Miracle - 17 years in the making

Sometimes it's hard to explain the how’s, why’s and where’s in ours life’s. The next story took far longer to be completed than I would have ever imagined – for that matter I never even knew it was in the making until it was over. The first part of the story was an event that I didn’t completely understand at the time and tried to do the best I could to accomplish the challenges placed before me. I served as a missionary for the LDS Church from 1978 – 1980 in the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission. At the first of my mission I was stationed in the central New Mexico area of Belen and Los Lunas. I loved this area and had the opportunity to have a lot of success and personal growth. I thought I was doing a great job and was feeling that I could become a good missionary. But despite this, I was a little surprised to receive a phone call from my mission president in the middle of the month – transfers from one area to another normally only occurred at the beginning of each month. The President asked my to prepare to go to another area as soon as possible. The area I was being transferred too was more than 200 miles away. He wanted me to be there in two days if possible. When I reached the area - I needed to meet with the ward mission leader and to give the President a call for more details. He explained that there had been some problems and he had faith that I would be able to take care of the necessary clean-up and restore the confidence of those in the area and reputation of the church. That is all that he told me at the time. I remember thinking during my relocation why me? I hadn’t been in the mission field very long – nor had I had any experience in this kind of situation. There had to be dozens of missionaries more qualified than I was. Without going into much details I met with the mission leader and was informed of incidents that had happened over a twenty mile radius, most of which were of a financial nature and there had been some unique behavior from a couple of missionaries – one in particular was being sent home and others were sent to different parts of the mission because of some of their actions. It was a challenge, but one that I did the best that I could and felt confident I had done the job the way it should have been accomplished. Over the next few months I was able to have some success and to make some great friendships, I also found out a lot of information about the missionary that had been sent home and some of his inappropriate behavior. I really believe that I knew more about him and his actions than anyone else in the mission, with maybe the exception of the mission president. Seventeen years later I lived in another state hundreds of miles from the location that these events had taken place. Still actively engaged in the LDS Church, I was given the opportunity to serve as a Bishop. A bishop is the leader of a congregation or group of members, which in the church is called a ward. The formation of our ward took place the same day I was sustained as its Bishop. It was formed by taking parts of two existing congregations in order to form a third. The reason this is important is that half of the members of the new ward were individuals that I had never met before. For our first Sunday worship we had our sacrament meeting and then because there were no teachers called to teach Sunday School or in the other organizations - we had a social or what they called a linger-longer. This gathering allowed the members to meet and greet each other while having treats. During this time I tried to introduce myself to as many people as possible. I remember walking up to one small group of couples that were talking about where the men had served missions for the church. Politely they ask if I had gone on a mission and where I had been able to serve. I told them where I had the opportunity to go and when I as there. One young women in the group asked if I had served in a curtain area – which also happened to be the location I have discussed in this story. I told her that I had and loved it. She then took me by surprise and asked if I knew an Elder, calling him by name. I hadn’t heard that name for more than seventeen year – it was the Elder that had been sent home and I had followed into the area. With a surprised tone I told her I know more about that Elder than anyone in the world and that he was a piece of work. At that time someone called my name and I needed to go to another part of the church – I excused myself and went to where I was needed. Personal revelation is just that - personal and unique to each individual. Over the next week or so this young lady continued to receive manifestations from the spirit that she needed to come see me and talk about an event that happened in her life. Seventeen year earlier this woman then a little girl was living in part of the area this Elder was serving. An Elder is trusted because of his calling – he broke that trust by touching her inappropriately on more than one occasion. She was scared as any young girl would have been and tried to tell her parents – but sadly they didn’t believe her because he was a missionary. He was then sent home because of the other things that happened which I was given the responsibility to rectify. She decided at that time that she would never tell another soul about the things that had taken place during that time. Despite her silence, these events continued to haunt her for those many years. Until her new Bishop told her he knew what kind of missionary he was – and then the spirit told her that I would believe what she needed to tell me. After a couple of weeks she made an appointment to come and see me – the spirit was so strong and helped her to feel the love of the Lord and the power of the atonement. I assured her that not only did I believe her but also it was in complete character with the other thing I knew had happened at that time. It wasn’t her fault nor was she to blame herself anymore for the things that had taken place. We ended that appointment with a priesthood blessing. After she left my office I fell to my knees and thank my Father in Heaven for the marvelous miracle that had just taken place. I envisioned seventeen years earlier a faithful mission president on his knees in humble pray – asking which of his hundreds of missionaries he should sent to take care of the problems that had developed. I even think he would have been surprised at the answer he received, perhaps even asking again. Yes there were many missionaries that could have successfully taken care of these problems – but there was only one that would someday be the Bishop of this little girl. The Lord knows the beginning from the end He is and will continue to prepare each of us and those with whom we will come in contact with. It’s our opportunity and responsibility to be worthy enough to be used as a tool in his hands.