| 1972. It was a cold, rainy night when I took the bus down to Los Angeles, Chile. For a summer in Chile was equal to the winter in the United States. By the time I arrived I was chilled to the bone. After two weeks of solid rain the sun let up and I discovered a volcano right out our window. It would be another two weeks before we would see the sun again. Rain came down in this 45 degree angle. We tracted every day and came back at noon to change clothes. Fungus infected our shoes. At times people would let us in, because of the rain they felt sorry for us. As soon as we would tell our story we were escorted right back to the rain. By the end of the summer I contracted a bronchial disorder and was down for about two months.
President Royden Glade made a surprise visit nearly at the end of my illness. What a big guy -- tall, strong, and quite caring. He sent me to warmer climates when he heard about my history of bronchitis as a child. He later told me he played basketball on his mission. He encouraged me to make my mission "my mission." He said it might not be the way he would serve a mission.
It would be a few years after my mission before I began reading management books on empowerment. It required giving back the freedom to the workers to take on the responsibility of the tasks at hand.
In Melipilla I had organized a team of youth from our local branch to compete with the Catholic basketball teams. We had played a few times on their courts and they invited us to play as a team. The priests asked us to see if we could get other missionaries to come play their best team in the tournament. President Royden Glade let me get some of our better missionary players. I think it was a great opportunity to see if we would have good sports on both sides. Everyone seemed to love it.
I remember President Royden Glade teaching that we should never talk against someone's faith because we might be successful and there might not be something to replace it. Simply declare the gospel to them and let them embrace it.
In Melipilla after a day of tracting in one of the central park areas, a member of the church sat down beside us on a park bench. She said she was struggling with joining our church so she went to her Catholic priest. He turned to her and said he knew our church was the true church of Jesus Christ because he had read The Book of Mormon. Only he couldn't join because the Catholic church was his livelihood and his only source of income. I wonder if that was one of the priests who invited us to have the missionaries come and play basketball.
John 10:4 "And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice." |
