The Stone Is Rolling

The Stone’s REALLY Rollin’…

I was re-reading an old Iron Rod from the Virginia Roanoke days entitled “Fill our Buckets’ and found my mind wandering from the central theme of the importance and thrill of getting our buckets filled to one of amazement as to what was going on in the missions of the church during those days that immediately preceded the collapse of the Iron Curtain. And then it was an easy transition to send my mind flying through the other Curtains that are collapsing all over the world and especially Africa. The visual side of my mind started racing as I found myself trying to outrun a huge stone that was not only ‘rolling forth’ but was flying down the mountainside at an unstoppable speed. The exciting part of the ‘vision’ was that we were on top of the boulder and doing everything we could to stay atop – and be a part of this incredible era of the Restoration.

My Virginia message, written just eighteen years ago, shared how we had been to Washington D.C. for a Mission Presidents seminar and had our buckets filled including news of…

“How the Iron Curtain was quietly but surely being removed by the example of a few and how the leaders of those nations hearts were being softened...Elder Wirthlin shared with us that almost all the Easter Europe Bloc countries were making overtures to the church for expansion into their lands. Czechoslovakia last year had twenty one baptisms during the year but the real inspiration of that success story was that Sister Olga, a devoted member, had brought all of them into the church. It was fun to hear how the borders of East Germany had ‘softened’ and truckloads of temple clothes were allowed to enter where heretofore they had been nearly impossible to penetrate. Poland is offering sites for church buildings to be built and even Russia has been giving positive signs to the Church.”

I continued in 1987: “July 1st, ten new missions are being created with six of them in Africa…in 1979 the Dominion Republic was opened with two families and last week 8,000 members crowded into an Area Conference - only eight years later.”

I remembered that Mission President Conference and how we, upon our return from Washington, shared with all the missionaries the feelings we felt as we heard the exciting news of the ‘stone rolling forth’. Now it is 2005, since Virginia we’ve spent two years in the South Pacific and finishing our fourth year in Africa, and I couldn’t help but ponder what we had witnessed over the past eighteen years. The ‘Wall’ has fallen, the church is all over the Eastern Bloc, Russia has stakes and missions across ten time zones. The Church moved slowly into the huge and incredible continent of Africa. So slowly at first – not because the people were not ready, but the church was not fully prepared for an unprecedented welcome and pent up desire by the people for the gospel. When I wrote that 1987 Iron Rod the church had barely two missions in West Africa, a handful of local full time missionaries and a few couple missionaries who were feverishly working to get established and local priesthood leaders trained. In the rest of Africa, other than South Africa and Zimbabwe, the stone was slowly rolling but little notice was given of any significant impact. Then it began to gather speed. West Africa has grown from two missions with less than twenty missionaries to eight missions, over 400 units in ten countries, two temples, hundreds of missionaries and is experiencing the highest baptism rate per missionary in the world. Southeast Africa has grown from one mission to nine missions with congregations being created rapidly in twenty three countries – with most of that expansion happening in the last ten years. And it’s just getting started.

Satan is working overtime to stop the people and the church from progressing. Political corruption, crime, poverty, disease, customs, exploitation, apathy, communication , education and greed are some of the issues that are negatively impacting this continent. But in the midst of this chaos, the gospel is making a difference. The members are becoming stronger. The bar has been raised and the quality of missionary has never been better. More temples will be dedicated, chapels will dot the landscape, more stakes and missions will be formed, hundreds and then thousands of missionaries who have been endowed and trained will be retuning from successful missions and their leadership will begin to be felt all over Africa. Those second and third generations returned missionary leaders will truly leave their permanent mark in their communities and on the future of the church. Their educational level will rise. Their economic power will increase. Their communication skills will increase their impact on their communities. They will become the Lamoni’s and the Amulek’s of Africa and their leadership will touch thousands and eventually millions of Africans.

This ‘Daniel’ Stone is gathering more and more speed. It has nearly made a complete sweep. It began as a very small pebble with a handful of Americans and Canadians. The British Isles, Scandinavia and Western Europe provided most of the leadership basis who immigrated to the Rocky Mountains. The Isles of the South Pacific provided the first practice sessions where the ‘fruit remained’ in their native land without the call to ‘come to Zion’. Some mighty missionary efforts happened all over the globe but not until the end of a Great War did the mighty surge happen. This war was a battle where Satan seemed determined to destroy an entire race of people – the Jews – which if it would have happened might have altered prophetic proclamations, but, the Jews were not destroyed and instead LDS servicemen ended up being strategically placed all over the world and began a mighty missionary cause the likes this church has never seen.

The post war years combined with intercontinental air travel and communications changed the world. Missionary work in Central and South America went from a few to millions; Mexico grew to over a million and twelve temples; Brazil is approaching a million and has five temples; several more million and several temples are scattered in the rest of that part of the world. The Orient woke up with Korea, Japan and Taiwan leading the way. The Philippines grew from only one member in 1961 to 600,000 today. New Zealand and Australia now have six temples. Temples dot the South Pacific. Europe’s temples have multiplied. Eastern Europe and Russia’s growth has been documented. Africa is now poised to be the most successful missionary work – perhaps ever - among Christian people.

With only China, India and the Arab World left it would be tempting to say ‘the work is nearly done’ but those three little spots on the map could make all the rest of our great efforts seem like Kindergarten work. So it is vital that we keep the Stone Rolling forth, on schedule and gaining momentum with hundreds of thousands of missionaries (and missionary couples) willing to serve - and millions of successful families financing the growth.

Sometimes, when we are not thinking well or we have a little pity party and get a little homesick for our children and grandchildren we wonder what a difference our little congregation of twenty missionaries-in-training will make in this huge war for souls. But, thankfully at those rare moments, the Spirit becomes the teacher. He says, “Ponder ten years from now when those twenty young men are heads of families and serving as leaders in the African church and ponder how there are fifteen other MTC’s all over the globe where twenty (or two thousand) other young men and women are being trained and where 341 mission presidents are changing the lives of 52,000 more future leaders and thousands and thousands of priesthood leaders are preparing hundreds of thousands of future missionaries and millions of parents are putting pictures of temples in the bedrooms of their children and telling missionary stories on family home evening and thousands and thousands of grandparents are felling the urge to ‘do something’ and talking with their Bishops.”

As we ponder how each of us may be a very small, but certainly not an insignificant, part of this beautiful and incredibly prophetic story we realize we are no longer part of a small stone rolling forth but instead a small piece of a huge boulder rushing to it’s final resting place and when it stops the Savior will announce ‘the work is done’. That will not be an insignificant event and to be a part of that story – no matter how small a part we are asked to play or no matter the spot on this beautiful world where we are asked to serve, it mattereth not - just give us the opportunity to be a part of it.

“No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing...the truth of God will roll forth, boldly...until the Great Jehovah shall say, the Work is Done.” Joseph Smith - Wentworth Letter

He hasn’t said it yet, so back to work.