Welcoming New Missionaries

Every six weeks we welcome a new group of missionaries to the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission. They arrive all at the same time on flights from Salt Lake City. This week sixteen new missionaries arrived -- about twice the usual number. This necessitated sending two vans, our mission pick-up truck and Joyce's car to the airpot to fetch the missionaries and their many suitcases.

The flights arrive at airport "rush hour" which creates predictable delays. This week's flights ran about an hour late and then it took at least another hour to get the baggage. Once everyone was gathered up, we took them to the mission home (where we live). New missionaries tend to have a bit of the "deer in the headlights" look to them. We try hard to help them have an enjoyable first night in the mission.

We've started a tradition of serving Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwiches for the initial kick-off dinner. They are all so hungry and tired that it really doens't matter what we feed them! I then have a private interview with each missionary where I get to know them, tell them a bit about our mission and assess who to place them with for their trainer/companion. Then it's off to bed. The next morning they arise early and attend an all-day training program where they meet their trainer/companion. When the training meeting ends, the new missionary and his/her companion drive to their apartment, unpack and spend that evening teaching lessons in the homes of investigators. It all happens to quickly!

Philadelphia Inquirer Features our Missionaries

The Sunday edition of Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper had a wonderful article about two of our missionaries, Elder Rodney Mills and Elder Robert Keach. The reporter, David O'Reilly, spent part of a day with this pair of missionaries in Philadelphia's inner city area. The following link should take you to a short video clip that accompanied the newspaper article:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/multimedia/9198382.html

You'll need Adobe Flash to view the clip.

Here is the article:

For Mormons, a trying mission in Phila.
By David O'Reilly, Inquirer Staff Writer



The ruddy-cheeked extrovert is Elder Mills, age 20. He raps on doors - hundreds every day - with an eager knock, na-knock, na-knock-knock-knock.

The tall, quiet one is Elder Keach, also 20. He goes for a more restrained knock na-knock-knock-knock, but moves just as swiftly as his partner.

They are young men on a mission in Philadelphia.

Far from home, cut off from their families, working seven-day weeks and living in the neighborhoods they evangelize, Robert Keach and Rodney Mills form one of 60 teams of young Mormon missionaries knocking on doors in some of the region's poorest neighborhoods.

Today the young "elders" - the traditional form of address for Mormon missionaries - are in the 2500 block of Lee Street in West Philadelphia.

"Who is it?" a female voice calls from a rowhouse.

"Elder Keach," he replies. "From the church."

It is an ambiguous reply, but one that opens doors, even in dicey neighborhoods, to the "church boys," as they are sometimes called.

She opens the door and scans his name tag, his necktie, his short-sleeve white shirt. "I'm an atheist," she says, and closes the door.

Keach rolls his eyes. "She had a picture of Jesus on the wall," he says.

Theirs is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of the fastest-growing faiths in the nation and this region, thanks in part to the thousands of young men such as Mills and Keach who are called, at 19, to serve two years as missionaries anywhere in the world.

Although all young Mormon men of good health and character are expected to serve, only about 20 percent do so.

"Hey, man, did I wake you?" Mills asks a groggy-looking man of about 40 who answered the door in his undershirt. The man nods. It is shortly past noon. He shuts the door abruptly.

Mills and Keach have been on this stretch of Lee Street several times during their 10 weeks together, and greet some residents familiarly.

"Tell your mom the church guys are here," Keach tells a girl who answers one door. She returns to say, "She's busy."

"OK," says Keach. "Tell her we'll be back."

A 60-ish woman in red leotards explains that this is not her house. "The owner's not here," she says.

A boy pops his head out the upstairs window. "My mom's at work," he yells. Minutes later they see her at the same window.

"We're Catholic," one woman explains. "That's cool," says Mills. "Can we pray with you?" She hesitates, then shakes her head.

"Where's your buddy?" he later asks a boy of about 12. "He's in jail," the boy replies. "He tried to kill his mother and grandmother."

And so it goes. Dogs bark. Bees buzz. No one answers.

Then, a bare-chested teenager answers the door. It does not look promising: He is wearing a rosary around his neck. But he invites them in.

Armando, 17, explains in Spanish that he does not have a church, but hopes to find one - and a job. He arrived three days ago from Puerto Rico. He accepts their offer to pray with him, and to come back in a week so he can learn more.

A growing ministry
Founded in Upstate New York in 1830 with just six members, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reached one million members in 1947.

Today it numbers nearly 13 million worldwide, and adds a million members every four years.

