Growth - Give Time a Chance!
Garage wall with measurements of grandchildren marked.
In our garage at the mission home, there is a wall with measurements of the height of grandchildren that the Puffers, the previous mission president and his wife, started. While visiting us our grandchildren saw this and asked to have their measurements recorded, too. It is fun to see how much each child grows over time and between visits!
I wish there was a simple way of marking the spiritual growth of missionaries from the time they walk off the airplane on their first day of their mission to the time they return home. As we greet them, they look a little bit like “dear in the head lights.” It makes sense. A few months earlier many of them were still in high school and this is for most of them their first time away from home.
Missionaries on the first day of their mission.
On their first day President Quinn and I take them, one at a time, into the mission office to spend a few minutes welcoming them and getting to know them. Occasionally, one of our new missionaries will burst into tears. They’ll say, “I don’t know why I’m crying.” We tell them that it’s okay, we know why they are crying. They got up this morning at 3:30 am to get into a van to head to the airport. Their flight included a two-hour layover. They are tired and hungry. They have left the comforts of home. They are staring at 18 to 24 months of uncertainty in the face, and it feels overwhelming!
Our job, as mission leaders, is to encourage and guide their growth and to help them be happy, healthy, and successful missionaries. We want them to become confident, strong, and lifelong disciples of their Savior, Jesus Christ and look more like this…
Missionaries becoming confident and strong.
Most often growth comes with two steps forward and one step back. The formula we teach our missionaries is simply to be persistent in obeying the “Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ” and in following the instructions found in the “Preach My Gospel” manual. We add the famous advice from President Hinckley’s father, “Forget yourself and get to work.” We tell them to take one step forward each day. The secret is to give time a chance to enable growth! We promise them that as time passes mission life gets easier and more enjoyable. As time passes, through patience and persistence, they will grow into the missionary they want to be and one who is pleasing to the Lord.
Virginia Pierce, a former General Young Women Counselor, in her talk, “Keep Walking and Give Time a Chance,” spoke of how the Mormon Pioneers took footstep by faithful footstep walking 10 to 15 miles a day to eventually walk the entire 1,300 miles of their trek to Utah. Each step made a new promised land for the Saints possible. (Thank you Dr. Rachel Mitchell for calling my attention to this talk.)
I love this! I have always believed it is in doing the little things each day that make the big things possible. So we encourage our new missionaries to give time a chance, to do things each day that will help them to grow, find joy, and eventually return home a spiritual giant.
Elders Wiley and Searls - two of our more senior missionaries who are amazing young men. They have grown into wonderful, strong disciples of our Savior!
Just like a child enjoys seeing how much they have grown over the past year, we want to help our missionaries see their spiritual growth over time. President Quinn and I see tremendous growth in our missionaries in many different ways such as:
being more committed to the Savior by making the habit of daily scripture study and daily prayer.
expressing gratitude as they recognize the Lord’s hand in the details of their lives.
asking for and teaching their friends with the power of the Holy Ghost.
making decisions out of faith and not fear as they come to trust God more and more.
experiencing happiness as they learn to do hard things and the difficulties of life are swallowed up in the joy the Savior offers.
being kind and showing charity to everyone.
seeing the light of the Savior in their face.
sharing their farewell testimony of the Savior. At every zone conference we take the time to have each missionary returning home that transfer give their farewell testimony. The testimonies are strong, courageous and simply amazing.
committing to be a lifelong disciple of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
I love the idea to give time a chance to permit growth so we can all become the person God created us to be. Right now I am working on a personal goal that just takes a lot of patience and time. To help myself I am giving me the same advice I give our young missionaries. Just give time a chance. I made this sign for my phone wallpaper as a reminder!
Thanks for reading my weekly update. I’d love to hear from you about ways that giving things time, has changed your life. Please email me at ehquinn41@gmail.com. I’ll email you back.
AND…Speaking of growing grandchildren, this last week I was lucky to be able to slip away for a few days. I flew to Dallas, Texas to help my daughter Hannah who had just given birth to a baby girl, Alice. It was fun to be with Ken and Hannah along with their two other children, Elaine and Sam. I was also able to see my Anderson and Quinn grandchildren who live there too: Mark, Caleb, Tyler, Luke, Lily, and Grace Anderson and Odessa and Hank Quinn. It was a wonderful week! Grandchildren are awesome. It feels good to be back in Santa Rosa with our missionaries and President Quinn.
Here are some photos from the week.
Grammy, Sister Quinn, with Alice Francis - 11 days old! September 27, 2024
Grammy and Elaine Francis making frosting for cinnamon rolls.
Grammy and Sam rolling out the cinnamon rolls.
Grammy with Alice and Grace Anderson. We loved having Grace come to play and Mom Katie come to visit.
Tyler and Luke Anderson holding some dragons that Elder Schmidt made for them.
