Tag Archives: Service Missionaries

You do not want to miss senior missionary service! 

Posted on by
Reply

Like hearing true sounds once again with hearing aids, we feel deeper truth as we walk with Christ

Elder and Sister Marriott teaching Institute

Elder and Sister Greenhalgh teaching English

Between each tone, I could hear my breath as I sat in the quiet audiologist’s sound booth for a hearing test. They tested my left ear and my right. They tested my low and my high frequencies. They tested my word discrimination and comprehension. I’ve known for years that the dynamic response of my ears favored the low tones and diminished the high frequencies. The damage probably happened growing up around loud and high-pitched machinery in a cabinet shop. (Or did I play music a little loud during my teens?) Whatever the cause, I finally made the leap to hearing-aids. I can now hear the higher pitched cymbals of my grandson’s drum set, the higher tones in my favorite songs, the quieter sacred voices from the pulpit, and my personal conversations in a noisy restaurant. My delight includes the discreet size and cool Bluetooth features in the latest hearing-aid technology.

I’ve been missing out on some of life’s audio fidelity, especially amidst the high tones of persistent tinnitus (in my case high-pitched ringing in the ears). Some neuroscientists believe there might be a cause and effect (increased central gain model) and that the brain might be substituting ringing in place of those frequency ranges no longer received from the ear.1 Whether this is true or not, I’d like to relate this to the need for action and service in our lives to help our mind and spirit grow closer to God (increased fidelity) by walking with Jesus Christ, doing what he would do in service to others. You don’t want to miss growing closer to God.

Elder and Sister Taylor serving at St. Theresa’s meals for homeless

Elder and Sister Hardman after speaking on Moloka’i

This is our second senior service mission. As you’ve read in our letters, we are coming to know the Lord better every day. We are trying to love as he would love, give compassion as he would, encourage as he would. We of course fall short, but we grow and learn and improve with his grace and patient teaching. Recently while visiting our good friend Blaine Greenhalgh, he put this so clearly. Blaine and Janet have been serving a lot. They serve The Choir at Temple Square, and they recently served two years in the Brisbane Australia Mission. Listen to his passionate plea.

“You do not want to miss this! The experiences of senior missionary service are so sweet, so delightful, so incandescently good that you do not want to pass them by. Nothing that can happen at home will compare—absolutely nothing!

You are able to talk and facetime with your family back home more than you realize. Every day if needed. Social media technology means you do not have to go days without knowing what they are doing, or seeing the grand kids or laughing with them. You are not isolated from them! In fact, the Spirit will make them closer to you than you can imagine.”

Elder and Sister Greenhalgh at service project

Elder and Sister Marriott hosting Young Single Adults

Elder Greenhalgh continues, “Sure, serving is hard. We were tired. We were going nearly all day but it was such fun. Think of your favorite sport. The only athletic games we enjoy are those that are hard. No one plays easy games. It is the hardness that makes it worthwhile. Think of what it would be like to be a missionary when the Lord returns, or you could be home watching a ball game.

It is only 6 months, or one year or 18 months or 23 months. What are you stewing about? Go!  It is not that expensive. In fact many of you will actually make money because the church pays for almost everything you need. It is not forever, it is only a few months, but the people you serve will call you blessed forever! 

More than that you will have the deep inner joy that will bring tears to your eyes for the rest of mortality and beyond. You walked by the Lord’s side, you learned from Him in a personal way that is beyond my ability to express. He loves senior missionaries more than you and I can imagine but while you serve you get a glimpse into the heart of the Messiah. 

Every missionary is a missionary. We talk of senior missionaries, of young missionaries, of service missionaries but they are all just missionaries. There are so many ways to serve. Full-time stay at home, Part-time at home or in other locations, stake missionaries, Family history, Pathway Education, Construction missionaries, MLS missionaries2, visitor center missionaries, and hundreds of other ways. Choose what the Lord would have you do and then go. Be a missionary.”3

Elder and Sister Hardman supporting a ward activity

Elder and Sister Taylor providing support

Elder and Sister Greenhalgh educating people on Education

Thank you Blaine and Janet for your example. But most of all, we thank you for demonstrating what we read in the scriptures and hear from our leaders frequently. For example: “Follow me” (Matt. 4:19, John 10:27), “Do as I have done” (John 3:15), “I am the way” (John 14:6), “Follow his steps” (1 Pet. 2:21), “Be perfect even as I” (1 Nephi 12:48), “Do even as I have done” (3 Nephi 18:6), “What manner of men…even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27), “true followers of his son…we shall be like him” (Moroni 7:48).