Its Scriptures include the Old Testament and New Testament, as well as the Book of Mormon: a 531-page text that church founder Joseph Smith is said to have translated from hieroglyphics on gold plates he said were shown him by an angel.

Despite the skepticism of most other Christian churches, devout Mormons believe theirs to be the one, true "restored" church of Christ.

And with 5.5 million members in the United States, where it is growing at a brisk 1.7 percent annually, the church is now the nation's fourth-largest religious body - bigger than the Presbyterian and Episcopal denominations combined.

Lately, some of its most impressive growth has been in Philadelphia and the adjacent Pennsylvania suburbs, where membership has swollen more than 20 percent since 2004, to about 10,000.

Brant Olson, president of the Philadelphia Stake (a geographical district equivalent to a diocese), attributes some of that growth to new church buildings and an improved ministry to Latinos.

But he gives credit to young missionaries such as Keach and Mills, who leave behind families and the things of youth to traipse through housing projects and climb rowhouse steps.

"It's been a life-changing experience," says Mills, who was called from Salt Lake City. "The thing I learned most is that when we live according to higher morals and higher standards, we become happier people."

The two share a plain, two-room apartment on West Cumberland Street, with no computer, TV or radio.

In their 10 weeks working here together, they have taken four families to conversion and baptism.

They awaken at 6 a.m., pray and read Scripture, and start knocking on doors at 10 a.m. They take a break from 3 to 5 p.m., then make house visits with new and prospective converts until 9 p.m.

They spend Sundays at church and Sunday school with new and prospective converts.

"I realize now how easy high school was, and how much time I wasted before on things like TV and videos," says Mills.

Both left girlfriends behind, but have no contact with them and do not date here. They don't fly home for weddings or funerals, and are allowed to call home twice a year, on Christmas and Mother's Day.

Keach, who hails from Houston and plans to be a doctor, calls his 20 months in South, West and North Philadelphia "incredible."

"It's given me the determination to say I'll never go down the wrong path, because I've seen how fast people can fall when they disobey the commandments or do things that are wrong," he says. "You see it in families. You see it in whole parts of the city."

Mills, who wants to go into law enforcement, has worked 22 months with about 14 companions in Northeastern Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, but the highlight came in Wilmington.

"A guy opened the door and punched my companion," he recalls.

Four days later, the man saw them in the street, apologized, hugged Mills' partner, and joined the LDS church.

"He said he realized he had to change his life," Mills says. "It was really cool."

To Learn More:
For further information on the Mormon Church, visit www.mormon.org.

Contact staff writer David O'Reilly at 215-854-5723 or doreilly@phillynews.com

End of a Long Day

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here's Joyce catching a few precious z's before the alarm clock jolts her awake.

PS -- Sorry if some of you took this one too seriously. This was a joke photo. Joyce does NOT sleep with her missionary nametag on. She is very committed to her calling, but her nametag takes a break at night, just as she does!

A Coincidence or Not?

Last Wednesday I spent about 90 minutes knocking on apartment doors with Elders Hunter and Calmes in the Wilmington Zone. We were working our way through a medium sized apartment complex that had a mixture of families – single mothers, a few families from Kenya and many others. Many people weren’t at home because it was mid-morning – so we would knock, wait a minute and then move on to the next door. One door opened after we had already moved on. We ran back to the opened door and met Julian, a friendly middle aged man who immediately invited us into his apartment. His wife and daughter were also at home.

Julian and his family had recently moved to Wilmington, Delaware from the inner-city area of Philadelphia. They needed to get out of that environment which is full of danger and violence. Julian was looking for a new job in the Wilmington area, but in the mean time he continued in a job in Philadelphia. He didn’t tell us what the job was, but it did require an hour commute through heavy traffic. Julian has been a church-goer for many years and, in fact, he has received some training as a preacher. But he and his family are currently on a “sabbatical” as he called it. This means they were taking time out from all churches. Julian indicated he was still searching for the right church. At some point in the past Julian has visited with our missionaries, but it had been a long time ago and he didn’t appear to know much about our religion.

We taught him about the Restoration, the First Vision and the Great Apostasy. He was polite, but not overly eager to gobble it up. He gave us cold water to drink – it was an extremely hot day. And throughout the session he cheerfully called me “Prez” because of my missionary nametag. I sensed that he enjoyed the visitors more than he enjoyed our message. I liked this man very much and I was frustrated that I was unable to convey to him the deep feelings of my heart and the pure conviction of my soul.

We encouraged him to pray about the things we discussed and we testified of their truthfulness.

