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Their lessons and talks were sophis- ticated and scripturally based, as if they had a library and computer at their fingertips to prepare instead of what ever they had been able to salvage, stacked at the side of the road.
Sacrament meeting began with strains of “Come, come ye Saints, no toil, nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way.” For most of us who come from other nations, we would be hard-pressed to find joy in impoverished and broken Haiti before the earthquake, let alone now, but they sang like they meant it, “Happy day, all is well.”
They prayed, “We are all thankful to be counted among the living. We are grateful to know of thy truth. There are many outside the walls of this church who do not have this truth to sustain them through the trials. We know we were kept alive because we have a mission to complete. Bless us all that we can be strong and take care of each other.”
We listened tearfully.
The sacrament was passed and each of the seven children sitting on the row next to us took not a single piece of bread but a scoop each. They are hungry.
Then we heard a talk, a surprising, enriching talk from France Nathalie Desir — so beautifully done.
She told the audience:
“For some of the adversity we face, we can place the weight on our own shoulders because we are not obeying God’s laws. That adversity we can control, but there are some kinds of adversity we can’t control like the earthquake. We didn’t do anything to attract it. We all had friends and families who were killed as a result of it. A lot of people are discouraged and have lost faith, but we as members of the Church now have a mission.
“We know why we have adversities. They are to make us stronger. We have the freedom to either let them overcome us or to make us strong. Just as we send little children to school, the Lord has sent us here for a school.
“Our big enemy is our pride that keeps us from loving our neighbor and obeying the commandments. Since January 12, we all have experienced sleeping outside. As I was lying in the courtyard looking up at the stars, I knew this was the time to manifest charity and mourn with those who mourn, give food to those who need food.
“We have a certain joy, and the joy is knowing these things are temporary. The trials we are given on earth are for us. The Lord knows everything we are going through and they are to augment our faith and bring us to God.”
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We came on a mission to teach and help others. We continue to marvel at how much people such as these, teach us, instead. Wow!
3 comments:
So touching. The pictures are beautiful and the words are so full of the Spirit. Thank you for sharing.
It is true that through our trials we are made stronger. These people have experienced more "trial" in the last weeks than most of us will experience in a life time. No wonder they are so strong.
One of the parts that I liked best was the last part that said they went there to teach those people, but those people were ending up teaching them. That is the way it works out a lot, and it is neat. I think that by a lot of the stories you have shared with us that you both have also learned a lot from the Mongolian people, as have we from reading your posts. It's pretty cool really.
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