This past week I was a witness to a sad situation which was cushioned by some tender mercies. When I answered the mission phone in Italian on Thursday afternoon, I was met by a very tearful voice asking me in English if this was the Rome mission to which I responded yes, what could I help her with. It was the mother of one of our young elders who said that her husband had just died that morning and she needed to get word to her son.
I immediately responded with my condolences and said I would get President Waddoups to talk to her. I was able to find him immediately in the office next door and he came to the phone. The fact that he was even there and immediately able to respond to the phone call is a miracle in and of itself. He and his wife are rarely in the office and are usually on the road travelling throughout the mission.
But what was even more of a miracle is that the elder himself was in the mission office at the time. The Rome West Specialized Training conference had just ended which he had attended although he is not part of the Rome West Zone. He serves in another area a couple of hours from Rome. It was necessary for him to attend the Rome West Conference because business pertaining to his residency permit prevented him from attending the conference in his own zone. So because of all this, he was right where he needed to be for President Waddoups to deliver this sad news to him in person. He not only had the in-person love and support of President and Sister Waddoups but of several of the young missionaries who were still there after the conference.
The death was highly unexpected but a few hours after receiving the news, this young elder along with his companion, got on the train and returned to his area.
Tonight when I enquired about his well being, I was told by one of the other senior missionaries another part of the story. Two nights before he received this news, he had a dream from the scriptures and apparently he never dreams about the scriptures. He saw in the dream the story from the New Testament, Luke 9: 59-60, which goes as follows:
59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
Missionaries are given the choice of whether to return home for a funeral of a close family member, but I understand that this missionary, after discussions with his mother and because of that dream has chosen to stay and continue his work as a missionary. Not every missionary can or will make that same decision and that's okay; it's a very personal decision but this is what this missionary chose to do. Our prayers are with him and his family.
I've often been told that there no such thing as co-incidences. While I'm not sure that's always true, I see no coincidences in this story. A loving God is mindful of this young elder, prepared him through a dream for what was to come and had him be exactly where he needed to be to receive the love and support he needed. This is a mission miracle I won't forget.
