way for me. I always had the nagging feeling that the ordinary business of life was suspended, that I was in some kind of limbo waiting for it to resume. The trap waiting for me, then, was not spiritual regression, but spiritual stagnation.

Looking back, I believe I emerged from that experience a better man than when I entered. I filled what could have been a spiritual vacuum with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I now have rather happy memories of a time well spent, with no regrets. Every attempt I made to live the gospel kept me on “the straight and narrow” and brought peace to my soul in a distant land under abnormal, trying circumstances.

How was this accomplished? I think the activities summarized from my diary of the last 146 days tell the story:

I attended 50 Church meetings in six different branches throughout Asia, involving three different languages (in spite of a work schedule that included both day and night shifts and few days off); attended 15 family home evenings; taught ten lessons in priesthood classes; gave two talks in sacrament meeting; taught ten missionary lessons; read 12 books, including the Book of Mormon; and wrote 50 letters to friends and family on the themes of love and fidelity.

I said 200 prayers, and that wasn’t easy. Five of us lived in cramped quarters, and privacy was rare. But there was one time each day when I was by myself, and that was while riding my beat-up bicycle the two miles to work. Often I would be wending my way along the road’s edge just as the sun was rising, and only the chirping of birds broke the stillness of my surroundings. Then I talked with my Father in heaven. As I pedaled along to work in the brightness of a new day or returned in the black of night, I poured out my heart to him and received solace in return. Thus, in a concerted effort to remain true to the faith, I was preserved for coming home.

But it was the day I arrived home when I truly realized the great value of the gospel plan. As I opened the door to my own home, with my wife’s hand in mine and my three children trailing close behind, I knew I was safe at last within the family circle. I sat for a moment in my favorite chair among familiar surroundings, basking in the radiant expressions of my family, and I understood more about heaven than I ever had before.

My mind flashed back over the scenes of human wilderness from which I had just come, and I felt that God had now led me to a very special place, an oasis as it were, where I had all I needed to nourish me during my mortal journey. Here was love, beauty, virtue, goodness, and every other attribute that mankind has ever sought, right here in my family. If there ever was an environment in which a man could grow and attain godhood, it was here.

From no other place on earth do I hear so much stress placed upon the saving nature of a good home life as I do in this church, and never have I had so much confidence in the leaders of the Church as now. My experience testifies to me that they proclaim a divine message.