Gerrit’s Homecoming

“He’s done already!? Wow! Did that seem fast to you, too?”

That was a pretty typical response from ward members when they learned that Gerrit was finishing his mission to Hong Kong and would be home November 14th. Yes, sometimes it seemed to go fast. Other times slow. And now that he’s home, somewhat dream-like. Did that really all happen?

Watching his missionary plaque slowly move up the board at the church as older missionaries came home and new ones left seemed to take forever, but time marches on and we found ourselves waiting at the airport with several other missionary families. We arranged for my Mom to fly in for the homecoming events, with such good timing that she was able to ride the escalator down standing behind the returning missionaries. Shannon felt a little jealous that her mother-in-law got to see her boy before she did, though.

With the recent protests and demonstrations in Hong Kong, Shannon sometimes said in the past few weeks, “Just send him home now!” While Gerrit says that he didn’t feel like he was in danger, it was kind of a challenge to make it to the mission office before heading home. Trains were not running, taxi drivers were unwilling to take people across the city, and vandalism and barricades were challenges when he finally found one that would.

Gerrit spoke in church last Sunday, and we hosted family and friends that afternoon. It is quiet in the house now, with Ethan back to school in Cedar City and Shannon and Gerrit in Memphis visiting more family. Afton, Bandit and I are holding down the fort, for now, but we’ll be back together again for Thanksgiving.

After that, Gerrit will be preparing to study automotive engineering at BYU-Idaho in January, and hoping to find a car that we can afford while still meeting his discriminating tastes.

What a blessing it has been to have a missionary out serving, but it’s great to have him back home again — for a little while, at least.

Gerrit’s Talk

各位兄弟姊妹早晨。
My name is Gerrit Smith and I have recently returned from serving a mission in the China Hong Kong mission. Speaking Cantonese, which is like mandarin Chinese but harder and actually completely different. I grew up in this ward and am very grateful for the examples and help of many of the people here. I did martial arts growing up and many of you probably remember seeing me practicing in the driveway as you drove by our house. But my favorite thing in the world is probably cars it may seem like a kind of simple thing but I could talk about cars for hours on end. But because I you would be bored and I’m not sure if Bishop Rowley would approve thats not what I will bespeaking about today.

Today I would like to talk about faith. We know that faith is one of the basic principles of the gospel but as I have learned about many of the basics its a bit like a spiral staircase that helps us progress and learn more even though it may seem like we just keep doing the same thing over and over. The scriptures teach us that Having faith in Jesus Christ means relying completely on Him—trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. It includes believing His teachings. It means believing that even though we do not understand all things, He does. Because He has experienced all our pains, afflictions, and infirmities, He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties.

Now I would like to share a few scriptures and experiences with three people who I was able to teach to help show examples of faith. It says in 1 Nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

I know that this is true, the Lord will always prepare a way for us to accomplish what he has asked us to do. To share a little bit about how I learned that I would like to share a story from One of my favorite areas on my mission. It was on a little island called Tsing Yi and when I say little I mean that is just over six miles square. But it has a population of about 191,500 people. I got transferred to Tsing Yi a little less than a year into my mission. I was really excited but I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that previously the elders had had a difficult time there. And when I got there it looked like it was going to be hard. We did not have a single person who we were teaching and the companionship that was there before hadn’t found anyone new in the whole previous transfer. There hadn’t been a baptism in the ward in almost a year. But I was excited to work and hoped I would be up to the challenge.

In Hong Kong when we want to find people to teach we hit the streets. Yes there are big buildings that seem like it would be door knocking heaven but unfortunately at the bottom of each of those buildings is a security guard that won’t let us in. So we talked to them on the street. We worked really hard. We would go out at the busiest times everyday and try our best to talk to everyone. I felt a bit like Ammon when he said “we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again. And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

And that is what we were looking for some soul that was looking for the truth . That is what the Lord had commanded us to do and like we read in the scripture at the start the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

So we kept looking. Every day for almost three months we spent hours on the street. Until one day we met a very shy high school student named Eric. He was so shy in fact that even though we exchanged phone numbers we forgot about him completely for almost a week. When we did actually get in contact with him he was willing to meet with us. We scheduled him for the first time and then taught him about the restoration of the gospel. He believed it completely. He was golden. But there was a problem he told us that his parents didn’t know that we were meeting with him. And that if they did know they would never let him come back. This is a real problem in Hong Kong, I have met so many people who have tons of interest or need the message but then because of their parents or friends they drop off the face of the earth. We told him that it would be alright but didn’t encourage him to tell his parents right away. We met with him several times in the next few weeks and his testimony grew and was very strong. Then the time came. He needed to tell his parents.

