A Reason I'm Here

Today I got something in the mail that I hadn't gotten for a long time -- a letter from a missionary. From this missionary on the left:

Elder Joe Morgan and Elder Brett Hill 

(Elder Hill is also a member of our ward; his dad is our former stake president, currently a mission president in Slovenia/Croatia)

Now, Elder Morgan didn't just send me a letter out of the blue. I first did something I hadn't done in years -- I wrote a missionary. I actually hand wrote the letter, which is something I haven't done in years, either. But I don't know that I was really expecting a letter back. Missionaries have limited time, I know, and I figured I wasn't high on the priority list for letter writing. 

Joe is an important young man in my life. He was one of my Sunday School students back in the day when we were still in Del Campo Ward. He was one of the young people who used to come over to our house and play Catch Phrase and video games and listen to me read Deep Thoughts and eat pizza and get chocolate on my pillows and walk across the street to buy ridiculously large drinks. And he'd talk to me about girls and his life and I'd give him advice, whether he wanted it or not. A couple of years ago, these awesome young men and young women even came over to celebrate my birthday with me, the only friends Josh could think of to get together for a party with us. These young men and young women had a profound influence on my life. Being their Sunday School teacher and then a young women's leader for some of the girls made a big impact on me, and I've felt for some time that my experiences working with the youth here and the things I've learned are a big part of why Josh and I are here in Sacramento instead of anywhere else. But you know, the kids stopped coming over as much and I don't really talk to any of them very much any more, which is fine, because people move on and that's how life is and I'm just an old fogey and I don't really expect teenagers or young single adults to want to hang out with me.

But I wrote Joe because I heard he was sad about how few letters he was getting. And I love that kid. So I wrote him a letter, mostly just asking him about his mission and trying to be encouraging and sharing gospel thoughts with him, because there's nothing else really that I think I need to tell him.  And I sent it off and hoped he would appreciate it and looked forward to hearing more about his mission from the Facebook page some of his friends are keeping up for him. 

But then today we got a letter. And it was great hearing from him. He's really loving his mission and he writes with such faith and testimony. He's just a great young man. He's serving in a small border town in Texas that has this itsy bitsy branch with three active families. The area has been in complete disarray for quite some time and he and his companion are there to straighten things out. His first area -- quite a challenge, huh? He's up for it, though. I felt really happy hearing from him. I just feel so happy about how well he's doing. He's had a difficult life, and he's overcome so much and I know it's because of the gospel. 

Then I got to the part of the letter I wasn't expecting. This part: "You were one of the big people when I first came back into the ward that made me want to be active. I don't know if you knew it or if you know it now, but you and Josh really did play a big role with my reactivation." 

And you know what? That was worth moving to Sacramento for.