Farewell to Elder Sheppard

A second missionary has died in our area.  Wow.  Now that I’ve written the sentence, I can see how the uninitiated would be jumping up from their chair and yelling, “What?!?!”  Okay, now that I have your attention J, let me explain.  In the lexicon of the mission field:

 

A missionary is “born” in his first (greenie) area.

His companion is his “dad.”

Any missionary he trains is his “son.”

And a missionary “dies” in his final area when he returns home.

 

It appears a few more terms may have crept into the lexicon since I was a missionary, but those are the basics.  Now with greater contextual understanding, hopefully my opening sentence doesn't seem so ... final, dire, worthy of consternation; you chose. J Returning to my opening thought, Elder Sheppard is the second missionary to have our ward be his last area before returning home during the time I’ve served as ward mission leader—or, in missionary vernacular, he “died” here. J

 

Anyway, he, like Elder Stephens, invited us to come to the missionary farewell and we were happy to do so.  In fact, because both our family and the Martinez’s wanted to attend the farewell, we moved their temple lesson to Monday to free up our Sunday evening.  Twenty-two missionaries were going home this transfer.  The church building was packed!  I’m glad we arrived early and were able to sit in the chapel pews.

 

I very much enjoyed listening to the 22 testimonies.  Perhaps I was a bit biased toward Elder Sheppard’s because I had come to the meeting to specifically listen to his, but I found this to be a unique opportunity to be edified by 22 different personalities with 22 different experiences and 22 different testimonies which all had a common theme of how the mission experience had help them to come to a greater understanding of the Savior and His gospel.  To hear these good brothers and sisters bear testimony of the things they had learned during their 18 to 24 months in the mission field, my spirit was uplifted and edified and I was thankful to have made the trip to come to the meeting.

 

Like Elder Stephens before him, I was very impressed by the diligence Elder Sheppard exhibited during his last months in the mission field.  He worked to the very end and did not want to allow himself to become complacent as his time wound down the end.  Another thing I very much appreciated was the way he gave me opportunities to function in my calling beyond just holding weekly meetings and trying to encourage the brethren to fulfill their team-up assignments.  Right from the start, Elder Sheppard wanted to utilize me by putting me to work—to come with him and Elder Bowman on team-ups with them whenever my schedule allowed.  I liked that.  This is not to say that the other elders haven’t asked me to go with them on teaching appointments, but the same day Elder Sheppard was transferred into our ward, I received a phone call asking if I could go with him and Elder Bowman to a teaching appointment.  Not only did he utilize me, but he also asked Jennifer and Ben to go with his companionship.  Again, whenever our schedules allowed for it, we were happy to accept the invitation.

 

He expressed some trepidation about returning home—only in the sense that he had enjoyed his mission experience so much he wasn’t sure he wanted it to end.  To my mind, that is one of the signs of a faithful missionary—one who has so lost himself in the work, that he isn’t sure what to do with himself when he returns home (Elder Stephens expressed similar thoughts).  As I have expressed in other posts, I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to meet and work with these fine young men.  With the quality of people I have seen, I believe the gospel is in very good hands with this rising generation and they will prepare the next generation to carry on this legacy in the face of even greater trials.  If my sons can emulate the examples of the missionaries who have blessed our ward and our home, they will be powerful forces for good in whatever place they are called by the Lord to labor.