This morning I was surprised and honored to respond to an e-mail from one of our Young Women Leaders in the Brockett Ward. She remembered a story I related at church and wanted the details to hopefully inspire some of the girls while at girls camp to want to be missionaries in their daily life.
Well this is what I told her: During the time President Ezra Taft Benson (about 1985) was the President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he asked members to flood the Earth with the Book of Mormon (BOM). So, in our Atlanta Stake (we were known as the Tucker Ward in those days), the members were encouraged to have our family or individual photo made and to write something personal about us and, of course, our testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paste the photo and testimony in the front of the book. We used the hard cover BOM’s and bought a carton of them (I can’t remember the exact number that comes in the carton but it must have been between 20 and 30 books. We gave the personalized BOM’s to the missionaries to take with them as they walked and cycled through the local residential areas.
Fast forward to present day: About a year ago, the missionaries were working in one of the neighborhoods near our home. As they were visiting with a gentleman, he went to his bookshelf and took a BOM and opened it to show them the inside cover and the missionaries immediately recognized us, even though Jim and I were much, much younger at the time the photo was made. I was thrilled to know that one of “our” Books of Mormon had survived and was so near all those years.
It might seem like a small thing but it was very touching to me. When we share our testimony with others, it is deeply personal. Blessings like this make us joyful.
As my mother would say, Be sweet!
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