Caleb:
I loved your letter about the Book of Norman. I love that you are trying to have fun with your companion. Keep up the enthusiasm.
The eymology of Enthusiasm is very interesting -
c. 1600, from Middle French enthousiasme (16c.) and directly from Late Latin enthusiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos "divine inspiration, enthusiasm (produced by certain kinds of music, etc.)," from enthousiazein "be inspired or possessed by a god, be rapt, be in ecstasy," from entheos "divinely inspired, possessed by a god," from en "in" (see en- (2)) + theos "god" (see theo-). (My note here - Enthusiasm literally means to be "in God").
This is from a talk by Joe Christensen in 1998 about Legrand Richards. It's good. Let me know if you can't access it and I'll send the rest of the talk to you. There is some great stuff about Joseph Smith as well.
But October 20 has a very special personal significance for me because on this date in 1948—exactly 50 years ago today—Elder Blair Thomas and I left the mission home in Salt Lake City. We checked our suitcases and other paraphernalia and boarded a bus and made the long ride to El Paso, Texas. We crossed the Mexican border to Ciudad Juarez. We then spent two full days on a train to Mexico City on our way to the Mexican Mission, which at that time encompassed all of Mexico and all five Central American countries.
That was the beginning of a tremendous experience! Hardly a day has passed since then but what I have remembered something about those 31 months of life-shaping experiences as a missionary.
I know that there are thousands of you who are returned missionaries. I'm confident that most of you have similar vivid memories and could even remember the exact date you began your service. Most of you young freshman and sophomore men have not yet served a mission. I hope every one of you will fulfill that sacred priesthood obligation. Some of you young women also—though not obligated—will have that special opportunity for service come into your lives.
You returned missionaries have paid the price of time and effort to help build the kingdom, to proclaim the gospel, to strengthen the stakes of Zion, and to help in the establishment of the Church. You have responded to the call from a prophet of the Lord to lay on the altar your personal offering of approximately a "tithing" of your life to this point.
When I think of the impact that comes from serving a full-time mission, I am reminded of an experience we had with Elder LeGrand Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve, who has to be one of the greatest missionaries of all time—of this or of any dispensation.
By the time he was 96, he no longer drove his car. As a result, whenever he came to Provo to speak at the Missionary Training Center, we had the privilege of going to Salt Lake City and providing transportation for him.
On one of those trips, we asked him a question something like this: "Elder Richards, after all the years you have lived, all the places you have been, and all the things you have done, what do you consider to be the most significant experience of your life?" We thought that maybe he would refer to an outstanding spiritual experience such as with the Brethren in the temple or something like that.
He didn't hesitate for a moment in making this enthusiastic response: "Why, it was my first mission to Holland!" He then proceeded to share with us some of the choice and challenging experiences he had when he left home and arrived in Holland without knowing a word of Dutch. He said that even the dogs understood the language but he didn't. But he supposed if the dogs could learn to understand Dutch, he probably could also—and that he did.
In his journal Elder Richards described some of the experiences he had at the end of that first mission:
In the evening meeting I spoke first to give my farewell. As I walked into the pulpit and viewed the faces of the brothers and sisters . . . , a feeling came over me that I had never had before. To think how I had preached them the word of the Lord with all the power the Lord had given me. . . . I had learned to love them, and they in turn placed me far above what I really am. . . . I never in my life felt happier than under the influence of the Spirit present this evening. [Lucile C. Tate, LeGrand Richards: Beloved Apostle (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982), p. 52]
Before leaving his mission, Elder Richards went to the home of a woman who, with her family, had come into the Church as a result of his missionary efforts. His biographer described the occasion:
She was so short that she had to look way up to him. . . . When he went to leave, tears rolled down her cheeks and she said, "Elder Richards, it was hard to see my daughter leave for Zion a few months ago, but it is much harder to see you go."
He went to bid another convert good-bye, a man who stood erect in the uniform of his country. This friend got down on his knees and took the elder's hand in his, hugged and kissed it, and bathed it with his tears of gratitude for the gospel the missionary had brought. Elder Richards said upon leaving him, "I wept all the way from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, thinking that I might never see those friends of mine again. It was much harder to leave them than it was my own family when I left on my mission." [Tate, LeGrand Richards, pp. 52–53; emphasis added]
Many of you returned missionaries can relate to those feelings, can't you?
Now, getting back to the experience we had with Elder LeGrand Richards when we brought him to the Missionary Training Center to speak. It was a short time before he passed away. As I mentioned, he was 96 years of age and was having a variety of difficulties with his health. (I suppose we all might have some difficulties with our health if we live to age 96!)
He had some heart and circulation problems and walked with a cane. Before he died he had a portion of one of his legs amputated. He quipped that he was glad that they had started on that end.
On that Tuesday evening, he addressed about 1,700 missionaries. He gave a stirring message quoting missionary scriptures and sharing those lively missionary experiences to illustrate them. In a remarkable way he held the missionaries on the edges of their seats for almost an hour. At the conclusion of the meeting I asked Elder Richards if he would share with the missionaries what he had told us earlier, just before the devotional began, when we had asked him how he was.
In his good-natured and enthusiastic way he returned to the pulpit and said:
This is just for a little fun. I am past 96, as you know, and when people ask me how I am, I say "fine," if you don't want details. If they want details, I tell them: "Well, I've lost my hair. These are not my teeth. I can't see out of that eye. I can't hear out of this ear. My feet and legs don't percolate like they used to. The house I am living in is a bit dilapidated."
[And then, raising his clenched hand above his head, he said,] But LeGrand Richards IS ALL RIGHT!
When I read your letters, I think to myself that you are "All Right".
And finally my [son], be strong in the lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
-Ephesians 6:10-13
I love you,
Dad
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