How great shall be your joy with him

One fall day twenty-nine years ago, some American military chaplains were walking the streets of Kwang Ju, South Korea. As they walked along, they noticed a storefront much like the other buildings surrounding it. But it was a little different. It was a visitors' center for a church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in fact. As the chaplains entered the visitors' center, they were greeted by two missionaries. All of them were excited to talk with fellow countrymen, and as the chaplains finally left, they took a couple business cards from the missionaries, promising to pass them along to anyone who was interested. Before handing this card with information about the church in Kwang Ju to the chaplains, however, one of the missionaries happened to decide to write his home address on the back of the card. Likely thinking little of the event, the two missionaries bade farewell to the chaplains and continued on in their missionary tasks. How many other such cards these missionaries had handed out over their countless days of service is unknown. But it was surely such a quantity that one more meant nothing to these missionaries and they walked away from the experience simply excited they'd been able to talk with Americans.

At least, that card meant nothing until a couple weeks later when one of the missionaries received a letter from home. Any returned missionary knows the joy that enters your heart when you see that envelope with familiar handwriting. But this letter was different. It was a photocopied sheet of a scrawled letter from an American soldier. The same day the missionaries had met him, the chaplain had passed along the business cards to a certain Rob Mortimer. Wanting to make contact with the church to which his wife of two months was a member, Rob had called the number listed on the card. Unfortunately, the people who answered spoke only Korean. When he failed to understand the Korean of anybody at the visitors’ center, he turned the card over and noticed an American address. Determined to somehow make contact with this church, he wrote a letter to the mother of one of the missionaries. He explained that he was an American and wanted to help out these American missionaries if he could. (And of course those missionaries were thinking, "What better way for him to help the missionaries than to take the discussions and get baptized?" 

Two days after the letter entered the hand of Elder Nay, he and his companion made their way to the air force base in Kwang Ju and inquired after Rob. Rob just happened to be at home at that time, and the three young men received permission to meet together. A week later, Rob informed the missionaries that he wanted to work towards baptism. Over the next couple months, Rob continued to meet with the missionaries, learning more and accepting everything they told him, and testing them periodically to make sure they gave him the same answers consistently. But he believed it all. In fact, from the time he wrote that note to an unknown person in Utah, he had known the church was true. With the support of the elders, Rob decided to be baptized. On December 1, 1984, my dad helped Rob into the water and baptized him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And Rob's life (and his family's) changed forever.

I was able to meet Rob and his family a few weeks ago. In the Temple Square north visitors center, Rob and my dad saw each other for the first time in over 25 years. As Rob shared with us his conversion story and expressed his love for my father, everybody in the group was visibly moved. It was nothing short of a miracle that both of those young men ended up in the same city at the same time and that my Dad was somehow prompted to write his address on the back of his business card. And Rob’s preparation to receive the gospel was a miracle. As he described to us the blessings that have come to his family because of his membership in the church and thanked my father for serving a mission, tears came to my eyes. Especially having just returned from my own mission, I was touched by the sincerity and gratitude of this man who had embraced the gospel. While my dad did not know that day so many years ago that him writing his address on that card would lead to this sweet family being sealed in the temple, nor did he understand the eternal implications of his decision to serve a mission, he trusted the promptings of the God of heaven. He had been an instrument in helping his brother come to God. And as our two families rejoiced together that evening, we felt His love and approval. I think that was a bit of a foretaste of the joy that God has promised to all those who spend their days laboring to bring souls to Him. And that’s the joy the God wants for all of us. And that is why we serve missions.