amazing missionaries

We have amazing missionaries here.  An elder who came in last Wednesday from St George comes from a totally inactive family who is not supportive.  This Elder made the decision like Abraham of old who to choose to serve the Lord despite the fact that his father did not.  He is ready and willing to serve a mission.  On the first night I became acquainted with him it was the day after they arrived at a Thursday meeting to get to know their new branch presidency.  The three members of the presidency were pulling out a few elders at a time to interview them.  I usually stay in the branch gathering room and get to know all the new incoming elders and sister.  We had two new incoming districts so that was 19 total missionaries this week.  One of the companionships is a trio of sisters.  

The elder with a totally inactive family instead of just sitting and waiting with me talking and getting to know them one at a time sat down at the piano and started playing "Nearer My God to Thee".  He said to the other waiting missionaries, "Hey let's sing while we wait.  Get over her".  He asked one elder to hold his little pocket size hymn book open while he played and they all sang with full voices.  He is going to do OK and I´m sure his family is going to be blessed by such a missionary with that much enthusiasm and spirit.

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Another elder that come in just shortly after we did told us the day after he arrived that he did not want to be here. He was  feeling like that before he left and now he really felt like that.  He said their was no way he was going to change his mind he just wanted to get back on a plane and return home.  He did say that possibly he could serve in the United States but he did not want to be in Mexico and he wanted his call changed. He did visit with the mission presidency and admitted that he had never felt so alone in all of his life.  His companion was very homesick also.  The companion came from a family of 11 children and all them were crying as he left them at the airport.  This elder followed his family with tears on the plane and then got off of the bus and into my orientation meeting with tears in his eyes. At the meeting to get to know his branch presidency the next day he said he fell apart when he saw his family in tears.  I visited with him through out his time in training. He always said he was struggling with the language although I could hear him speaking and learning.  

After 6 weeks when it came time for the district with these two elder to leave we had our usual departing testimony meeting.  The elder with the large family shared his testimony and thanked his companion (the one who did not want to be in Mexico and wanted his call changed to be in the states) for helping him with the language.  Evidently they had stayed up late while the one companion who wanted to go home helped the one who was struggling with the language.  
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I do believe if these missionaries will hang in there for a week and if they get some support from their district (which they always do) and with the faith and prayers of 15 million members of the church praying for them they will make it and be great servants of the lord.  They also come to the CCM with hardly any sleep the night or even the week before because they are packing and partying.  With that lack of sleep and then stepping into a very different role of scheduled time and expectations of learning and teaching investigators they crash and we end up seeing them in at the clinic. 
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An elder is leaving on Monday for Chile who we considered sending home several times.  Three days after he arrived he had a very sever panic attack and several subsequent episodes of sever panic attacks that required medication.  His companion who had some medical training was an amazing help to him.  This panic attack elder has learned to "push through" the panic and stress he is feeling and with the help of some medication he is still taking and will need to continue to take he has finished his training and will be a good missionary.  He has family support and a lot of people praying for him including his whole district.  I congratulated him last week on getting the flight plans and tickets to Chile and he shook my hand firmly.  I really wasn't sure he would make it.  In talking with a member of the presidency one time they decided he would need to go home.  The mental health care workers recommended he go home and get treatment and work through the disorder he was suffering from.  I kept hoping he would be able to deal with the stress that causes him to suffer with physical and emotional symptoms. 

When it comes down to it we all have to be responsible for ourselves and decide what we are going to do with our lives.  He is very open about his problem and he knows he has to control it.  The mental health care professionals helped him learn how to deal with it and he is learning to conquer a very big problem in his life that may have to be dealt with over and over again.