A Mission Call – The Power of Intention
It was 40 years ago I made the decision to serve a mission with my wife in my retirement, and now, 40 years later, we are embarking upon a mission to Lusaka, Zambia. In March 1984 I returned from my first mission as a young man. A wise mission president exhorted me to set worthy, lifetime goals. Serving another mission one day, but this time with my wife, was on that list and has never left it for 40 years!
I’d like to testify of the power of INTENT, but to effectively do so I need to take you back to a time before this first mission.
I left school at the age of 18 with poor A-level results. If I had to sum up my life it would be football, music, best mates and girlfriends. I managed to pass an aptitude test with British Gas and committed myself to a commercial traineeship for the next 3 years. I was to get paid for studying. A ‘win-win’ if ever I had encountered one!
However, this was a time in my young life when my years growing up in the Church clashed with “the world” and after a few years of living one face to my parents and church friends, and another to my work colleagues and teammates, I felt unsettled. I was not at ease with myself.
Fortunately, I had retained some private, religious behaviours. I prayed from time to time, usually when I needed something; I attended church just to meet with my friends; I did like to read the scriptures, bingeing from time to time when I needed a ‘pick me up’. It was whilst on one of these binges that I came across a scripture that hit me. It was in James 1:8, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” These words rang true and caused me to think very deeply about myself and how I was living. I had got to the point where I needed to know the truth; one way or another I needed to know!
It came to a head when I went on a 2-week training course to Nottingham. I was in my twenty-second year now. The lads on the course kept pestering me to ‘go out on the town’ … and I knew what that meant! But, after giving them some feeble, embarrassing excuses as to why I couldn’t, I determined instead to go on a long walk and ask God for the truth. As I walked, I prayed, and my prayer was demanding: “Lord, if you want me to live this gospel, with all its inconvenient commandments, for the rest of my life, then I need to know if this church is true!” I walked and prayed and prayed and walked for a few hours, repeating that same prayer. When I got back to my bedroom late at night, I got into this big double bed and asked the Lord one more time and implored that I did not want to sleep without this being resolved.
Then someone spoke to me. I say “someone” because I was alarmed by the voice. I looked around the room fully expecting someone to be there. There was no one to be seen, but I heard a voice that was external to me; it wasn’t my normal voice of conscience. I’d never heard it before nor have I since but, oh, was it powerful, penetrating, firm, loving and fatherly, all at the same time. Four words were said: “Martin, serve a mission!” This to say the least surprised me and in a split second I responded, “But, but, Lord, I never asked you if I should serve a mission, I only asked if the church was true!” I had gotten more than I had bargained for.
I love the Book of Mormon because, in contrast with the bible, it has some very personal accounts of people who have followed Moroni’s recipe for receiving revelation: “if ye will ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ; He will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost.” Alma when he sought forgiveness and relief from his torment and Nephi when he wanted to know the truth of his father’s dream, to name but a few. But, it was the experience of Enos which struck me more profoundly recently when I read of his very personal account as part of my ‘Come, Follow Me’ study.
I knew of the similarity of my experience, his having been brought up by a father who was a “just man” and how he “knelt down before his Maker, and cried unto Him in mighty prayer and supplication for his soul” and that he had prayed “all the day long” and into the night time he “did still raise his voice high that it reached the heavens”. But I was struck on reading it this time, for I had read it many times before and somehow missed this part of Enos’s account. Enos testifies: “And there came a voice unto me”. That describes perfectly and simply what happened to me. Oh, how I felt at one with Enos! Some of these amazing revelations we read of in the scriptures can happen to us.
The voice said to Enos: “thy sins are forgiven thee”. To me I can infer it said thy sins are forgiven thee, but I had an additional charge …. now get yourself on a mission!
As you can imagine, this experience changed my life! I now had direction, I now had the truth! Did I serve with all my “heart, might, mind and strength” on that mission to London when I was a ‘youngish’ man? Absolutely! Can you see why I would have set a goal, and it was my intention, to serve again with my wonderful wife as my companion one day? Can you see why it was an easy decision for me to serve again, because the decision had been made 40 years ago.
For those who may have put Moroni’s promise to the test and don’t feel they’ve had an answer to their prayers, I would refer you to Elder Dushku’s general conference talk. After relating Joseph Smith’s experience in the grove, he explained: “Rather than sending us a pillar of light, the Lord sends us a ray of light, and then another, and another … these rays are continuously poured down upon God’s children.” It’s my belief that those rays combined can be as strong as, if not stronger, than a pillar of light experience. I have discussed this with my wife and that is the way her testimony has been forged and believe me, her testimony and faith is inspirationally stronger than mine. She is going to be the best companion ever!
My intention in writing this article is that it might inspire someone, whether young or old, to set worthy lifetime goals and to live intentionally. I bear testimony of the power of doing so.