We had a lesson with him and one of our amazing members. We told him about Nephi’s story and testified that the Lord would prepare a way for him to be baptized but that he needed to go and talk to his parents. He was willing although I could tell that he was scared. Honestly I was pretty scared as well. But at the end of the lesson we knelt together and Eric prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help him talk to his parents. He asked that he would be able to be baptized and even eventually be able to serve as a missionary.

This prayer was on a Wednesday night, the whole rest of the night I was so nervous for him. That night just a few hours after the lesson he sent us a message that let us know that he was talking to his mom. Then that Saturday evening we got a text from Eric it was just one sentence and it said “I can be baptized”….

That Sunday we set a date with him and he was baptized two weeks later. Both us as missionaries as well as Eric saw the fulfillment of Nephi’s words. It was a hard thing that we were asked to do. But we had faith and we went and did. Then the Lord worked his miracles and provided a way for us. The same is true in each of our lives.

In Alma 32 we learn much about faith and how faith is developed. But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. This is the story of Louis. When I met him he had already began this process. And had been meeting with missionaries for almost 9 months. But in the beginning he was not at all interested in the message. He just wanted to come play basketball at our indoor air-conditioned basketball court. But eventually he did start to listen to some short messages, as long as there was food involved.

But eventually he accepted the invitation to try the experiment. And with just a particle of faith he started to pray. Then the seed began to sprout and to grow. He began to know that this was a good seed. It was like it says in Alma “Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”

Louis was going through some really difficult times and he found that as he did the things that we invited him to do then he had peace and direction in his life. He saw God answer his prayers. But like it says in the scriptures it was not enough to see that the seed sprouts and then give up. And for Louis it was difficult. He wanted to be baptized but when he found out that to be baptized he would have to quit smoking he nearly gave up. So we helped him to nourish his seed of faith. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon every day and helped answer his questions. Every time we would meet with him he would share about what he had learned and how it applied to his life. His faith was strengthened and eventually he was able to give up smoking.

“And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.” I know that faith is developed through our daily actions. As we read the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. As we pray and ask for our Heavenly Father’s help. As we nourish our seed of faith then it will grow.

Then in Ether 12 it says “And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” We as people want to know before hand how everything is going to work out. We want to know how to fix the problems before they come. But that is not usually how it works. Sometimes we need to trust God and keep moving forward even though we may not know how to overcome our challenges. When I was in my first area I contacted a kid named Howard, I had only been in Hong Kong for a month or two but was still somehow able to make it through a simple contact with him. We started meeting with him but it was not easy.

He attended school at a Christian school and when his teachers and friends found out that he was meeting with us they did everything they could to try to stop him from meeting. To the point that in the first few times that we met with him he was scared that we were going to try to kidnap him or something. But We were clear about our purpose and answered all of his questions. He began to trust us and then on my last day in that area we gave him a baptismal invitation. I left the area and Howard kept progressing in the gospel. I would stay in contact with him every once and a while and was even able to attend his baptism a few months later. But his trial of faith was not done.

Howard started to get bullied at school because he had chosen to be baptized. It seemed like the entire school was combined against him to shake his testimony and to get him to leave the church. One time I remember that he called me in a panic and told me that his parents didn’t want him to go to church anymore and that they would be changing his phone number and that he would never be able to contact us again. This was a huge trial of faith for me as well as Howard but we know that Moroni also taught us “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world” I didn’t know how it was going to work out but I hoped that Howard would be able to come back to church.

Then a week or two later I got a call from an unknown number. It was Howard! After some time he also was able to start coming back to church. It is still not easy for him and sometimes people still bully him but he has faith like an anchor. “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”

I have learned from Howard’s example that this is true, no matter what trials we have if we have built our foundation on Christ then we will not fall. And I think this is what my mission has helped me to do the most. To establish my foundation on Christ. And I think that is the reason that we are all invited to do this missionary work. It’s like it says in D&C 15, “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father.”

I know that as we invite and help others to come unto Christ we also become closer to him. It is just like Elder Ucthdorf said in this past conference “There is something interesting, almost paradoxical, about this path you’ve chosen: the only way for you to progress in your gospel adventure is to help others progress as well. To help others is the path of discipleship. Faith, hope, love, compassion, and service refine us as disciples. Through your efforts to help the poor and the needy, to reach out to those in distress, your own character is purified and forged, your spirit is enlarged, and you walk a little taller.”

As I have served as a missionary I have felt like never before the joy of living the gospel. I have felt the spirit testify and seen people change their lives to come closer to Jesus Christ. Through these experiences I have been able to strengthen my faith and my relationship with my Heavenly Father.