My Desire and Preparation to Serve a Mission

President David O McKay stated that “True Christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow man. This is the SPIRIT OF MISSIONARY WORK.”

My talk is about the blessings of accepting and preparing to serve a mission. Let me share with you a few lines from my mission call letter . . . . Dear Sister Gifford: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Scotland/Ireland Mission. Your primary assignment is to labor as an office specialist. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

I welcome this opportunity to serve and YES, even to sacrifice. I learned from the sister whose place I will be taking in Scotland that my days will be 10-11 hours long—that will be a sacrifice! She also mentioned that although I will probably have a car, the walk to my flat will only be a mile, so I’ll probably want to walk! But I desire those spiritual gifts that have been promised and feel that I earnestly started seeking after them many years ago. In Matt. 7:7-8 it reads . . .(7)Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: (8) For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. I feel that for years I have been seeking and once I opened my mind and heart to serving a mission and then knocked—the doors were opened.

I know the Lord will shower His blessings upon me through the gift of the Holy Ghost—He is more than anxious to support us during our specific challenges. I am so appreciative of all the tender mercies that have been showered upon me as I have prepared to serve. Just a few of those blessings have been the support by my children, my family and friends. None of my children knew I was contemplating a mission; but all of them without pause congratulated me and were excited for me; I know that my husband is cheering me on. If he were here he would say, “Well Janice it’s nothing I would want to do personally, but you go for it. I’ll support you 100%!”

During the years I brushed missionary work a couple of times. In 1999 while living in VA I was called to serve as a stake missionary. When we retired to NC I thought, “this is our chance! We can now serve a couples mission, but Larry wasn’t ready at that time to proceed. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with Leukemia and that opportunity to serve together never came. Once in 2002 I thought Larry & I were getting called to serve a mission. Turned out to be I was called as RS President! Bishop Frogley told me that was a “mission” of sorts. I got down to some serious mission thinking after my husband passed away two years ago. He had counselled me to not make any big decisions for the 1^st year of his passing. As that year came to an end I knew 2 things; (1) I would sell my house and downsize and (2) I would prepare to go on a mission. I don’t think it was a coincidence that my house sold in less than 2 weeks (in a down market) and I quickly found my new home. My goal was to get my house & life organized, and then talk to the Bishop about a mission. I know my decision is right because every time I think about serving a spiritual flood of tears come over me. The day the Bishop opened my missionary application on the computer was one of my “really happy days!” I went in thinking I would serve a 6 month mission, but came out of the Bishop’s office thinking a year mission would be better. But then when I spoke with President Walker I was convinced by the spirit that 18 months would be best and give me the greatest opportunity to serve out-of-country. So WOW 18 months is way more than 6 months!

There is a remarkable story that goes along with my receiving my mission call letter and that story starts way back in 1970 (while living in NY) when I encouraged Larry (my husband) to invite someone over for an evening of games and food. He said he knew a guy at work that was in the same training program as him. And so . . . to make a long story short. That young newly married couple from Utah turned out to be Latter-day Saints. Bob & Mary Brady and from that time on known as the Brady's by our family. When the time was right Bob told Larry that he would like to share something of great value with our family. We were more than ready to have the missionaries visit us. In fact every time we saw the Brady’s the missionaries just happened to be there or drop in. LOL. At that time my husband, myself and 2 children were baptized.

O.K. that’s a vignette of my conversion story and also in large part why I decided to serve a mission. I guess you could say I was prompted by example: examples of members throughout the years, examples of the blessings in our own family because of the Gospel, examples of many missionaries before me who have the faith to know that who the Lord calls, the Lord will qualify.

But back to my mission letter—over the many years and many moves by both the Gifford's & Brady's we have remained the best of friends and one of those “tender mercies” that I spoke about happened in December. The normal mission letter takes 1-2 weeks to receive from the time the Stake President turns in his letter of recommendation and the forms. Not mine!! Mine took 6 weeks. All kinds of thoughts were running through my head and without the encouragement of my Bishop, family & friends I would have been a real mess. I have to admit a couple of times I did reach the “real mess” level. During the six weeks of waiting, the Brady’s called to say they would be flying from St. George to Virginia to attend a family baptism and asked if they could stop over a day & night at my house. And here is the tender mercy; about an hour and a half after their arrival my mail came. It had become kind of a joke with my mailman that I was waiting everyday by the mailbox, but nonetheless, the three of us trotted out to the mailbox. There it was—my mission letter. Was it just a coincidence that the Brady’s were here when it came?

What have I been doing while waiting: Well part of my assignments to prepare to serve was to read the Book of Mormon. President Walker challenged me to pick 5 chapters from Preach My Gospel to read and study. The Mission President in Scotland asked that I send my testimony of the Book of Mormon and also why I want to serve a mission. I’ve been working on visa documents, getting immunizations and learning the church office computer program. I know now that I have a companion, a car (which should be interesting), and a flat with 2 bedrooms/2 baths one mile from the mission office in Edinburgh.

President Walker asked me during my interview, “Sister Gifford, how can we get more seniors like you to serve missions?” My answer was to just find a way to plant the seeds then just ask—ask if they have considered a mission—ask if they have a desire to feel the spirit of missionary work—

I believe that FAITH is the bridge between where I am now and where God is taking me. I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, He is our Savior, our brother, our Redeemer. I know that the Holy Ghost blesses us daily by guiding, directing and strengthening our resolve to live more fully. Surely blessings have been showered upon me. I would like to share a paragraph from my mission call letter: The Lord will reward you for the goodness of your life. Greater blessings and more happiness than you have yet experienced await you a you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children. We place our confidence in you and pray that the Lord will help you become an effective missionary.

I leave these thoughts with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.