Thursday, September 8, 2016 – Rain Storm, Darwin & Cheryl Fisher,
Corn
We had another big
storm roll through Carthage overnight and in the morning. It dumped over an
inch and a half of rain on us with high winds. There was a lot of cleanup to do
on the grounds around the visitor’s center and jail. We couldn’t start working
on the mess until after it stopped raining, about nine this morning.
The first two visitors
to arrive for a tour this morning were from St. George UT. Their names were
Cheryl & Darwin Fisher. They complemented me on how nice the grounds looked
and asked me a lot of questions about how my wife and I got to serve here in
the Illinois Nauvoo Mission. It was obvious they were very interested in
serving a senior couple mission soon and they wanted to know all about serving
here and how to be one of the lucky couples chosen to come to Nauvoo.
I am acutely aware that
there is a shortage of Senior Couples to serve here and all over the world. I
helped quell their fears about serving in the future. I could tell they were
warming up to the idea very well. One of their questions was how much per month
does it cost a senior couple? I answered their question and also pointed out
there is a church website that gives the average monthly expense for a senior
couple in every single mission around the world. That’s when I mentioned Sis.
Johnson and I also served in the Dominican Republic six years ago. And wow,
their eyes lit up.
It turns out that the
Fisher’s are friends with a couple named John and Nancy Rappleye, also of St.
George UT. The Rappleye’s were among the very first to open the Dominican
Republic to missionary work back in 1978. Bro. Fisher told me that the
Rappleye’s have been trying to convince them to apply to serve as Temple
Missionaries in the Santo Domingo Temple in the Dominican Republic. The
Fisher’s would be perfect for the calling; Bro. Fisher served a mission in
Mexico in 1963 and he is fluent in Spanish. He and his wife are already Temple
workers in the St. George Temple. But there seemed to be one big obstacle for
the Fisher’s.
Sis. Fisher doesn’t
speak any Spanish and she is very hesitant about serving where she isn’t familiar
with the language. That’s when I told
her about Sis. Johnson’s experience with Spanish in the Dominican Republic. I
told her that Sis. Johnson never did make the leap of faith to speak Spanish
while we served a year and a half in the Dominican Republic. I explained, with
study and tutoring Sis. Johnson learned to read and could listen to Spanish
with about a 70 to 80% comprehension level! Sis. Johnson was the mission
financial secretary in the mission office. She wrote all of the mission checks
and paid all of the bills in Spanish. She balanced the mission check book at
the end of the month in Spanish. She filled out and submitted all of the
various monthly mission reports to the Area offices in Spanish. She handled all
of the arriving and departing missionary’s paperwork, their Visa’s & Passports,
their letters to their parents, all in Spanish. When native Dominican
missionaries came to the mission office and spoke to her in Spanish requesting
supplies, turning in reports, asking for reimbursements, reporting landlord
problems, etc. it was all done in Spanish.
I continued to talk to Sis. Fisher for several
more minutes. She had questions about living conditions, grocery stores, the
water, housing, transportation, etc. I
answered every question she had and when we finished, she said, “I think I can
do it, you’ve convinced me I can do it.” She turned to her husband and said;
when we get home I think we should start our mission application!
Now, for those of you
who are reading this and are still not convinced, you can have your fears
quelled too. You can get a lot of
answers to your questions about senior missionary service in this church
publication titled Senior Missionary Opportunities Bulletin:
I encourage you to
consider serving a Senior Couple Mission, if not now, then some time in the
future. Start planning now. Many blessings await you and your family for your
service.
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