My Mission - Celebrating 46 Years
My Mission – Celebrating 46 Years
President Quinn’s Weekly Message
California Santa Rosa Mission
June 2nd, 2024
On Friday we finished interviews for this transfer. It was wonderful moving across CASRM, meeting with you for the last two weeks. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with Sister Quinn and me. We so enjoy being with you.
Yesterday was June 1st. On that date 46 years ago, I left to serve as a missionary in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. After eight weeks in the MTC, I arrived in Bolivia feeling a little uneasy and anxious about the months and years that lay ahead. I possessed two things that gave me the courage to move forward as a missionary. First, I had a strong belief in my duty to be a missionary. Just a few years earlier, President Kimball, the prophet of the Church at the time, challenged all young men of the Church to prepare for and to serve a mission. I believed President Kimball was a prophet. That belief gave me the courage to serve a mission.
Second, I had a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believed that Joseph Smith restored the gospel under the direction of Jesus Christ. I was excited and honored to share that message and my testimony with the people of Bolivia. Over the next two years, my testimony of the gospel would grow each time I shared it with others. I was blessed to see the influence for good the gospel had in the lives of those who accepted the message I carried. Miraculous changes occurred in the lives of people I taught because of their faith and obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. People who had little material possessions, and correspondingly little to hope for, had their lives changed and elevated by their understanding of their divine destiny and potential. As I shared in my message last week, those who accepted and the lived the gospel were “blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual...” (Mosiah 2:41). I was witness to the miracles that came to those who lived the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As I look back on my mission, I agree with a comment President Holland once made about his mission:
“My mission wasn’t the best two years of my life; my mission was the two most important years of my life.”
Forty-six years after the beginning of my mission, I must think hard to remember any days or times of discouragement. I’m sure I had them. Those difficult days are largely forgotten or overshadowed by my feelings of joy from my mission. To this day, my love for the Bolivian people and for my time as a missionary still fills my heart. My mission continues to be one of the richest blessings of my life. Much of the good in my life can be tied directly to my time and the lessons taught to me as a missionary. I am so grateful for my mission.
Sister Quinn and I pray that your memories of CASRM will always fill your heart with joy and faith. We pray these memories will sustain the testimony you share and build during your mission. I know there are difficult and discouraging days in missionary service. I promise these memories will fade with time -- that as you do your best to fulfill your missionary purpose, your memories of your time in CASRM will be sweet and joyful.
Love,
President Quinn
(707) 758-6380
