113. Our Garbage
- L Rshaw
- Mar 23, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 28, 2022
"When we sin, Satan tells us we are lost. In contrast, our Redeemer offers redemption to all --- no matter what we have done wrong --- even to you and to me"
--- C. Scott Grow (American Politician & Emeritus General Authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; 1948 - Present)
To fully appreciate the Savior, we acknowledge that we're in need of saving. It was because Heavenly Father knew that we'd need help that Jesus Christ was chosen to perform the Atonement on our behalf before the world even was --- to make repentance and forgiveness possible and to advance us from our fallen state to a celestial one. It was inevitable that we would sin from time to time, but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins as we repent, such that God promises to "remember them no more". We need to be mindful of when we make mistakes, not to punish ourselves, but so that we may learn from them and repent as needed. Repentance should be a common occurrence, not a rare one. One of the greatest gifts. To rid ourselves of the filth of the world, and to become clean again.
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THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
Part of our morning routine as missionaries every day for those two years was to read two or three pages of the missionary handbook out loud. Over the course of those two years, we'd read the handbook several times over. We could almost recite it from memory. I believe that the rules and guidelines are designed to best protect and bless missionaries, but of all the rules and guidelines, there is one to me that felt more gray than black or white, and that regarded giving money to people.
Panhandling is a tricky subject. It's one that intersects legal as well as socioeconomic issues, both of which I am not even close to being an expert in. Although many people do it out of desperation and apparent necessity, for various reasons, panhandling is generally frowned upon. While I sympathize with the needy, I have to believe that there are better ways to address the underlying issues of poverty. Panhandling in some parts of the United States of America is illegal whereas, in other places, panhandling is allowed under certain conditions like in Utah. As for me, I'd always been raised with the opinion that panhandling was not to be indulged, despite my heart going out to them. As you can see, the choice to give beggars money is one of those moral dilemmas in my life. On the one hand, it can do a lot of immediate good but on the other hand, it's like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it.
It's no surprise that missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aren't rich! Missionary work is unpaid service; all living expenses come out of personal savings which are distributed as monthly allowances. Mission funds are considered sacred funds and should be used responsibly. Missionaries generally only have sufficient for their immediate needs. Living costs such as the rent and other utilities are reimbursed by the Mission Office (See "Mission Administration"), but missionaries need to pay for things like food, transportation, personal items, and other costs and are not reimbursed.
I will note that I was a missionary from 2014 to 2016, but the Missionary handbook was updated in 2019 and renamed "Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ"; as you'd expect, like anything else, the Missionary handbook today differs from what it was fifty even twenty years ago. According to the 2019 edition, it says, "Do not save money from these funds or give any of the money to anyone else, including anyone at home. Do not loan or borrow money". Although missionaries aren't supposed to give away money, there's not really anything to stop them. I knew a couple of missionaries who did that from time to time, but whether it was right or not, I can't rightly say. The line between giving someone money and paying someone seems thin, in my personal opinion.
Every few nights in San José, as we were getting ready for bed or planning the next day, a man would come by our place shouting “Buenas Noches!” I didn’t know who he was. I was understandably suspicious of anyone repeatedly visiting the missionary’s home under the cover of night. I didn’t want to open the black porch gate or get too close to such a persistent stranger in the dark alone, especially in sketchy Reynosa, so I kept my distance within sight of Elder Mullins (See "Culture Shock of Mexico"). Maybe I was still sick (See "Administering to the Sick and Afflicted") or maybe I was just tired but for some reason, I could never understand what he was saying! I thought this man was asking for money. Turns out, I was right, but I didn't ask why. I thought he was a beggar. Would you have paid this stranger knocking on your door every couple of nights?
Elder Mullins eventually caught wind of what was happening. One night, after many of these rituals, I came back inside, told him that there was someone wanting money and he reprimanded me. I suffered the consequences for not paying that man. Turns out he was the garbage collector and in our community, you had to pay the garbage collector weekly to take away the garbage (See "Hitchhiking"). I didn’t know this! I never had to do that before in the 19 months I'd lived in Mexico! I don't have much recollection of the method we used to pay the bills (I think we paid the bills via local gas stations, or grocery stores that had ATMs), but most of the time, at least as far as the garbage goes, I believe it was included in what we paid the landlord every month, taking into account also that in most of the places I lived, our landlord was our neighbor whom we either lived above or next to meaning that all our garbage went in the same cans. Obviously, with just Elder Mullins and myself living alone, there were fees that I had no idea about.
It just so happened that the night that Elder Mullins finally enlightened me was the night that the garbage man finally gave up on me. I truly don't know why Elder Mullins didn't speak up sooner. Because I never paid him, the garbage man stopped taking our garbage. He took all of our neighbors’ garbage but our garbage piled up in front of our house, and when that pile got too big, it started piling up inside our house.
I didn’t know what to do! With this new information, I recognized my mistake but we struggled to repair it. We must have gone close to two weeks with garbage piling up.
Forget that garbage! I felt like garbage! Elder Mullins was frustrated with me as it was for a number of reasons. That garbage symbolized my feelings. They were rotten and useless and kept piling up. I would have given anything to repent of my error and have someone take away my trash!
SPIRITUAL TRASH
Now I understand that maybe this isn’t the most appropriate comparison and I hope I’m not being sacrilegious but if ever there were someone who takes away our garbage, so to speak, it would be Jesus Christ. He helps us to repent so long as we are willing to bag up our sins and cast them out (Alma 13:27). The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ says:
“…And I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. And hold it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name.” (Alma 5:48)
He doesn’t ask for weekly fees but he does ask for weekly sacraments. We go to church each week and “offer up a sacrament” (D&C 59:9-10) unto the Lord (See "Sabbath Day Observance" and "Great Sacrifice"). The sacrament is more than bread and water which is what we take every Sunday. Just the opposite, the sacrament is what we give to the Lord. It's an offering! What do we offer to the Lord? “…ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit…” (3 Nephi 9:20). The Latin word “Sacramentum” means “sacred oath”. The sacrament is more than the physical emblems we consume, it is the covenant associated with the ordinance. It is a sacred oath, referring to the baptismal covenant we made to take upon us Christ’s name, to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments (D&C 20:77,79). We work to clean up our lives before Sunday, but by offering up our sacraments, we become whole, and thus perfected in Him. (See "More Than Good")
Just like my baptismal font story, if we want to be filled with "clean water", we first have to rid ourselves of the "dirty water". (See "Our Baptismal Font")
Eventually, we contacted the garbage collector again and he agreed to start taking our garbage again on the condition of a back payment. I learned my lesson.
There were days when Elder Mullins would give someone a few pesos and later that day find several pesos more laying in the road. One time he did just that and later that day a Church member gave him the exact amount we needed to catch the pecera (See "P-Days & Peceras"). So again, I can't rightly say if missionaries should give any money or not but I lean on the side of whatever the Missionary handbook says at the time. The greatest good missionaries can offer is spiritual in nature, not material. But as far as anyone else goes who's not a missionary and as local laws permit, it's a choice we each get to make. Money can be used in righteous ways as well as bad. But money can't solve every problem. Sometimes the greatest things we can give don't come out of a wallet but in other small and simple acts of kindness. Help doesn't always have to be in the form of money, "Silver and gold, have I none; but such as I have give I thee..." (Acts 3:6).
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