Elder Perez...a lesson in Humility

Today we met Elder Perez. He was part of a group of missionaries that flew in early this morning to Honduras from the CCM (MTC) in Guatemala. We met this group of missionaries about 7:30 in the morning at the airport with President and Sister Gomez. They were all from Peru. They look like typical Peruvians...about a head and a half shorter than Wayne. Elder Perez showed the mission president his pinkie finger which looked like it was broken. He had injured it playing soccer at the CCM. President Gomez took one look at it and said, "Sister Tomkinson...you will take care of this...it is now your job!"...He is going to have me help with the health conditions of the missionaries.

After we got the nine elders and two sisters settled at the office, Wayne, Sister Gomez and I took Elder Perez to the hospital to have his finger evaluated. As we visited (in his broken English and my broken Spanish) we learned that he has been a member of the church for 2 years. He said that every since he was a little boy in his village in the Peru mountains, he knew that he wanted to belong to a church that wasn't "dark". Because he joined the church, he has had to give up most of his associations with his family. As we left for the hospital he was nervous, and we finally realized that he was afraid of going on the elevator. He had never been on one. I don't know if he has ever seen one. As they looked at his finger, he kept pulling out his Triple Combination and having me read verses. The first one was D&C 24:8 which reads:

"Be patient in thy afflictions, for thou shalt have many: but endure them, for I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days."

He then opened to Mosiah 18:9 (which is one of my favorite scriptures):

"Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn, yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye might have eternal life--"

He said that this scripture applied to Wayne and I. He then told me that he missed his mother. I was so touched. Here was a young man who has basically given up everything for the church and has come to a strange country and put his trust in the Lord. He has endured ridicule from his family and he still wants what is best for them and misses them. He then turned to D&C 31 and showed Wayne and I the promised blessings for families of missionaries.

It was a humbling day....my sacrifices are nothing.