Musing today about our little missionary effort, my thoughts turn to our family. We write of our activities, the places we visit, the joy we feel in our service, but do you know why we do this?

We have received so many blessings during our lives - the fact that we were brought together through the hand of the Lord, the privilege of raising our family in a little corner of the world with examples of faith and service, the health that Gerhard has at present, having the financial ability to care for our needs, and knowing that our children and grandchildren are carrying on their lives in the pattern that the Lord has established - to list just a few, that this service is just a token payment, but we wanted to do it.
Besides, the Lord has commanded us to serve and we want to be obedient. Servants of the Lord showed Gerhard the need to keep the commandments, beginning with being baptized. Some of my ancestors left homes in England to come to Zion and others were pioneers from the time of Nauvoo, so I don't want to be the weak link in the chain of obedience.
The Sunday School lesson for this week in Mulsay Ward will be D&C Lesson 26: 'Go Ye into All the World and Preach My Gospel'. From Ted Gibbons' on-line lesson, there were some thoughts I want to preserve. (http://www.ldsliving.com/magazine/show/2083/DC-Lesson-26:-%27Go-Ye-into-All-the-World-and-Preach-My-Gospel)
The phrase "every member a missionary" became common during the administration of President David O. McKay. ...We have, I think, only three options related to missionary service. We can (1) be missionaries, or (2) prepare missionaries-including ourselves, or (3) we can support missionaries.

(1) Are you willing to be missionaries in your own neighborhoods ...?We can also pray daily for our own personal missionary experiences. Pray that under the divine management of such things, the missionary opportunity you want is already being prepared in the heart of someone who longs for and looks for what you have. (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, May 2001, p. 15)
(2) What can you sacrifice to prepare missionaries? Can you sacrifice time each day to study the doctrine and teachings of the scriptures? Can you sacrifice time to talk to you sons and their friends about this great work. Can you teach them to work and to save and to be worthy? Can you encourage, even insist, that they enroll in Seminary and Institute?
(3) Missionaries need Books of Mormon for investigators. And missionaries need support of letters and love. Have you written to the missionaries from your ward and branch? Have they felt of your love and prayers?

What sacrifices have you made or are you willing to make in each of these areas? How many times in April Conference did we hear the call for more couple missionaries? Of course it would be a sacrifice, but that is just the point.

Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven, and we are willing to be obedient. As we serve, the Lord blesses us a hundred-fold, so we want to be more obedient, learn more of Him and His ways, and serve others as He would if He were here.
We pray that each of you will also have this desire and begin now to look forward to an opportunity for missionary service.