Humanitarian Aide in South Africa

We just completed the last two days of training. We have had a wonderful time here at the MTC. We have met so many amazing couples who are headed to places all over the world. Today we had dinner with one couple who returned in July from a 3 year mission where he served as a Mission President. Tomorrow night this couple will attend a mission reunion with the missionaries they served with while he was the President and the next day they will catch a flight to Burma where they will do Humanitarian work for 18 months. Of the eight humanitarian couples who were in our group 5 of them had served at least one other mission.

One of our instructors asked us "Why are you willing to go out again?"  As I have sat in classes all week I have pondered that question a lot. What I have come to know is, that I was anxious to serve another mission because I know God lives. I know he is aware of even the small details of our lives. My life has been filled with blessings. I am willing to go out again because that is what the Savior would do.  I am truly trying to live by his example. I am nothing without him. I love being a missionary. I love being on the lords errand. I love waking up each day knowing that he will guide me to where he needs me to be.

I have come to understand that humanitarian work is not really about "giving away" things. It is about that moment when you look into another persons eyes and your souls touch.  It really is that simple. When we served in Ukraine I experienced this special moment many times. I was not able to learn the Russian language but it didn't prevent me from communicating with the people of Ukraine. Often words were never spoken. I left my  mission in Ukraine a different person then the one who arrived there 18 months earlier. My life will be forever changed from a short encounter I had with a  beggar on the street that we passed nearly every day. My husband and I would approach this same old woman each day and  he would put a small amount of money in her hand. One day a still small voice whispered to me, "she doesn't need your money as much as she needs you to really SEE her." From that day on  I would approach her and give her a kiss on the cheek and a hug. It was in that moment that our souls touched. Then there were the sweet children I encountered one day in an orphanage who would live out the rest of their lives confined to a bed. As I walked from bed to bed and knelt down and peered into their eyes and they grasped my hand and gently rubbed it on their cheek. It was in that moment our souls touched.  I felt the Saviors love for them. As I laid in bed that night and saw each one of their faces over and over again, that still small voice whispered, "I have not forgotten them". I know the Savior knows his sheep. I know he has not forgotten them. I am going on another mission because I want to be an instrument in Heavenly Fathers hands. I want to have that wonderful experience of feeling God's love for his children again.

As I depart tomorrow I will leave happy to be on the Lords errand. I will board the plane bound for South Africa knowing that once again my heart will be filled with love for the people that I serve and once again, I will have to leave people that I have come to love behind. Tomorrow my heart will weep for my family here in America that I am leaving behind and 18 months from now I will weep for the people I have come to love in South Africa.