I then had to leave to attend a lunch meeting with the Wilmington Stake President. While driving to the restaurant I had the following inspired thought, “I should have told Julian, in a careful and direct way, that he’s closer than ever to finding what he’s been looking for. And I should have done this with great tenderness and love – not with overzealous excitement nor any sense of a challenging attitude.” The Spirit was teaching me, but unfortunately Julian was gone and I doubted that I would ever again see him. How I wished that the Holy Ghost and I could coordinate our timing a little better! I sensed a lost opportunity. I quickly called Elders Hunter and Calmes and told them of my “lesson learned too late” via the Holy Ghost and asked them to convey this message to Julian, on my behalf, if they ever saw him again.

You might think this is the end of the story – as did I. Until last night.

I was working at my home office, in my comfortable pajamas, when the phone rang. It was the mission president from the Richmond Virginia Mission. One of his missionaries had damaged his back and was flying home to Las Vegas for emergency surgery. His trip required him change planes in Philadelphia. Unfortunately dozens of flights were cancelled at the Philadelphia airport and Elder Rushforth was stranded someplace in the airport with no place to spend the night. His situation was pretty serious. His legs had given out and he was in a wheelchair. He was in great pain and had limited mobility. He had no cell phone and his mission president in Virginia was unable to contact him. All he knew was that Elder Rushforth was stuck someplace in the airport, he was flying on US Airways and his flight home wouldn’t be until 6PM the following night. He asked for help.

I immediately changed clothes and drove to the airport. I knew that he had to be on the “inside” of the airport so I waited in a long line to get a special pass that would allow me to get behind the security gates. The airport was full of tired, angry, frustrated travelers – many facing an uncertain night in the airport. I finally found Elder Rushforth at a US Airways gate. He was emotionally and physically exhausted. I started wheeling him out to the parking garage, negotiating our way through the throngs to weary travelers. About half way there I heard a loud voice behind me shouting, “PREZ!!” I turned around and there was Julian! To my great surprise Julian works as a janitor at the Philadelphia Airport on an evening shift. He was cleanly dressed and very happy. He was heading in one direction and we were going in a different direction when he spotted me. We looked at each other in disbelief – how could this be that we’re seeing each other again? What are the odds of this happening? If I had gone through the security gate just two minutes earlier, I never would have seen Julian. If Julian had taken his evening break at a different time, he never would have been in that exact hallway at that moment. So many unexplained “ifs”, yet here we were face to face in a joyful reunion.

I wasted no time and told Julian that there was something important I needed to tell him – something that I wished I would have told him yesterday. I then told him that he is much closer to finding what he’s been looking for. Closer than he’s ever been in his entire life. And I told him to ask God if there could be “more” that he needs to know and learn. And I assured him there is. And that God would help him find it.

Julian looked thoughtfully at me and said, “This is not a coincidence.”

I agreed.

We looked at each other for a few moments and then time required that we move on.

Did Heavenly Father cause the small tornado that created damage in the Virginia neighborhood where Elder Rushforth was serving? And did he cause Elder Rushforth’s back to suffer a bulging disc when he was helping the neighborhood clean up the mess and debris – thus requiring Elder Rushforth to go home for surgery? And then did He create the massive snarled airline cancellations affecting hundreds of travelers at the Philadelphia Airport last night so that I would be required to pick up Elder Rushforth, even though I was already in my comfortable pajamas and working in my home office after another very long day? And did He guide Julian to rent that apartment in Wilmington so that Elders Hunter and Calmes and I could knock on his door last Wednesday, knowing that I had only 90 minutes available for finding? And did He inspired Elder Hunter and Calmes to go to that apartment complex on that particular day? And finally did he quietly, invisibly guide Julian and me so that we would intersect in that specific hallway in the airport last night?

My sense is that the Lord always knows where Julian is, and He always knows where I am, and He sprinkled some heavenly dust on the airport last night so that we would each be in the exactly right place at the exactly right time. With men such things are impossible. But with God all things are possible.

I hope and pray that Julian meets again with our missionaries and that he will eagerly embrace the restored gospel of Jesus Christ – and that his life and that of his family will be immensely blessed. I hope and pray that Elder Rushforth’s back heals quickly from surgery. I hope and pray that all those tired travelers who were stuck in the airport last night get to their destinations safely.

Most of all I hope and pray that I never, ever forget the tender mercies of the Lord. He knows and loves each of us. He desires that we turn our hearts to Him so that He might lead us, guide us, and walk beside us. He will help us find the way.