“How Many Apples from a Seed?” Liahona, Aug. 1999, 31
How Many Apples from a Seed?
If I close my eyes, I can still see those two young men trying to work under the scalding sun of a Brazilian summer. I approached them and asked, “Are you Mormons?” I had never before seen a pair of missionaries, but since my uncle had been a member for some time, I supposed those two perspiring boys must be from the Church he always talked about.
It was 1970, and I was only 13 years old. I had never seen smiles so bright as when I asked that simple question. We set up a time for the first lesson. My three sisters and I received all of the lessons and were soon baptized.
I cannot forget the care with which those missionaries taught and fellowshipped four young people. They came to get us when we missed church. They visited us often. Why so much concern for us? Would so much effort for these young people be worth anything at all?
When I was called to fulfill a full-time mission, I thought about Elder Clark and Elder Bushman. Those missionaries had planted seeds; those seeds had germinated and grown. Now we were ready to plant seeds for others.
Sandra, a friend who was baptized about the time I was, and I both served missions, and one of Sandra’s sisters went on a mission. Five of the young people I taught and baptized on my mission also went on missions. My son has returned from the Brazil Campinas Mission. All of this happened because those two young missionaries cared about me and my activity in the Church.
Many years ago at the dedication of the temple in São Paulo, Sandra gave me Elder Bushman’s mailing address. I wrote to him, “You can count the seeds in one apple, but you never know how many apples each seed will yield.”
Top: Photograph by Craig Dimond; Bottom: Photograph by Jerry Garns
Illustrated by Robert T. Barrett