108. Faith and Trust
- L Rshaw
- Mar 12, 2020
- 9 min read
Updated: Jan 26, 2022
"No virtue is more universally accepted as a test of good character than trustworthiness"
--- Harry Emerson Fosdick (American Pastor; 1878 - 1969)
In my experience, trust is something that's earned. And it's one of the things I value most which is why I've always strived to be somebody that you can count on. Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have to abide by many rules and guidelines, even more than the average member of the Church. And I believe that such rules and guidelines are there for a reason. But there was a time or two when we had to live by the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. And wouldn't you know it, we were caught somewhere we weren't technically supposed to be. Gratefully, our record of trustworthiness paid off. This is that story.
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DISTRICT CROSSOVER
Elder Richmond was from Fort Collins, Colorado. He wasn’t in my District but he was one of the four District Leaders in our Zone and he lived in Riveras; his companion was Elder De La Rosa who lived with Elder Luna and Elder Asquith (See "Mission Administration"). Elder Richmond was from the same generation as mine that arrived in Mexico in September 2014 (See "Culture Shock of Mexico"). Before San José, my crossover with Elder Richmond was rare, with the exception of a time or two in Las Torres and seeing each other from across the way at Mission Activities for Christmas and multi-zone training meetings, etc. The only things I really knew about him were that he arrived in the Mission at the same time as me, and that being a redhead, he’d had some pretty severe sunburns that used to turn his face cherry red until he got the green light to buy a fedora. I remember maybe only one other redhead in our Mission, Elder Smith, but he was tall and didn't wear a hat. So, those two characteristics distinguished him quite well from anyone else in the Reynosa, Mexico Mission. Even if you never met Elder Richmond before, you could pick him out of a crowd.
The first time I got to know Elder Richmond well was on intercambios in Riveras with Elder Luna. We were getting ready for bed and we got talking. We had a lot in common as far as personality and Mission expectations went. He studied harder than anyone to learn as much Spanish as he could yet he was never satisfied. It wasn't where he wanted to be but I assured him that we all felt like that. You could ask anyone, Elder Richmond’s Spanish was outstanding, advanced, better than a lot of other Americans’, and I saw no reason for him to be so hard on himself. Nevertheless, I sympathized with him because I knew how he felt (See "Trainee to Trainer"). It's normal to feel a bit inadequate from time to time, to feel humbled (See "Become as Little Children"). We talked a good deal until we lost track of time and it got late. I didn’t know what Elder Richmond saw in me but he talked to me about eternal friendships and how he was sure that I was one of those placed in his life by divine design. I'm grateful I got to know him and see him at BYU from time to time.
Since we weren’t in the same District and, on top of that, we were both District Leaders respectively, we weren’t technically allowed to go on intercambios together. But we still did. We didn’t have much of a choice. Both of our companionships had things to get done and we had to split up to accomplish them all. By going on intercambios, one companionship could conduct a baptismal interview or prepare the baptismal font while the others went to scheduled teaching appointments. We did this at least twice, always with good cause. Believe me, we went through all possible options and combinations of who was needed where and at what time, and the only way to do it was to divide and conquer. That's just one of the challenges that came with trying to get our normal work done while taking on additional duties as leaders.
There was some wisdom that forced us to bend the rules a little to do intercambios in our specific situation. Firstly, our two Districts were spread out across two distant Areas. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't just have all the Hermanas in the same District (our District in San José) since they all lived together anyway, but surely there must have been a reason. This would have made everything easier. But no. Some of the people Elder Mullins and I were in charge of were in San José (Hermana Monson and Hermana Godoy) but some of them were in Riveras (Elder Luna and Elder Asquith). Likewise, for Elder Richmond and Elder De La Rosa, some of their people were in Riveras, but two of them were Hermanas in San José. So, for instance, whenever those two Hermanas had a baptism coming up, Elder Richmond and Elder De La Rosa both had to take the bus to come all the way over to conduct the baptismal interview in San José. Likewise, if Elder Luna and Elder Asquith had a baptism, Elder Mullins and I both had to take a bus all the way over to conduct the baptismal interview in Riveras. And then take into account the bus rides back. So, the issue was a question of timing, traveling back and forth in the middle of the day while keeping appointments before and after the commute.
So, instead of complicating things wasting valuable time commuting back and forth in the middle of our busy workday, we arranged to meet up early in the morning to split into our temporary pairs. Two would go to Riveras, and the other two stayed in San José for the day. That way, we'd already be positioned to get everything done in San José that needed to be done (one guy with an interview to conduct and the other with appointments) and similarly everything in Riveras that needed to be done. Then we'd all meet up that night, get our assigned companions back, and use the little remainder of the workday to commute to our respective designated Areas in time for curfew. This was the best solution to make use of our time and get everything done. In this instance, the ends justified the means, the means being a successful baptism and important appointments kept.
