Dear Family,   29 April 2015

I’m the intermediary for mail between 16 missionaries from Vanuatu and their families.  Here is a beautiful email that just came from Dack Tivles that I’m to give to his parents.  Dack is serving a mission in Paris, France.

to papa mo mama

hello familly mi glat tumas blong stap luk ol letter blong yufala mo blong stap arem about ol glat heart bloàng yufala blong stap pray about mifala.bae mi save promesem yufala se mi bin stap luk ol ansa blong ol pray blong yufala every day long mission blong mi.mi save se papa god i bin jusum mission blong mi sev long plesia mo nao mi luk save potentiel blong laef blong mi long wol ia tru long mission ia.mi no save se spos ino stap tru long mission ia mi no save how bae laef blong mi long future bae i become.my beloved family i know that we have are great wok to accomplish on this  wold.so now we will ask:how can i know my potential and how can i accomplish it?my family the only answer will when you do your part and the lord will show you the rest of the all thing.so now we will ask again:why he doesn’t show me before?the answer is he want to see how desire;if we are willing to do his will.family blong mi bae mi save promesem yufala spos bae mi no stap gat desire blong mekem wik blong hem bae mi no save luk happiness ia tru long wok blong hem.naoia mission blong mi i bin callem blong become district leader long wan secta long paris so hemi wan pikfala blesing blong mi.taem mi stap tingpaot se bae pikfala sapraes blong mi from hemi inposipol blong bae wan smol katun olsem mi we taem mi stap long vanuatu mi blong ronem ol wael faol ;stum pijin;karem naef go klinim kava so how bae mi givim ol tening long sam man we oli gat tiploma tikri long skul?papa mama be naoia mi feelim inaf blong givis ol trening long olgeta.from mi save se God i sentem mi long plesia blong mekem wanem we bae i askem mi blong mekem mo bae i gibim kapasity long mi blong mi blong mekem wok blong hem.mo nao mi save se wetem hem i nogat samting i inposible.thank you long ol help blong yufala mi glat long yufala.pray blong mi everyday se bae god i stap wetem yufala.je vous aime tous vous ete ma famille bien aimé de tous le donde entier

no fogetem se bae mi callem yufala long namba 10 may so onem ol phone from 1-15may.

love you all

Summary:  I’m very happy to get the letter from you, and to hear about your glad hearts.  I’m thankful for your prayers, and promise that I see your prayers being answered every day on my mission.  Papa God is using my mission here to help me realize my potential.  I don’t know what my life holds in store.  We have a great work to accomplish in the world, so now I ask, how can I know my potential?  Why didn’t God show me before?  The answer is that He wants to see my desire.  If we are willing to do His will, my family, I promise you that we will have the desire, and will find happiness through the work we do for Him.  I have been called to become a district leader in a sector of Paris.  It’s a big blessing.  It was a big surprise.  It seems impossible.  I remember hunting wild fowl and pigeons in Vanuatu, and carrying a knife, and cleaning kava.  So how did that prepare me to give training to men with diplomas and degrees from schools?  God has given me the capacity to do His work.  Now I know that with His help, nothing is impossible.  Thank you for your help.  I pray every day that God will be with you.  You are my best friends.  Don’t forget that I am going to call you on May 10th, so onem your phone.

I’ve been thinking about Dack and his letter.  I should add some comments.  Dack is the boy that I taught to drive.  He now refers to me as his best friend.  He’s wondering what qualified this boy from the bush to be a district leader who could teach and train people who have diplomas and degrees.  He’s wondering what his potential is, and what God is preparing him for.  Some scriptures come to mind:

Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thrash the nations by the power of my Spirit.  (D&C 35:13; 133:59).

That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers.  (D&C 1:23).

Dack doesn’t know what’s happening, but I think I can see more than he does.  He’s a very outstanding young man.  I taught him to drive, but God is teaching him to lead.  Dack’s family spent many years leaving for a long walk to church before daybreak every Sunday.  They went to three hours of meetings, sat around in the shade afterward waiting for things to cool down a little, and then began the long, uphill walk home.  They’d arrive back home after dark.  For a long time they were the only LDS family in the village.  Last year, because of this family’s faithfulness, many people in two villages began joining the Church.  The long walks to church ended when a bush chapel was built in their yard.  Over 100 people now attend there every week.  Dack is firmly grounded in the Church.  He will return to Vanuatu.  Luganville will become a stake in about two years.  Dack will be bishop of the Jarailan Ward.  Then he’ll be stake president.  I have no doubt about it.  It’s really fun watching these things unfold.

Yesterday I met another family just like this in a village called Stone Hill.  It’s way out in the bush in a place I’d never been before.  They have a long, long walk to church, but make the trek every Sunday.  They pass three other churches on the way.  People ask them why they don’t stop and worship there.  They bear their testimonies that they’ve found the true Church, and keep going.  Their example, and their talking to the neighbors will result in conversions.  The missionaries will be sent there.  Stone Hill has just one member family now; but in a short time, just like Jarailan, it will become a branch and then a ward.  That branch’s influence will reach beyond that village, and so on, until the Church is on every island.

Joseph Smith prophesied that the Church would fill the world.  It was a ridiculous thing to say when there were only a few thousand members of the Church in the world, but we’re in a position now to see where it will actually happen.  It doesn’t take a prophet to be able to see what the future holds for a person like Dack Tivles.

The second coming of Jesus Christ is not far off.  He said that the world before His coming would be as wicked as it was before the Flood.  Before the Flood the good people were gathered to Zion, the City of Enoch.  The wicked became worse and worse until the world was filled with violence.  People gravitated to one pole or the other.  The same thing is happening today.

Two nights ago we were reading about Marjorie’s 2nd great grandfather, Christopher Olsen Folkman.  He was one of the first to join the Church in Denmark.  He was a blacksmith.  When he joined the Church, people from the established church withdrew their business from him.  Mobs were organized.  He was beaten, and nearly killed.  He filed charges against his assailants.  He went to the trial.  The whole town was in an uproar.  Everyone, including the magistrate, was against him.  They stormed the courthouse with the intent to kill him.  The jailor hid him, and got him out of town after dark.  I’m aghast at the animalistic behavior of his Christian neighbors.  They were no different than the Jews who called for Christ’s crucifixion.  I’m astounded at both groups as well as at the good pastors who organized the mobs that drove the Saints out of Ohio, Missouri, and Nauvoo.

Christopher Olsen Folkman now has a large posterity who are faithful members of the Church.  Denmark and Missouri and Nauvoo now have temples, and large congregations of Latter-day Saints.  The Church is respected everywhere.

But I think persecution of the Church is still in its future.  The distance between the poles is still widening.  We’re told that the day will come when the only safety will be in Zion, just like it was in the days of Enoch.

We live in very interesting times.  It’s exciting to be involved in preparing the world for the Lord’s second coming.  It’s the weak and simple people and things that will do it.