Senior Missionaries are Needed - Really Needed

Senior Missionaries are Needed - Really Needed. Senior Missionaries are Blessed - Really Blessed. Senior Missionaries' Families are Blessed - Really Blessed

 A major theme throughout our MTC week related to senior missionary service itself:

• The tremendous need for more senior missionaries
• The blessings of senior missionary service; and especially

• Blessings to the extended families of senior missionaries

We enjoyed hearing the "call to serve." We heard first hand stories of so many miracles from both the leaders involved in the MTC as well as from those reporting to the MTC with us. We also heard many quotes from leaders of the church. 

Here are some of those quotes:

Elder Russell M. Nelson, General Conference, October, 2004: “No senior missionary finds it convenient to leave. Neither did Joseph or Brigham or John or Wilford. They had children and grandchildren too. They loved their families not one whit less, but they also loved the Lord and wanted to serve Him. Someday we may meet these stalwarts who helped to establish this dispensation. Then will we rejoice that we did not seek the shadows ..., even in the autumn years of our lives.”

D&C 100:1 - "Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my friends Sidney and Joseph, your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power."

President Russell M. Nelson: "President Gordon B. Hinckley issued a similar call: 'There is a constant need for more couple missionaries,' he said. '...The sacrifices associated with serving the Lord full time will abundantly bless the couples, their families, and the people they serve.'”

Elder Robert D. Hales: “Certainly family concerns are real and should not be considered lightly. But we cannot meet our family challenges without the blessings of the Lord; and when we sacrifice to serve as full-time missionary couples, those blessings will flow.”

Elder Jeffery R. Holland: “Brethren, ... tell your wives that if you can leave your recliner and the remote control for a few short months, they can leave the grandchildren. Those little darlings will be just fine, and I promise you will do things for them in the service of the Lord that, worlds without end, you could never do if you stayed home to hover over them. What greater gift could grandparents give their posterity than to say by deed as well as word, 'In this family we serve missions!'”

President Thomas S. Monson: "We continue to need many more senior couples. As your circumstances allow, as you are eligible for retirement, and as your health permits, I encourage you to make yourselves available for full-time missionary service. Both husband and wife will have a greater joy as they together serve our Father’s children."

Those quotes, and many more like them, have moved our hearts, and have motivated our actions. How grateful we are to be able to serve.