Farewell Message
Are We There Yet?
Are we there yet? Most parents and grandparents remember this question. Naume and I were asked this question over and over by all four of our children as they were growing up, but especially on our annual family trip to the Johannesburg South Africa Temple. This drive was between 12 to 18 hours depending on the border situation with immigration officials, which were unpredictable.
During these trips, because of the distance and many hours on the road, our children would constantly ask, “Are we there yet?” Our response in trying to describe the distance of the trip to our children was as follows: “You will sleep, wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep, wake up, and then we will be there, or almost there.” Sometimes our children would try to fake the sleep segments of the trip when it seemed too long and too boring for them, hoping that eliminating sleep would somehow reduce the distance.
We tried to be as creative as possible to make these long trips enjoyable for the children. Although we often faced fatigue and sometimes disappointments, we did not let these circumstances deter us from the goal we had established as husband and wife. Our goal was to make sure that our children had the blessing of touching the walls of the temple and participating in baptisms for our kindred dead at least once a year. When we look back on those experiences, we would never trade them for anything else.
Sometimes I wonder whether we missed the joy found in traveling because of too much focus on the anticipated arrival. In retrospect, I might have missed the joy found in preparing for a mission, the joy found in preparing for marriage, and the joy found in preparing for our first temple endowment experience and the subsequent sealing ordinance which took place three years after our civil marriage because we could not afford to travel to the Johannesburg South Africa Temple. Did I miss the joy found in waiting for the anticipated arrival of our first child? By failing to see the big picture, I may have missed great opportunities along the way.
Fortunately, there is no end to eternity. Our priorities and focus should be properly placed within the framework of eternity. In our lives, families, callings, assignments, studying, paying of full-tithes, temple worship, repenting daily, and every other worthwhile endeavor we may pursue, we should avoid the stagnation that may occur by continually focusing on arriving. We should always bear in mind that the joy is in the walking, searching for employment, adjusting to life after missions, and prayerfully finding an eternal companion. The joy is found in the traveling, in trials, tribulations, fatigue, and anxiety; and not just in the anticipated arrival, but in the journey, no matter how difficult this might be, the price was paid for.
We can imagine the Lord’s disciples on their final evening with Him. They had spent many hours, days, weeks and possibly months walking and preaching with the Savior. They were weary, hungry, thirsty, and tired from their journeys. The Savior’s disciples were worn out physically and spiritually drained. They slept during the eventful night of torturous suffering by their beloved Lord.
How could this be? Mark explains, “The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”1 Too frequently during our times of emotional distress and grief, we take the easy and comfortable option of drifting to sleep. The disciples’ surrender to sleep was a natural response because their bodies had experienced intense sorrow. The body and mind succumbed to the arrival mentality. They knew that these were the final moments with the Savior.
However, their faithfulness and commitment to the Lord and the work before them was unquestionable. So it should be with us. Another factor to consider is that by the time they reached Gethsemane that awful night, they had been awake for many consecutive hours. They were mere mortals like us, subject to all the difficulties and frailties of mortality.
Hence, the Savior’s compassionate and firm question, “Sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?”2 The Savior, knowing the desire of their hearts despite their mortal condition, asked them to wait and watch while He went to pray.
The Savior, knowing our mortal condition but also knowing the desires of our hearts, has in many ways asked us individually to wait and watch.
Due to misunderstandings by persons who did not want The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints established in Ghana, the Church was banned. On June 14, 1989, the government of Ghana suspended all activities of the Church. The members of the Church faithfully ministered to one another. They did not assemble at meetinghouses, neither did they raise their voices to their Lord, but just like the people of Alma who were persecuted by Amulon they, “did pour out their hearts to him”3. The Savior, through the still small voice, asked these faithful, committed, covenant keeping members to wait and watch, and continue on the covenant path. The voice of the Lord came to them through their afflictions; “lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage”.4
On November 29, 1990, after a period of 18 months, the freeze was lifted and the Church could continue as it did before. The members who were “anxiously engaged in a good cause, and [doing] many things of their own free will, and [bringing] to pass much righteousness”5, found joy in the 18-month journey rather than anticipating the arrival.
As we reflect on the Ghana freeze, may we face our daily challenges and our journey through this mortal probation with faith and joy. May we find joy in the journey, not the anticipated arrival, whatever that might be. “May we press forward with love in our hearts, walking in the ‘brightness of hope’ that lights the path of holy anticipation we have been on now for 200 years”6.
Where do you see yourself, and the Church in West Africa because of you, in the next 18 months? Or the next 5, 10, 15 years? My invitation to you in these parting words is please embrace President M. Russell Ballard’s invitation: “consider what offering you will present to the Lord in righteousness”7. I promise you my dear brothers and sisters in West Africa, whom my wife, Naume, and I had grown to love so much, that “the most important lasting effects . . . will be as our hearts change and we commence a lifelong quest to hear Him”8.
As we serve others, we draw nearer to Jesus Christ. We do not fully grasp what we are becoming—we cannot behold God’s designs with our natural eyes. But eventually, if we have truly followed Jesus Christ and allowed ourselves to be filled with His pure love, we will see Him, and we will comprehend God’s design for our lives. “When he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure”9.
I have come to appreciate the truth that a testimony grows as it is shared. One does not arrive by acquiring a testimony, but rather a testimony is a possession leading to a continuous journey.