The Rand Clan

Lynette's Sacrament Meeting farewell talk, 01/11/09

        Many of you may be asking, “Who are these Pattersons and where did they come from?” Well, we have been members of the NC 6th ward for over nine years, although we have only attended here about five times in the last 2½ years.  And where did we come from? Well, we've just been released from an assisted living center! For the past year, our service at the care center has been a choice experience.  Before that, we were serving for 18 months in the South Africa, Durban mission.  One of our foremost mission challenges was to help new members with budding testimonies to be steadfast and immovable. In the care center, our challenge was to encourage long-standing members with firm testimonies to endure to the end. In both cases, the Book of Mormon proved itself to be the most effective tool. One role Rand and I assumed was teaching the Book of Mormon Course of Study to the residents of the Welcome Home Care Center. After a few classes, Sister Bessy said with tears in her eyes and while clutching her large print Book of Mormon, “It has been a very long time since my mind has been filled with these beautiful truths.” When we told the residents that we would be leaving to serve a mission, Sister Oleve said, “Well, I would say that your most immediate responsibility is to find someone to continue teaching us from this Book of Mormon. We can't get on without it.”
         It is only been recently in the continuum of world history, that Africa has had the blessing of understanding the written word. The great wonder of writing and reading is indicated by the experience of an early-day explorer in the awakening continent of Africa. He desired to send a message to a friend many miles away, and it was arranged for a trusted native to be his messenger. The native watched as with his pen the explorer made some marks on a piece of paper, which had no significance to him. Then the explorer gave the native the letter for delivery.
         After traversing the many miles of wilderness, the native put the message in the hands of the one for whom it was intended. The native discovered that as soon as the recipient had studied the paper, he immediately knew exactly where the explorer was and what his problems were. He knew all about his health and as much about the needs that prompted him to send the letter as though the explorer had come in person.
         The miracle involved in this mysterious communication so impressed the native that he fell down on his face and worshiped the paper.
         And so it is with the Book of Mormon to those who have never before been exposed to its mysteries and power. I have seen the power it brings forth in worshiping the Lord and in directing lives which were once disoriented.
         On one occasion Lowell Thomas, the great radio commentator and broadcaster, was telling about the large amount of money that people spend each year to send their messages out across the major radio networks. And someone said to Mr. Thomas, “What is the greatest message that you could conceive as being broadcast to the people of the world?” And Mr. Thomas said, “The greatest message that I can conceive would be that God had again spoken to his people upon the earth.”
         Aren't we incredibly blessed? One of the greatest good fortunes of our day is that God has not only spoken to the people upon the earth, but He came in person in the greatest manifestation of His being ever known in the world. And not only did He come in person, but He caused that his message should be written down, outlining in new scripture, every detail of the simple principles of the gospel of Christ.
         When a person knows that the Book of Mormon is true, this knowledge verifies a very significant concept: Joseph Smith was called of God and was a true prophet, seer, and revelator. Once this concept is verified then one can also know that---
*The first vision was a reality
*The Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price is true
*This is Jesus Christ's living church
*We have living prophets and divine revelations
*And numerous other principles and concepts are derived from these basic truths.
         In other words, the whole structure of the church and its theology gains its strength of unity from the Book of Mormon. That is the great significance of this book.  Joseph Smith told the brethren:“The Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."
         It has miraculous powers, and though I have not actually fallen down and worshiped the pages themselves, I have been brought to my knees to worship my Savior who preserved the pages for me. Those pages have facilitated the Holy Ghost to prompt Rand and me to continue in the missionary efforts of this remarkable dispensation.
         There are so many types of missions to be served, and we are grateful for our particular calls to serve in the modern-day trenches where Satan's minions are trying to subvert the gospel's new dawning to new peoples of the earth. Being enlisted in this endeavor satisfies a soul-hunger that largely goes beyond reason.
         Now. . . I would like to clarify my position about our mission call to the Zimbabwe, Harare mission because I'm afraid the integrity of our mission call has been compromised by my character flaw of sarcasm. It is true that this call has been sobering and daunting and it has taken some wrestling before the Lord to come to terms with. And while this process has been going on, it is true that I haven't been able to resist many sarcastic opportunities: Like saying that I don't even care who Rand chooses for his mission companion on this mission. . . I will be a most supportive wife, and ever so welcoming upon his arrival home; like when Rand said that on this mission he was going to come home thinner, and I replied, “Well good, I will be waiting right here to see it and to congratulate you!” But the other day I heard that I was supposedly scared to death about this second call to Africa. I want to say something about true fear. Among other scary things, I've had African cock roaches crawl up my skirt, rats run across my feet, a cobra snake flare in my face, I've contracted a reportable disease for which I was a patient in an African hospital. Rand and I have cheated death daily driving on the wrong side of dangerous African roads, and none of it scares me at all compared to the fear of answering to my Lord about how well I responded to a mission call that, just because we were not called back to our mission of choice. I will have to answer to how well I gave of my time and of my talents (as questionable as they are), and of my abundance in living true to my covenants.
         The other day, we met some LDS immigrants from So. Africa and when they learned that we had accepted a call to Zimbabwe, they said, “You must have done something very bad in the pre-existence!” And that is probably true!
         But wether we were bad or not, it is an opportunity that Rand and I cannot forgo, and that we look forward to. Having so recently served in Africa, our memories are still vivid and our emotions are still tender for all the soul-enriching experiences that come with such a call.

