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Introduction

From my seat in the choir, I was enjoying the reverence during the passing of the sacrament in our Provo, Utah, ward one Sunday morning in 2001. Glancing down at my husband, Doug, in the congregation, I felt a wave of gratitude sweep over me, both for him and for our peaceful, fulfilling life. We had had our share of trials, but still we had been blessed with a wonderful family, all of whom lived nearby; we loved our work and our ward; we enjoyed our lovely home and our cabin in the mountains; and were surrounded by loving friends. It was a comfortable life.

As I mentally counted my blessings, an impression of the Spirit interrupted my thoughts so suddenly it startled me. “You have a year to prepare, and then you need to go.” I hadn’t heard the word mission, but I was certain it was implied. We always knew we would serve a mission someday but hadn’t decided when. At 66, Doug was semi-retired and enjoying his hobbies. At 62, I was still actively writing music and enjoying life with our children and grandchildren. A mission still seemed a few years away.

Later at home I asked Doug if he had had any particular spiritual prompting during sacrament meeting, but he said, “Nothing unusual.” When I related my experience, he smiled and said: “That is the answer to my prayer. I’ve just been waiting for you to feel the time is right.” I knew our lives were about to change.

Starting the Process

Our bishop confirmed that “a year to prepare” seemed about right. We had concerns about leaving our family, but after praying about it, we felt the Lord would take care of our children and grandchildren just fine in our absence. Our decision was now firm, and we began preparing to leave home for 18 months.

Doug is a linguist and fluent in several languages, including Russian, French, and Italian, so I realized we could be sent anywhere in the world. As we filled out our mission papers, listing his languages, I thought we would probably be called to Russia. After all, how many senior missionaries speak Russian? In the little box where we could make a comment we simply said: “We are willing to go anywhere we are called, but we would both enjoy a Spanish-speaking call.” When our call came to serve in the Chile Santiago West Mission and preach the gospel in Spanish, we felt an instant confirmation that our call was right.

Saying Goodbye

Our nine weeks in the Senior Missionary Training Center were intense and inspiring. Doug had been reading in Spanish for nearly a decade but had had no practice in speaking it, so he joined an accelerated group of missionaries, most of whom had served Spanish-speaking missions previously. I was in the beginners’ class, determined to succeed at learning a new language for the first time. Excitement was high among the senior missionaries there who had been called to all different parts of the world.

Saying good-bye to our family was difficult, but buoyed by the Spirit we boarded our plane for the long flight to Chile. There to greet us at the Santiago airport were our wonderful mission president and his wife, Ole and Dena Smith. We were their first senior couple, and President Smith said we would just learn together. The next day the Smiths drove us to our assigned area, the city of Talagante, Chile, 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of Santiago. They took us to our new apartment, helped us get settled, gave us a hug and a prayer, and then left us alone to ponder our new adventure. We held hands a little tighter that night as we prayed in a new and more heartfelt way.

It was a bit of a shock going from July heat of summer to the cold of winter in one day, with no thermostat in our apartment to just bump up a few degrees, but rather a little gas heater we could light when absolutely necessary. We learned quickly to wear layers of clothing. I had brought long-johns just to be obedient but they very quickly became my favorite clothing.

Alone Together Far From Home

It’s a humbling experience to leave behind your family, your friends, your home, your language, and the conveniences and comforts you’ve grown accustomed to. Almost no one we met spoke English, and I could not understand a word of Spanish, nor could I speak to the Chileans.  Doug’s facility with the language saved us. For the first three months we had no car, so we walked everywhere, often in cold rain, learning our way around the city and locating less-active members we wanted to visit. Many times we walked over five miles a day making our visits. The young elders invited us to go along with them at times so we could learn the routine and add our testimonies in the homes they visited. We were pretty tired by the end of the day until our president reminded us that we were not expected to keep the schedule of the young missionaries, but should pace ourselves according to our health and energy.

In the first months of our mission I devoted long hours to language study, experiencing some discouraging moments as I came to the realization that it was not going to happen for me as fast as it did for the young missionaries. Gradually, encouraged by the warm-hearted Chilean Saints, the young elders and sisters, and a caring mission president and his wife, we began to find our niche and put our hearts into our missionary service.

Adding Music to Our Mission

At the stake president’s request we organized a stake choir and found the members eager to sing and learn more about music. The only music we had in Spanish was from the hymnbook, so I began making hymn arrangements for the choir, which Doug directed. The Chilean members had sung unaccompanied for so long it was difficult at first to get everyone singing together, but they progressed rapidly, and it was a sweet experience. My heart melted when, after our fifth or sixth rehearsal, one sister in the choir asked in all sincerity, “Hermana Perry, are we as good as the Tabernacle Choir yet?” Later we formed a Young Adult Choir, a Youth Choir, and occasionally a Missionary Choir and working with choirs became a big part of our mission.

