My Mission President

Dear Delysia,

My mission President was an amazing man. During my mission, I wasn't always sure if he liked me or believed in me. The mission was a hard time in my life. I was ridiculed and questioned a lot because of the way that people perceived me. For the most part, they were not wrong that they thought that I was a pineapple, it was all the crap that was associated with that title. It meant that I was unworthy, I was deviant, that I didn't belong to the community. I endured it to the best of my ability. I think that I did a really good job. I made my mistakes, but I felt like I did my best. At the end of my mission, I asked the Lord if He had accepted my offering, if he was pleased with my effort and sacrifice. He told me he did.

It wasn't till much later that President Osguthorpe told me that he didn't have much faith in my abilities nor did he feel like I had the capacities to make a good missionary. He told me that he had some very serious reservations about me and my ability to stay on a mission. The fact that I was a pineapple, made him very concerned. He told me that he was incredibly impressed with how I was able to make miracles happen. He said that I was good at sizing up situations, sizing up people, seeing their needs and then satisfying their needs. He said that he was very impressed with my abilities to turn a place of desolation into a blossoming place of wonder.

So consequently, I have tried to stay in contact with him. He has been a good influence in my life for good, as much as I have let him. Periodically, I call him to just chat and see how he is doing. He was the general President of the Sunday School and is now currently serving as a Temple president.

The other day, I was thinking that I should call him and ask him about how he has felt his service in the Temple has changed his life. After all, he has pretty much shown that he obeys the commands that come to him, what does he find blesses him in serving in the Temple all day for 5 years?

These are his thoughts:

1. It brings out a sweetness about you.

2. You are literally saving souls.

3. You're refined.

"You realize that the things that we are facing, don't really matter. They are temporary. You begin to see what really matters the most."

4. It has an accumulative effect on your soul.

5. It brings out the Godliness in you.


After the short conversation about that, he said that he needed to go for other engagements needed. He then ended our conversation with this:


"You are a hero to us. You go twice a week. You are a hero to us for doing the right."