Eight years younger than her next sibling, my husband’s grandma, Annette, was the only sibling still at home when her parents were called to serve as mission leaders in the Northwestern States Mission headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Soon after the call, her father proceeded to the mission while her mother stored their belongings and put their affairs in order before she and eleven year old Annette joined him.
In Portland, she was plunged into a new world. The missionaries who staffed the office lived in the mission home. They had a devotional each morning with a song and scripture before they knelt in prayer. Meals were lively discussions of the gospel and missionary work and she spent countless hours at the mission office helping the sisters and elders put mission magazines and pamphlets together.
She recalled, “[Dad] and Mother had to travel a lot to mission and district conferences. I went with them many times as my father always said he thought children got more out of trips and experiences associated with them than they did at school….I will be forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me this blessing of accompanying my parents on this mission and partaking of the spirit that such a calling provides and to my parents for letting me be part of everything that took place so that I might gain from such an experience the testimony of missionary service and the effect of the gospel in the lives of the people who espouse it.” (Personal History of Annette Nibley Richards, 1983)
Grandma’s tween and early teen years were not “normal”. Her life was so different from the one she had at home in Salt Lake City. Many would call her experience a sacrifice but I never heard her speak of it that way. She only spoke of the blessings and the joy.
We each have our own opportunities to sacrifice, whether it is a sacrifice of time to be in the temple, a sacrifice of pride to receive and extend forgiveness, a sacrifice of tithes or fast offerings, the sacrifice required by the daily diligence of prayer and scripture study, or the willingness to embrace the future with faith when our expectations don’t materialize.
“Very few of us will ever be asked to sacrifice our lives for the Savior. But we are all invited to consecrate our lives to Him…[then] everything else begins to align. Life no longer feels like a long list of separate efforts held in tenuous balance. Over time, it all becomes one work. One joy. One holy purpose….” (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2022)
As we look to Him in all things, we will be filled with His joy.