The members were also eager to learn to conduct and accompany the hymns correctly, so we began teaching the Church’s Basic Music Course that is designed to enable students with no previous experience to play simplified hymns in a few weeks or months. We also found great joy in visiting less-active members and encouraging them to come back to church. As we prayed and sang hymns with them and bore testimony in their homes, we felt the warmth of the Spirit in a whole new way, and we desired to feel it often.

Leadership Responsibilities

Doug received a call to serve as first counselor in a new district presidency and enjoyed his close association with these dedicated brethren who had a special commission to train new leaders in the branches. He was fluent in Spanish now, and I was at least making steady progress. At the beginning of our mission we often wondered, “How can we fill this day with worthwhile activities?” but after a few months we began to wonder, “How can we fit everything in?”

Sacrifices/Compensations

Some sacrifices definitely tugged at our heartstrings. We weren’t there when our oldest two grandsons were ordained deacons, but Doug was asked to ordain two handsome twins, Pedro and Fredi, to the office of priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. We missed Thanksgiving with our family, but we cooked a Thanksgiving meal in our apartment for the 16 missionaries in our zone. We missed a grandchild’s baptism, but we gathered around the baptismal font often to witness the baptisms of humble new Chilean Latter-day Saints. For every melancholy moment we received a sweet compensation.

So many experiences from our mission will live in our minds and hearts forever: hearing a 50-year-old brother pray for the first time; seeing a little family of four return to full activity in the Church and serve in responsible positions; feeling the sincere love and friendship of the Chilean Saints; seeing Doug give and receive blessings that brought miraculous healings. We were happiest on days when we were bone tired from losing ourselves in service and finding ourselves in a whole new and meaningful way. Missions aren’t for wimps, we learned, and I might have been one at first, but no more! I loved what I was learning there, and I don’t mean just the language, but important things about testimony, relationships, hard work, disappointments, faith, love and so much more. The thought often came to us that we needed a hundred more couples in our mission to make a dent in activation work alone, but we were the only ones.

Reflections

Our mission was a life-changing experience-leaving our somewhat self-centered and complacent life to come to a little corner of the world where we awakened  every morning asking ourselves, “Who can we best serve or help or teach today?” Thoughts of family could bring a lump to our throats but we came to feel so grateful for a measured time when we could devote ourselves full-time to the service of the Lord with no distractions. We had our trials during our mission, including injuries and health concerns, but we learned to depend on the Lord more (without our family doctor nearby), we drew closer to each other (when we had no one else), and we learned to laugh at impossible situations (that used to make us cry)! My companion made our 44th anniversary special by shining my worn, dusty walking shoes and printing out 1 Nephi for me, side by side in English and Spanish. With my limited Spanish I wrote him a humorous love poem.

Toward the end of our mission, truly our joy was full as we saw our music students conducting and accompanying the different choirs, saw some of our piano students capably accompanying the hymns in the meetings of the church, and saw previously less active families fully participating and serving in the church. Truly, there is no greater joy.

We had the special blessing of serving in Chile during Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s two year mission there and it was a privilege hearing him teach, testify, and inspire the members and missionaries. He told the missionaries that we needed to give our all and at the end of our missions we should be like a runner who “has nothing left at the tape”. He didn’t want us to be sick or exhausted-just very tired!

Saying Goodbye (again)

When we said goodbye to our family and friends as we left on our mission, it was difficult but we knew we would be returning. When it was time to say goodbye to our Chilean friends at the end of our mission, we were uncertain whether we would ever see them again, and our emotions  almost overwhelmed us as they honored us with parties and celebrations and tearful goodbyes. We felt as though our hearts would break! On a final fireside which we presented I sang a song I had written especially for the occasion, Un corazn puede tener dos hogares  (A Heart Can Have Two Homes).

We always felt that we were right where we should be, with people we loved dearly, and while we were helping them, they were also helping us learn some of life’s most important lessons. I loved this time with my dear companion whom I learned to love and respect even more deeply through our service, our trials and our moments of pure joy as a missionary couple.

Brother Michael Moody, former Church Music Chairman, who finished his service as Mission President in Haiti just as we returned from Chile, told us:  “When you get home no one will understand the depth of your feelings for the Chilean people. Friends will ask, “How was your mission?’ and you’ll say, ‘Wonderful,’ and move on. But that is the joy of having served your mission together-there will always be one who understands what you saw, heard and felt that changed your lives forever.”

(Part 2, will talk about the challenge of Senior Missionaries learning a new language)

To find Janice Kapp Perry’s double CD “Army of Helaman: Ultimate Missionary Collection,” click here.

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