My new hearing aids are tuned to account for my weaker frequencies to help me hear and comprehend more fully the sounds around me. Similarly we are learning through our service that by acting for the Lord in the lives of others and striving to follow his way in our words, actions, and service, that he accounts for our weakness, tunes us, helps us grow through life’s ‘ringing’ noise, and we are starting to see and hear more clearly the things we may have been missing, deeper truths about him and his plan for all. As Blaine said, we are feeling deeper and lasting inner joy. We are getting “a glimpse into the heart of the Messiah.” We don’t really see it as sacrifice. But if it is a sacrifice, we testify that “Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.” (“Praise to the Man,” Hymns, no. 27)

__________

  1. Brinkmann, Pia, Auditory thalamus dysfunction and pathophysiology in tinnitus: a predictive network hypothesis, Springer, Brain Structure and Function, 2 May 2021, V. 226 ↩︎
  2. Member and Leader Support (MLS) senior missionaries help their assigned units fulfill the Church’s divinely appointed responsibilities of living the gospel of Jesus Christ, caring for those in need, inviting all to receive the gospel, and uniting families for eternity. (https://seniormissionary.churchofjesuschrist.org) ↩︎
  3. Letter to author from Blaine Greenhalgh, Feb. 2026 ↩︎
  • Elder and Sister Greenhalgh serving in Brisbane Australia Mission from Pleasant Grove, Utah
  • Elder and Sister Taylor serving in Maui (Honolulu Hawaii Mission) from Provo, Utah
  • Elder and Sister Marriott serving in Maui (Honolulu Hawaii Mission) from Wallsburg, Utah
  • Elder and Sister Hardman serving on Maui, Moloka’i, and Lana’i (Kahului West Stake), from Pleasant Grove, Utah

Fiery Flying Serpents and Focusing on Jesus Christ

Posted on by
Reply

As service missionaries we have several callings or roles in our ward and stake. In addition to Group Leaders for the Addiction Recovery Program (ARP), we are also Sunday School teachers for the youth in our ward, and we are helping our ward plan for a special youth conference for next summer (more on that later). We are also working to provide additional self-reliance resources.

But we also have opportunity for service to our family and the world. Last Wednesday we volunteered for a four-hour shift at The Giving Machine, or Light the World Giving Machine placed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Whalers Village mall in Lahaina. (See pictures) Donors could select from various products or services provided by local Maui charities. We overheard one family with three children step up to the machine as follows.

Dad said, “Okay, each of you can choose one item.”

The kids pressed their faces up to the glass and read their options including food, clothing, games for a needy family, or a live goat for a family needing to produce their own milk or help run a family business with milk products…

When the kids had made their selection, Mom and Dad each made their selection. I don’t know how much they donated in total, but surely each child knew the importance and value of giving. Great parents! It was an honor to participate with another ward member who wanted to serve but didn’t have a car to get there. We enjoyed the trip out to Lahaina and back with him.

On Thanksgiving Day Joan and I enjoyed a walk along a favorite beach (see picture). While returning midmorning to our apartment we noticed all the ridge windmills were turning rapidly (see picture) Since there’s no natural gas here for cooking, we presume this power was being used to cook a lot of turkeys J. Speaking of turkey we returned to our apartment for a simple but delicious Thanksgiving Dinner including pumpkin pie and just the two of us. We monitored posts from family members back home. We missed them; but It was nice. Black Friday was also peaceful and productive. Worked on some personal history research, calculated lumber needed for our Sons basement framing, then we sat on the beach reading together, “The Hawaiian Missions,” by George Q. Cannon. Very inspiring and nice sunset.

Actually we did indeed have a ‘full’ and wonder-‘ful’ Thanksgiving meal event with friends on Saturday. We gathered with four other service missionary couples. We are grateful to serve with them, learning and having a pleasant time in the process. (See picture) We were saying goodbye to one of the couples, Elder and Sister Rowe who were at the completion of their mission and returning to Orem Utah. The next morning we went to the Sacrament meeting where we heard them speak and tell about the deeply meaningful experiences they had nurturing Spanish speaking members of the community.

On Sunday afternoon we had the opportunity to speak to the Young Single Adult ward and share with them the blessing and power of Christ to help us overcome our weaknesses. We concluded our session reflecting on Fiery Flying Serpents, the Old Testament event where the Children of Israel were exposed to deadly serpents and many died. Moses prayed and was instructed to make a brazen serpent. All they had to do was look, and they would be healed but because of the simpleness of the way, many didn’t look and perished. Talking about our weaknesses, even if they are addictions, we need to stay focused on Christ, every day, to follow him, learn of him, grow in strength with him, and be healed by him. We were blessed with the Spirit in the meeting. While exhorting and trying to straiten his brothers, Nephi put it this way. 

“And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt.

And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.” (1 Nephi 17:40-41, Book of Mormon)

The week rounded out on Monday as we prepared for our weekly ARP meeting. Early in the day, to learn more about the man who is now our Prophet we watched a BYU Devotional from 1978, the year I was on my first mission. BYU President Dallin H. Oaks said that it is important what people think about us as members of the BYU community. The talk was called, “Where much is Given…” We recommend the talk and recommend listening to talks by President Oaks.

Finally, Monday night we were blessed again with love and compassion for our ARP guests, some who are progressing in their recovery and Healing through the Savior, and others who we are grateful that they are just coming and feeling and trying. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is love and power, and it blesses those who love and are loved. Sister Hardman provided raspberry cookies, each with a raspberry on top. She named them Haleakala’s, or little volcanoes.