Letter to the Pres.

Weekly missionary letters are one of the great things about being the mission president. Even here, where there aren't good ways to send them, most of the elders find a way to get letters to him. They mostly come hand written and stapled about 10 times for privacy. Nobody can afford to spend money on envelopes.

He receives about 120 letters a week and reads every one of them. He responds weekly to those who live far away, so they know he hears what they're experiencing and they feel his support from afar. It's hard to respond to every one in Kinshasa, since they have to be hand delivered. They relate their problems and needs, but they also tell about their joys, successes, new scriptural insights and the great epiphanies that occur in the life of a missionary. They share the simple miracle that occurs in their investigators. Even more wonderfully, they share the miracle that happens to change them. Reading their letters and hearing their feelings and stories is really one of the great pleasures of his calling.

I record, with his permission, an except from a letter from Elder Lamb. He's an American missionary, an excellent athlete who played football for BYU, yet a gentle, humble guy and a happy, hard working elder.

"It really is cool to see that by small and simple things, great things come to pass. Like us small and simple missionaries all throughout the world helping 1 or 2 people at a time come unto Christ. 180 years of small and simple things and a marvelous work and a wonder has come to pass. It's just cool."

Now there's one of the many great rewards of serving as a senior missionary.