MEDICAL TRAINING - SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

     On Thursday, 15 January 2015, we completed our medical training at Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eight couples and two single sisters were trained in medical and mental health policies and procedures in support of missionaries in the field. The Church currently has 89,000 missionaries (counting senior missionaries) throughout the world. The physical and emotional challenges are significant with that many people serving, many in remote parts of the world. The world is broken into Areas presided over by an Area Presidency (all General Authorities). Several missions comprise these areas. Missions are presided over by a Mission President and his wife. Most areas have senior couples or senior single people with medical or mental health skills and experience to help train and support missions. Young missionaries have a plethora of ailments and injuries that need help, and a mission president simply does not have time to handle all of these issues, so, medical people provide significant support.
     We were staggered by the complex organization and number of missionary volunteers that go into preaching of the gospel. All missionaries volunteer their time (at their own cost) to go anywhere in the world they are called to seek out those who will listen to and believe their message. It is very rigorous work. Youth (18-19 years) are far from home in a strange land, speaking a strange language, living with companions they did not know, and trying to have the Spirit of the Holy Ghost to help them in finding and teaching people. It is expected that they struggle with homesickness, anxiety, depression, and physical ailments. One cannot help but ask: why? What prompts them to leave home, family, all the comforts of living, school, work, etc, and spend 18 or 24 months doing this work? There is only one thing that motivates this work: love for Jesus Christ and a true conviction of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. They believe that they have been called to the work by a true and living prophet of God.
     What drives the Church (its leaders and members) to provide such a remarkable work as is going on throughout the world today? It is not financial profit because there is none to be had. The Church spends millions of dollars annually just to sustain its missionary labors. It is driven by the commandment from the Lord, Jesus Christ, who is at the foundation of this work, to sweep the earth as a flood in these last days with restored truth that was lost through apostasy and darkness. In Noah's day the Lord swept away wickedness with a flood. Those few souls saved were those who built the ark and entered into it. Today, the flood is not water, but the truth, and those souls who would be saved from the wickedness and destruction that is certain to come are those who will enter into the restored Church by baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the modern ark of salvation.
     The bringing of people into the Church is a work of great joy that brings peace and feelings of love to those who exercise faith and repentance and enter therein. Nothing in this world can equal it; nothing can bring the same level of safety, peace, joy, and hope. The only antidote to the deteriorating conditions in which we live is the restored gospel. We are greatly honored to be a part of this work. Monday we fly!!!