What the Returned Missionary Can Do for Himself

What the Returned Missionary Can Do For Himself BY J. PERCY GODDARD, A. B. It has always been my opinion that a missionary who does not continue his activity and usefulness in the Church after his return, and who does not retain the spirit which should characterize one holding the holy priesthood, has only himself to blame. It always appears to me that a young man who wants to be active can find plenty to do, and that as a rule bishops and other presiding officers are very ready to make use of men who are willing to work. But I believe it is a false idea that a man must be assigned some office or other on his return, in order that he may continue his activity. The returned elder can be as active and often just about as useful as a member of one of our ward organizations as he can be in the capacity of officer or teacher. In the class session of his priesthood quorum, the man who studies the lesson and is therefore prepared to take part in the discusion will be welcomed by the presidents and by the teachers. Also in a Sunday School or Mutual Improvement class, a live member is greatly appreciated, and can be almost as great a help in promoting profitable discussion and active interest in the work as the teacher himself. Of course, to do this a man must be willing to study and work. The elder in the field who does not keep active and diligent in his labors, qualifying himself also by earnest study, soon loses the spirit of his mission, and he can't expect to retain the spirit of his priesthood at home, unless he is willing to work for it. My observation has been that many missionaries exhibit a very lazy disposition when they come home, and cannot be relied upon to do the work they are asked to do. Such cases are much more numerous than those instances often complained of where they are not asked to do anything. I believe there is not a ward in which the bishopric is not

1074 IMPROVEMENT ERA anxious to use capable men as block teachers, and if we will seriously contemplate this work and read the revelations that the Lord has given concerning the duties of the teacher, I am sure we shall conclude that there is scarcely a higher, holier, or more serious service to be performed in the Church ; but there is probably no other institution in the Church that is falling so far short of its possibilities. Herein is a wonderful opportunity for the returned missionary to use his experience to advantage and to keep alive within him the spirit of a savior of souls. But to do this work successfully a man must give it careful thought and study, and must go about it just as humbly and prayerfully as he did about his successful missionary work. I believe that one chief reason why many returning missionaries disappoint us, is that they assume an entirely false attitude toward their completed missions. I am not sure that the talks we sometimes hear from our stands, particularly at missionary farewells, are not partly responsible for the mistaken idea that the missionary makes a great sacrifice for his Church and is deserving on his return of recognition and reward from trie Church and from the Almighty himself. This is entirely wrong. The sacrifices of the missionary should scarcely ever be mentioned, for they are not worth mentioning as compared with the incalculable benefits that a faithful missionary obtains. The Lord has repaid every faithful missionary a hundred fold, for anything which he might consider a sacrifice, long before his return. Instead, therefore, of regarding himself as one having just made a great sacrifice worthy of recognition and reward (and some seem almost to think that their everlasting salvation is earned without doing another thing), instead of such a spirit, the returned elder should regard himself as one having enjoyed a supreme privilege, and should set about proving to God that he appreciates that privilege, and desires gratefully to acknowledge his Father's love and goodness by using for the advancement of the work of God his experience and gifts which the close communion with the Spirit of God has cultivated within him. It is a curse to any man to get the idea into his head that either God or the Church or humanity is indebted to him, and the quicker we begin to talk of a mission as a privilege for which

WHAT THE RETURNED MISSIONARY CAN DO 1075 we are indebted to God, rather than as a sacrifice, the better it will be for the Church. Again, missionaries often overlook the fact that while they are away their loved ones and tens of thousands of Saints are praying that they may be magnified. Most certainly many of us need magnifying, and if the Lord hadn't magnified us by surrounding us with, and endowing us by, his Spirit, the spirit of power and light and intelligence, we should often have presented a sorry and humiliating appearance. The Lord does magnify his elders, and they do not always realize it, and when they get home some are somewhat shocked to find that they are not nearly so important or large as they had come to think, and that as compared with the work of the Lord as a whole they are indeed very microscopic. Some never rise from this shock, and men who manifested great power and gave great promise while enjoying the spirit of their missions come home and shrink and shrink and shrink, until they are almost a negligible quantity in the Church and community at home. If possible, our young men should be made to know that the Lord does magnify them in their faithful service in the missionary field, and that he will continue to magnify them at home, if they will continue to serve him with the same zeal. Again, unfortunately, some of our missionaries who win a place in the respect and esteem of the people among whom they labor, think so little of this reputation that they come home and sacrifice it all by falling prey to such low and niggardly vices as smoking and beer drinking. Doesn't it seem hard to believe that a young man who had ever tasted of the inspiration of heaven should allow himself to fall victim to such degrading vices, so far beneath one who has been forth as a soldier of the Almighty to battle against "the powers of evil in high places" ? I have heard of two rebukes to such weaklings the last day or two, which I thought rather effective. My friend, Brother R. Leo Bird was talking with a young returned missionary a few days ago who was smoking a cigarette, and asked him what he thought the Saints with whom he had labored should think if they saw him with that cigarette. The returned elder answered that he didn't know, but there was one thing about it, he wasn't afraid to do his smoking openly; he didn't sneak behind a corner to

1076 IMPROVEMENT ERA do it. Brother Bird answered him quickly and characteristically that "if he wanted to do a dirty trick like that, he'd be glad of something to hide behind." As another instance, my father, while waiting for a car, a few days ago, met a returned missionary smoking. He addressed the man very frankly about as follows : "Brother So-and-So, do you know that your friends are looking at you with feelings of sorrow to see you smoking? It's a cowardly thing for a returned missionary to smoke, and your friends are hoping that soon you'll become enough of a man to drop such a weak and foolish vice." The young man thanked father for the word. This leads me to a concluding thought that I want to leave with you. The boy to whom Brother Bird spoke said "he wasn't afraid to do his smoking openly." Father knocked such an idea of bravery or courage out of the other youth's head by telling him at once that it was cowardly. A great curse to young people is this idea that it takes courage to do what one knows is wrong. Last winter, while conducting a lesson on companionship, I took occasion to give our junior Mutual boys an idea of what is brave and what is cowardly in such cases, by asking them to imagine two boys who had been taught to stay away from saloons. They are going down the street with a group of school friends. The one of my two boys is a weak character. For want of a more descriptive adjective I told the youngsters that he was a "wishy-washy" sort of boy. My second boy was a strong, courageous, brave boy. The group comes to a saloon and someone suggests going in. Our two boys, due to their training, hesitate, when their companions begin saying, "Oh, you're scared to," "You daren't," and so no. (Don't you know such taunts from companions are the hardest things in the world to resist?) Now what are my two boys going to do? My class all declared that the "wishy-washy" boy (they rather liked the word) would go in, but the brave, strong boy would say "No," and leave the group. The courageous boy dares to do right. And which boy would the bunch respect most? Again the response was unanimous. To sin or to act contrary to one's convictions is never brave, it is always cowardly. Young men aren't the only ones influenced in this way.