The Path of Peace

WML Brother Heath

"As we examine the path Jesus walked, we will see that it took Him through many of the same challenges we ourselves will face in life." President Monson
A few nights ago I learned that I will be transferred this week to a new area. My immediate reaction was to panic as I realized that would mean leaving all the people that I have grown so close to here. I can't begin to say how much I love the members of the ward and the investigators I have worked here in the White Plains 2nd Ward, they feel like family to me. I didn't know I could care so much and so deeply for an area after leaving the Patuxent Ward just a few months ago. The hardest part of missionary life for me is the separation from those that you grow to love. I like the way Elder Hansen put it to me once, that we go on missions and have our hearts broken over and over again. There is pain of leaving family, pain of rejection, pain of broken commitments, and then pain of leaving again. How are we supposed to enjoy and endure a mission?
Last night we attended the Why I Believe fireside at the temple visitor center with a recent convert of the ward. The speakers were a very impressive couple just called to be Stake President in one of the stakes in the mission. They told of how they have lost two of their six children, and what a difficult tribulation that was to bear. He said that six weeks after their son had been born, the baby needed to have open heart surgery. Brother Denna needed to return to his studies in school so he went and collected all the assignments he had missed in the previous week. As he sat down to complete them, he could not focus at all, his heart was with his family. So he went to the temple. He doesn't remember the words spoken there at all, but as he sat in the celestial room he heard the words, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

This week I was very nervous about changing the reporting system that we use to coordinate missionary efforts with the Stake Presidency. I didn't quite know what they wanted, and I'm not sure they did either. That's the nature of work projects I guess. But when the time came to put the information together we prayed for divine assistance. I had a vague image in my mind of a good way to present the information. As the Stake President examined our report he remarked, "I really like this," and that sweet peace hit me again.

That is what Jesus Christ does for us --through His miraculous atonement, he provided means for us to find peace. Not a calmness that fleets away after your concentration is broken, but a powerful assurance that carries us through the darkest trials. I felt that peace as I knelt before my Father and asked Him why my heart was to be broken again. The thoughts that came to my mind were that I don't understand why I need to move now, but that the Lord has a purpose and if I trust Him He will provide another great experience for me. I am so glad the Christ lived the hard life that He did so that he can walk with me through my mission and through my life. Let's do all we can to follow Him and find His peace along the way.

The Struggle is Real