Although I don't occupy a position of visible prominence and lofty titles, I occupy a position in my Faith of great responsibility. I teach Sunday School for all the teenagers in my congregation who are in High School. They are a variegated and complicated bunch, not because they are problematic, but because of the world into which they are about to enter. After General Conference this past weekend, I told my father that since I wasn't a priesthood leader, I wanted to find more ways to get involved and inspire them to action and growth. He told me that I already was, that I have been for a long time, often leading from the middle rather than at the head. He told me that he feels he is there to help train his bishop, and it made me think of a time when I had to train someone in a far loftier position than I who apparently didn't learn certain lessons and had to learn then from a 20 year old boy in the Alps. Those of you who know who Dieter Uchtdorf is have your own stories; mine are much different than yours, as you will see, and as he gently tried to use me to teach a man who once occupied a position of prominence and lofty title. During that brief interval, I got to work essentially directly under God's direction, which is quite a thing if you think about it, and learned just how involved He is, how much help He gives, and what He asks of those who truly accept Him and want to work with Him. You see, far too many people think about accepting Christ in order to be saved while ignoring the other scriptures closely akin to that. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the one and only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" and "for how knoweth the man a master whom he hath not served and who is a stranger to him?" My missionary service was my time to become a disciple, to not just accept Him but to walk with Him and get to know Him as I got to know and serve and love those people whom He asks to call Him Father.
God directs the work. When I became the Zone Leader of Tirol, the Mission President called me about the Newmans. Elder Newman was a former member of the 2nd Quorum of Seventy, who was now serving in a much more humble position as clerk in the mission home in Vienna. Elder Newman wasn't happy about his assignment and wanted to be more involved, to proselyte, and, as I later learned, push people around by virtue of his experience as a leader, and nobody wanted to work with him. When President Schulze called me, I knew what he wanted, and I wasn't happy, so when he asked me if it was ok to send the Newmans to Tirol, I said to my great astonishment and pride, "If God wants the Newmans in Innsbruck, you do not need my permission." The President hung up and called me back. After the Newmans arrived, he set about immediately validating the rumors that came before him and immediately tried to exercise unrighteous dominion, demanding to be in charge of the missionary work and missionaries over which I was Zone Leader. I told him that if he thought God wanted him to be ZL, he should call the mission home and ask, thereby freeing me to do God's work and stop having asinine conversations with him. A few days later, Dieter Uchtdorf, the Area President of Europe, called and asked me if I'd told Elder Newman he should be the Zone Leader; Elder Dieter told me that he had discussed things with Elder Newman and made it clear that God decides whom He chooses to lead, and that I was the designated leader and that if I had any more problems I should call him directly. When I made decisions, I deferred to the Lord, involved the Lord, and acted on what the Lord commanded. I cannot tell you that things turned out peachy keen, but I do know that I said and did things I never could have known to do let alone that well at the age of 20, and I continue to live that way today.
God qualifies us to lead. When I became the ZL, I wasn't sure about the choice. I had never been a leader, and I wasn't really very successful if you talk about statistics and paperwork, so I asked if I was being promoted because there wasn't anyone else who really qualified. President Schulze just laughed and told me I was funny. I can however tell you that I was given phrases to say, activities to attempt, ideas of places to go, and ways to handle problems far above my experience and maturity level. So surprising were the interpolations of Providence that they sent the highest missionaries in Austria out to watch me to find out what I was doing and why when all I was really doing was living worthy of God's help and then trusting that it would come when I opened my mouth. As a Zone Leader responsible for missionaries in four different countries speaking three different languages, I was the only one who received an unrestricted EU travel visa, and I found that I was able to learn all the languages of the areas for which I was responsible. One young Elder wrote me about how he tried to picture what a good, down to earth, hard-working missionary would look like, and was pleased to meet me as his first zone leader, and another told me how he looked up to me as an elder brother. Not everyone liked me, but there was one who wrote how he was glad he picked up a few of my traits by serving closely with me. As I traveled around the alps and crossed borders to work with missionaries in Italy, Slovenia, Austria, and Germany, the work in my area suffered, and as their efforts bore fruit with my help and encouragement, they knew that I was giving up my time and opportunities for their success. I spent a LOT of time on the train, and a LOT of time listening to conversations in different languages and doing most of the talking since I was the only missionary who knew what was being said. I look back on that time as one of the best times, albeit one of the most difficult, of my life, not because of what I achieved but because of what I learned about my true propensities and qualifications for leadership and how God gives His mantle to whom He calls.
God's leaders sacrifice. When the Newmans came, I surrendered my car, my apartment, much of my time in the aforementioned verbal distractions, and even my decision to cease speaking English as a missionary. Sister Newman spoke only English, and so I had to speak English to her, which caused one other missionary to exclaim, "Is that what you really sound like?" when he heard me speak English for the first time. Only just before I returned home did the Newmans really learn about the way in which they came to be in Innsbruck and what I surrendered to help them be comfortable, and they felt ashamed that they complained about their accommodations especially when they saw the dive to which Elder Gertge and I had to move when they took what we had. As I mentioned, I spent a great deal of time in the areas where other missionaries were assigned, and on one particularly inauspicious encounter, I was assigned to proselyte in Hall in Tirol, a town where the Deacon of Tirol lived, a man who once ran the missionaries out of town. I was beat up at a train station, incarcerated by Italian border guards, frozen nearly to death in the mountains, and when I found people willing to listen they almost invariably lived in another missionary's area. Still, one elder wrote how when I returned home the people would know that I had served with valour, and my family can probably still remember how I looked when I debarked the plane in America, tired and worn but not defeated or finished. I spent most Sundays translating meetings for tourists, and if you've never translated before you know how difficult it is, and so I don't remember a single thing said at church in Tirol, because I had to translate rather than pay attention, and so I gave up my Sundays so that tourists could enjoy the meetings too. When an Elder's bike was stolen, I gave him mine and then when his was recovered, I went to court to translate for him since he was new.
My missionary service in Austria was the last time I held an official and lofty title. Since returning from that service, except for a brief period, I have spent all of my church service teaching Sunday School in one fashion or another. I realized this year that this is a position of great responsibility. I have the power, means, and opportunity to corrupt all the youth in my congregation if I choose, to teach for doctrines the commandments of men, to teach the philosophies of men mingled with scripture but deny the power thereof. I try very hard to still let God direct me, trust that He's going to help me, and sacrifice in order to achieve the best approximation of what He would do that I am capable. Connor prayed at the end of class back in January and thanked God for my faithfulness in and dedication to my calling, and they know that I care about them even though I have almost no reason to do so whatsoever. They are not my children; I don't even have a girlfriend. They are not my friends. THeir parents are not my friends. They will probably not talk to me much when they matriculate to college. I learned as a missionary how to be a disciple of Christ. I am still trying very hard to do what He would have me do where I am, to lift where I stand, to act well my part, and to follow His direction even when I have no idea why. I face a lot of disappointment and heartache. I did in Austria, too. When I went home, the Newmans invited me over to their humble apartment in Thaur where they cooked a nice meal for me and thanked me for the lessons in leadership I taught them. I found a way to work with them and give them a place, something that nobody else apparently wanted to do. He and I still had problems, but I knew that he was also one of God's sons, trying to help others of God's children, and so that as a leader it was my job to get him connected to the work, and we found a way. Sometimes it was difficult to view these people as God's children, and except for the SS people we met, I think I can honestly say I managed to see them as God's children. I got to know God and work with Him, to start off well on the road to discipleship. IN that way, my missionary service was the best time for my life.
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