Thirty-five years ago I served as a missionary in the Oklahoma Mission. It remains the defining experience of my life. It was during those two years that my testimony blossomed and I gained a passion for gospel study. I had many wonderful experiences among extraordinary Latter-day Saints. It was indeed the best two years. It was also two of the most difficult and challenging years.
Over President?s Day weekend, my wife and I flew from Denver to Tulsa for my first visit since I was released from my mission in 1973. Arriving mid-afternoon, we drove north to Independence, Kansas, my fifth assignment. We drove around town and found the ward. Thirty-five years ago it was a branch with a small building in Coffeyville, Kansas. We continued our drive east to Joplin, Missouri, where we spent the night.
Joplin was my second area. It only had one branch and was part of a mission district. Joplin now has two wards and its own stake. Joplin was a difficult area and I wondered if it would ever grow. We continued our drive south through western Arkansas, stopping to see the gravesite of Parley P. Pratt near the town of Alma. Parley was murdered in Arkansas in 1857.
After visiting Elder Pratt?s grave we turned west on I-40 and returned to Oklahoma. We exited the freeway at the town of Sallisaw, continue west through the town of Vian, and on to Gore (all towns which I had tracted). I was sent to Gore as a senior companion with a new missionary just four and a half months into my mission. At that time, Gore was only a town of about 400 citizens. The only housing we could find was a trailer in the woods about 10 miles north of town, not far from Lake Tenkiller. My companion and I spent our first two weeks without a car. We felt like missionaries of old, some days walking as far a dozen miles. Serving in Gore was a wonderful experience, never to be forgotten.
We continued north from Gore, around Lake Tenkiller, to Tahlequah, capital of the Cherokee nation. I spent ten months of my mission in Tahlequah. It will be forever, a home away from home. The members were wonderful and I was privileged to see a number of people join the Church. My wife and I spent Sunday in Tahlequah and attended meetings at the relatively new ward building. I found a few families that were there 35 years ago, and some even remembered me. That afternoon we traveled into the countryside and enjoyed dinner with one of the couples from my mission years. During my missionary days, when the weather was warm, we performed baptismal services in the creek that ran through their property.
It was fun to drive through these areas and see the changes that have occurred over thirty-five years. We even found the old missionary apartment still standing in Tahlequah (much to my surprise). I came to realize as we drove around that it was not the towns or the countryside that made my mission, it was the people and the experiences. It was a great weekend and I only wish that I had returned sooner.
Read the original "Gospel Doctrine Class" post here.
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