Cover image via ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Anyone who has tried to write a 10-page paper for a college class the night before it’s due has learned the hard truth that things are easier when you work on them over time. The youth of Elder Ulisses Soares (as shared by Elder Neil L. Andersen in the October 2018 Liahona) provides some inspiring examples of how important quiet, but consistent preparation is for those hoping to serve a full-time mission.
What is the most important thing you can take with you on a mission? Some might be quick to say a good pair of shoes, or luggage you can count on as you move from area to area. But of course, with a little more thought, a fervent testimony is the thing that would top the list.
When Elder Soares was only 15 years old, he was asked to teach a youth Sunday school class.
“I was the only member of the Church in my school, and the other boys were always trying to drag me down and push me to do things that were wrong,” he says. “I had to learn to defend myself in these challenges, but I always trusted in the Lord with all my heart to help me succeed. I learned as a young man that if you do your part, the Lord will do His. But you have to hold tight to His hand and to His gospel.”
Despite this strong trust, when the time came to teach a lesson on gaining a testimony of the gospel, he felt he needed to know with more surety to be able to testify to his class in the way he hoped. “I studied and prayed fervently,” Elder Soares recalls. “After I knelt down, there came to my heart a very sweet feeling, a small voice that confirmed to me that I was on the right path. It was so strong that I could never say that I didn’t know.”
As Elder Soares matured and grew closer to missionary age, his bishop emphasized financial as well as spiritual preparation. He was determined to earn all the money he needed to cover the costs of his mission.
Elder Andersen shares of Elder Soares:
Taking advantage of the strong work ethic he had learned working in his father’s small business and armed with the ability to type fast, Ulisses found a day job helping a company prepare its payroll.
After passing a difficult entry exam, he began studying accounting at a technical high school in the evening. Each month, after paying tithing, he would save money for his mission. After a year, he was transferred to his company’s accounting department.
“That’s how I saved money to pay for my mission,” Elder Soares says. “And each month during the three years before I left, I would buy something I needed—a shirt, a pair of pants, a pair of socks, a tie, a suitcase.”
I am touched by the forethought of a very young Elder Soares purchased some article of clothing or supply each month for years in preparation for missionary service. So often we are inclined to put off full commitment until we absolutely must decide, but his youth illustrates an example of how much it paid off, both temporally and spiritually to be fully invested from the start.
This devotion also made all the difference as he pursued a relationship with Rosana Morgado after his missionary service was complete. Though the two lived in different parts of the same city (São Paulo), it took Elder Soares two or three hours by bus and subway to get to her home to visit.
Rosana’s sister Margareth and her husband Claudio (perhaps known to you as Elder Claudio R. M. Costa, an Emeritus General Authority Seventy) allowed Elder Soares to sleep on their couch so he would not have to travel back so far at night. Claudio and Margareth were newly married though, so they had no extra blankets. Elder Soares happily accepted an old curtain as bedding for the opportunity to have more time with Rosana again in the morning.
Ultimately, Ulisses and Rosana were married in the São Paulo Brazil Temple on October 30, 1982.
This simple example of doing whatever you can, as often as you can, both in preparing to serve a mission and in pursuing the life that you hope for afterwards, is a reminder to us all that great power can be found in humble, but consistent efforts.
