President Goates Request

Elder and Sister Smith,

In the Adult Session of our upcoming Stake Conference I want to have a straight forward talk with the saints about preparing for and serving senior missions.

Would you please share with me your thoughts about the blessings of serving a mission, overcoming obstacles, and acting in faith?  I would like to pass your first hand perspectives on to the saints.

Thank you very much.

President Goates

Our Reply:

We have been seriously preparing to serve a mission for well over 10 years prior to filling out our paper work.  We’ve had a desire to serve a mission since we sent our first son to Japan to serve the Lord in 1994. 

We worked hard to save enough money, pay off our house and land, retired when the opportunity came (we retired early) after we received an answer to our prayers.  Most of those not of our faith thought we were crazy to retire and nuts to go on a mission where it costs us and we do not get paid.  But what shocked me was those members of the church who told us we were crazy for giving up a much larger retirement check just to be able to serve a mission.  We decided to follow the spirit and not the world.

President you probably remember that we wanted to serve in the temple and that you had encouraged us to let the Lord decide.  Our first reaction was no, we have already decided and that it was our decision because we were a senior couple and senior couples decide for themselves.  But the Lord confirmed to our soles that what you said was what we should do.  I know that serving in the temple would be great because we had already had that wonderful experience but we would’ve not been able to love the Albanian’s as we do now.  What a blessing we could have missed. 

Serving a mission is 95% hard work with 5% rewards for your diligent efforts.  But oh how sweet are those rewards.  We have been working with a family, the Hodaj’s (sounds like Hoe-Die) now for almost a year to get them ready to be sealed in the temple.  On the 18^th of May we will be privileged to be in the Frankfurt temple with them and their two boys and witness their sealing as a family.  During this temple trip we will also witness the sealing of two of our young single adults who we have also been working with since we arrived in Vlorë, Albania.

What we have found is that you can only go so far and then you need to leave it to the Lord and have faith it will work.  We were not provided a makinë (Car) for the first 3+ months we were in Albania.  This became very difficult because we wanted to visit all the branch members and help the missionaries with investigators.  At first we both went and were walking between five and ten miles a day.  Motra (Sister) Smith had to stop because she could not physically do it anymore.  After some more time it began to take a toll on me and I figured I was putting in 15+ miles a day with the missionaries and by myself.  We called the Mission President and he said that there was no vehicle he could provide us but that he would put in a request.  He also said it would probably take 6 months to a year.  We were ready to come home but knew we wanted to endure to the end.  We left it with the Lord and during our prayer we felt everything would be OK.  Within a week President Neil called and said we could have one of the mission makinë’s while the request was being processed.  This was an answer to prayer and having faith in Jesus Christ.

When we attend our first two Sacrament meetings in Vlor we were appalled at the lack of reverence during the Sacrament.  The members were openly making comments to the speakers, talking loudly with each other, walking in and out of the chapel area, and cell phones ringing just to give you an example.  Mike was so upset that he wanted to just tell them how terrible they were acting during this sacred time.   

We need to give you a little background, our average Sacrament meeting attendance is 50 with the average age of those attending being 14.  Vlorë, Albania was opened up for missionary work in 2006 so they are also very young in the gospel.  We meet in a rented three story, not well lighted; cement constructed communist building, so every sound is magnified.  Through prayer and fasting we came up with a talk, that the Branch President would give (Mike), on the importance of the sacrament and why it is important to be reverent.  This talk was given with the spirit and through Christ’s love it was understood.  The meetings are still nosy at times but during the Sacrament they are mostly reverent.  The Mission President and Sister Neil commented on how much better the Vlorë Sacrament meeting is when they visited this past Sunday.

We could tell you how much senior couples are needed and are able to contribute.  I know that every Mission President would love to have another senior couple or two.  The Albania Tirana Mission has had up to seven senior couples serving and before we came there were only two.  The young branches here in Albania thrive when they have senior couples and don’t when there is not.  We had one senior couple who had to leave due to an illness and the mission suffered with only three couples for 5 months until another couple was sent.  The young missionaries do much better when there is a senior couple and that helps the mission and the Lord.  We have four Elders and 2 Sister missionaries serving in the Vlorë Branch and they are always busy serving the Lord.

The bottom line is the Lord needs senior couples and their abilities to carry forth in spreading his gospel throughout the world.