19 April 2018 - Thursday

19 April 2018 - Thursday

Here we are on day four of the MTC.  We have been in district meetings most of the day, and we have had some marvelous discussions.  Our young mission trainers have been returned missionaries and they have such a good spirit about them!  As part of the training experience we have been paired with a missionary couple who are going to the London, England Mission, and we had one of the neatest experiences with them today.

Our assignment was to follow-up on a training segment we had yesterday.  In our interviews and discussions the past few days, we found out that they have a gay son.  They have been very concerned about him and the choices he has made.  We can only imagine their feelings and what they have gone through with his choices.  As difficult as this was, mom felt impressed to include this in our training with them today.

We started off the meeting with them by asking if they would mind considering some ideas we had about homosexuality.  With tears in their eyes, they thanked us for being willing to talk to them about it.  They indicated that they have not had friends willing to discuss their feelings.  Needless to say we had a marvelous discussion and training session with them.

However, during the course of our twenty minutes of training exercise, she told us about this amazing story.  Her son indentified as gay when he was 15 years old, (about 20 years ago).  After he acted upon his choices, they got him to move away from his hometown and live with an aunt in Utah.  They were living in Missouri at the time.  The mother was visiting with him one weekend and had been praying for a special experience for their son to realize he needed to change.  To this date, he has not changed.  However, the mother was close friends with President Hinckley's daughter who lives in the house that President Hinckley remodeled in his early marriage years.  This mother and her gay son went to visit Jane (Hinckley), to say hello while she was in town from Missouri.  When they came in the front door and were talking in the living area, the son noticed that President Hinckley was out in the back yard walking around.  The daughter invited her and her son to go out and say hello.  They did and then they went back inside where the boy decided to take a walk outside in front.  When he went out, he met face to face with President Hinckley.  He had a brief conversation, one-on-one with him.  He told President Hinckley that he was having some problems.  President Hinckley said; so you are one of those teenagers having problems?  Then he said; "Things will be OK, keep plowing ahead".

When they were back in the car, the boy said he got to talk with President Hinckley.  She was excited and asked him to tell her the story.  She knew that this was the spiritual experience she had been praying for.  She later made a plaque with a picture of President Hinckley with the inscription "Things will be OK, keep plowing ahead".

Mom and I were grateful for the promptings to discuss this sacred and sensitive subject with them.  They will not allow him to come to their home and share a bedroom with his partner, but they willingly invite them to come and stay in separate bedrooms.  They love the sinner, but they do not condone the sin.  They have often been told by their son that the parents love the church more than they love him.  And the parents are quick to say that they would love to set aside the sin and welcome him into their home under his conditions..... but they will not do that.  I was impressed to tell them that their expression for love for their son was much louder by following the parameters of the Gospel.

In our district discussions we talked about senior missionaries and how they get to pick and choose their missions.  The young trainer brought this up and the discussion was lively.  Some thought that missionaries should be willing to do anything at any time when they are called on a mission.  However the consensus of the group was that seniors have had specific experiences that can add significantly to a missions success.  One example was a life long heavy equipment operator would probably not be successful as an IT missionary!

Our district with Sister Richins (afternoon trainer)

Then mom got to tell our story about the Philippines.  During the discussion we discovered that our trainer married a young man who came home after six weeks in the mission field, for health reasons, and he has felt the judgments of the members for not completing a full time mission.  The rest of the story was that this young man received a blessing from his uncle who was very close to the spirit.  The uncle asked him after he had been home several weeks if he would be willing to do whatever the Lord indicated in a Priesthood blessing.  This uncle was one of those who felt strongly about him finishing his mission.  

The young man was not ready to have that blessing until he fasted and prayed.  When he was ready, about a week later, he received the blessing.  The uncle laid his hands on the missionary's head and proceeded to give him the blessing.  He stopped after several sentences and paused.  He had tears streaming down his face when he continued and told him his mission was to stay at home and not return to his field of labor.

MTC April 2018