Normally, I don't suggest bending the rules, but certainly, there are far worse reasons why someone might do intercambios. This is what I mean by the spirit of the law. We did what we did to help as many people as we could. Bad reasons to have intercambios would have been just for fun, or to avoid assigned responsibilities. Intercambios are meant for leaders to observe, assist, and teach fellow missionaries, helping them have success, never for selfish reasons.
Once on Saturday, January 23, 2016, we went to a baptismal service at 6:00 p.m. at the San José chapel together for someone that the Hermanas taught named Telesforo; our companions were elsewhere (I think we were waiting for them to meet up with us there at the chapel to finish the intercambios). Just as the service is almost starting and the room is filling with people, who else should show up but President Morales and his wife?! My instinct was to duck into the bathroom for a while until we realized that we couldn’t escape our impending discovery. The room where the baptismal service was was full except for two seats in the very back, right next to President and Hermana Morales. They smiled at us and ushered us to sit down next to them. I could sense a hint of confusion from them at seeing us there, but they didn't say anything as the quiet baptismal service began. At the end of the service, I got away without too much attention from them. But Elder Richmond told me that they asked him how his companion was doing. Nothing got past them, even with over 150 missionaries to keep track of in their head. They knew we weren’t "technically" supposed to be paired together but they didn’t say anything about the matter to suggest reprimanding. They wished us a good night and left. I think that may have been one of the only times, if not the only time I ever attended a baptismal service with President Morales, and it just had to be in a situation like ours. What luck!
On a separate occasion, within a couple of weeks of the first, Elder Richmond and I were together again in the Riveras Area. We had to prepare the baptismal font in the chapel adjacent to the Mission Offices. Unfortunately, we had the same issue that Elder Scott and I had to deal with months earlier where there was old water left in the same font, just not as much this time (See "Our Baptismal Font"). We had to ask the Office Elders for keys to open up the shed to turn on the sprinklers in order to make room to drain the old water from the font. Of course, being so close to the Offices, we were caught once again by President Morales! He looked a little surprised to see us together a second time and gave us “the look” as if to wonder if we actually were companions, which he was sure we weren't. He knew that we weren’t supposed to be together “technically” but he knew we had a righteous reason. To assure him we did have a reason, and that we were rushing to get the baptismal font set up, we tried to keep the conversation to a minimum and get back to work. Again, he wished us well, and let us off the hook again without any interrogation. Nothing gets by President.
He could see that we were working and knew that we weren’t goofing off together just because we wanted to or avoiding our real companions (As were sometimes the cases with other missionaries). He trusted us. He asked how our companions were and then he went back to what he was doing. I was relieved, to say the least. I'll tell you another story about President Morales and trust in "Lord, Is It I?"
It was really in those moments that I got to witness upfront the trust that President had in both of us. He could have hounded us for breaking Mission rules but, for our sake, he went by the spirit of the law. Don’t get me wrong, obedience is the first law of heaven (D&C 130:20-21; see "Obedience: A Sign of Love") but Christ also taught that we must live by the spirit of the law (Matt. 23:23), not just see commandments as an item on a checklist. We did good things. We never gave President reason to doubt our integrity in our early days in the Mission a year and a half earlier and that paid off here in our later days. If we’d established a bad reputation for ourselves, then that could have gone a different direction. I am convinced that President would have had more to say were it not Elder Robertshaw and Elder Richmond but he had trust in us as leaders and he never had a bad thing to say about either of us. If he didn't trust us, he wouldn't have made us District Leaders in the first place.
When I started my Mission, I set a personal goal to never give President problems. I wanted to be someone he could trust and not worry about. The Lord needs people he can trust. He wants to know that when He says something to us that we'll do it. If we develop this habit of obedience to the commandments of the Lord, we can be assured that the Spirit of the Lord will speak to us more often and we will receive more revelation. If we can prove ourselves responsible over a few things, it is only then that we will be entrusted with bigger things.
The former President Thomas S. Monson said, "I always want the Lord to know that if he needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for him".
FAITH
I've always considered trust and faith to be interrelated. What is faith? If you ask me, it's more than a belief in something. It's a characteristic of character. Our English word “faith” comes from the mid-13th century, feith, fei, fai meaning, "Loyalty to a person; honesty, truthfulness," from the earlier Anglo-French and Old French feid,or foi meaning "belief, trust, confidence, pledge”. The root is shared with the word "Fidelity" which comes from Latin fidere meaning "to trust". To have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely believing that He is; faith in Jesus Christ is to trust Him and be loyal to Him. Faith is the first principle of the gospel and we show our faith through our works, how we live our lives in accordance with the gospel of Jesus Christ (James 2:17-18). "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)
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