         Elder Matthew Cowley, in the early 20th century, served in Kalaupapa, a Polynesian leper colony. Of that experience he wrote words that sound very similar to the conditions Rand and I encountered in Africa. Upon Bro. Cowley's arrival, the leper colony numbered 816 souls. He wrote: “They passed their time with playing cards, the hula, and drinking alcohol. Their clothes in general were far from being clean and decent. The miserable condition of the settlement gave it the name of the living graveyard. [Many an unfortunate woman had to become a prostitute to obtain friends who would take care of her. . .] and children, when well and strong, were used as servants.” Sounds very familiar to us, as we have heard Africa referred to as the living graveyard of AIDS. We became acquainted with dear women and children who were in bondage just like Elder Cowley described. But that is not where his description ends. He goes on in expressing how the essence of his service was turned from negative to positive, which is exactly what we found to be true:

 “I went [to Kalaupapa] apprehending that I would be depressed. I left knowing that I had been           exalted. I had expected that my heart, which is not too strong, would be torn with sympathy, but I went away feeling that it had been healed. I [returned home] appreciating my friends, loving my enemies, worshiping God, and with a heart purged of all pettiness. This is a transformation for me; and for it, I am indebted to the saints of Kalaupapa.”

When I was a small child, my father taught me the Lord's prayer. During my lifetime, I have often prayed the words of the Lord's prayer to remind me of the patterns of a worthy prayer. On our mission, the words that the Savior prayed to His father as he looked out beyond his own day, perhaps seeing our day when the great restoration is rolling forth to establish His Kingdom and to usher in His millennial reign. These short and simple words became all-telling and all-meaning to me in our daily mission work: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10.)

         In closing, I want to say that among the many prayers of concern that have been answered during our mission preparations is the prayer that Andy and Kelly would be able to stay in our home. . . not so much so that we would have trusted tenants, but more-so because we wanted to leave them in our ward family's good keeping. They will be mission-parent orphans. Not many young couples have both sets of parents leave on missions out of the same ward, within a week of each other. Please take good care of them. I pray that they will have inspired home and visiting teachers who will bring them encouragement thru the good word of God and thru fellowship.
         I pray the Lord and His angels will encircle all of our family members in our absence and protect them from harm and from evil. If we did not love our Savior and if we could think of any better way to express our gratitude for our bounteous blessings, leaving our loved ones would be too hard. But we have felt His sustaining power before, and we know we will feel it again.