His Door Is Always Open

When Thomas Moore says that he has never refused anyone entrance to his home, especially religious representatives, he is talking about a lot of people. Brother Moore is eighty-three years old, and he thought he had seen every religion there was to see until LDS missionaries knocked on his door in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

“I let them in, of course, but thought, ‘What can these kids teach me?’ “After the second discussion, says Brother Moore, “I was converted—at age eighty. Better late than never.” His only regret was that his wife of fifty years had died four years earlier. “My goal, of course, is to be sealed to her.”

A cake-baker, Brother Moore enjoys inviting the missionaries into his home “for whatever they’re craving. I see them living on sandwiches!” He especially likes to invite missionaries from the United States over for dinner, “since they get homesick for their own food.” On these nights, he creates American specialties: “You should see how they leave nothing on their plates!”

Brother Moore’s love for the missionaries stems from the sacrifices he sees them making “for people like me, whom they don’t even know.” Calling them “soldiers of God,” he observes that “here they are, leaving the comforts of home just because they love Heavenly Father. What a privilege to help them even just a little!”—Elizabeth VanDenBerghe, Salt Lake City, Utah