I have started a new project to transcribe my grandfather's biography. I will share this link with family members to read and enjoy. Once it is complete I will post it on Family Search to share with all. He is an excellent writer and hope to give you an incite to a great man that was very quiet and shy.
MY MISSION EXPERIENCE
A few years ago, a questionnaire was passed around in our ward asking for ones hobbies, talents, specialties, languages and etc. I put down Spanish because I had been down in Central America several times. That and with a year of Spanish in high school, I acquired a tourist vocabulary of Spanish. Later I was to find out there was no similarity between tourist talk and extraction talk. A few months later, I and a few others were called to attend a meeting with the stake president Leon Johnson. We were called to an eighteen months extraction mission. That was four years ago.
I have been very grateful and appreciative of my call to the mission. It has been an enlightening and spiritual adventure. It has not been tedious or tiresome. On the contrary, I have enjoyed every day of it since the first day of the training class. However, there were some obstacles and discouraging moments due to some mishaps in my past life, such as trying to catch some un-broke horses. I got careless, got too close with the rope, he kicked, the result was a broken arm. Another time my hand was injured in a wood sawing machine. At times, under certain nervous strain and tension, I lost some control of my right hand. I could write longhand moderately well, but I could not draw a straight line if I had to and it was about as tough to thread a needle. My hand was too un-steady. After the training session were over, we moved over to the extraction center. I found that I could not print with block letters at all satisfactory. The Stake President called me to this mission and I was determined to fulfill it. Nephi said to his father, that he did know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto man save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. So, I resorted to humble prayer and communication with the Lord regarding this weakness. On the third day at the extraction center, I was working on a dim almost impossible to read tape, so I called Sister Anderson over to interpret it. I had a few cards laying on the desk I had just completed, she saw these card and said, “SAY THAT IS GOOD PRINTING”. This unexpected remark made me think “Thank the Lord and give Him credit, and First Nephi”.
Since I have been called to the mission, I have had very little time to devote to my business and livelihood. All my interests have prospered in spite of the depression. President Johnson said areas, where temples have been built, seem to prosper. That could include extraction centers.
This mission had been a great blessing to me both physically and spiritually and I am better off for having served here almost four years. The curtain between the living and the dead is very thin at times and one can almost feel the presence of those whose names are being extracted. I have a testimony of the urgency and sacredness of this work and I know it is God’s will that it be done. I hope I can be a profitable servant in God’s kingdom here on earth and that I may be worthy of the Celestial kingdom in the future.
Val A. Walch
