I was serving in the southern part of England when I had a crazy experience that taught me how to survive the rest of my mission!
I had been out for about four months and was assigned a new companion. We travelled on the bus for an hour to get to a member’s home for dinner. It was a dark, wet, foggy, cold day and we were in need of good food.
Looking through the mist-covered windows, we approached our bus stop and we stepped off.
In a panic, we checked when the next bus was, but to our dismay, we had missed the last bus
I looked around at our surroundings to find that we were not at our desired location, not in the slightest! In a panic, we checked when the next bus was, but to our dismay, we had missed the last bus.
Uncertainty looming, we went to call someone for help, but sadly —there was no service on the phone. We were in the middle of nowhere! As time passed, we decided our only solution was to walk. We saw the sign for our destination, “Bordon 1½ miles” and thought, “Okay, let’s go!”
We began walking along the curb of a busy two-lane road. There was no path, no light, just faith to keep us on track. We tried the flashlight on our phones to use as a guide for where our feet should step, but for some of you who know what missionary phones are like, that wasn’t much of a help! Instead we turned on our iPads and used the light that shone from there as a guide. This seemed to work pretty well.
Just imagine two sister missionaries, walking along the side of a dirt track road, distressed, holding an iPad in full display with a picture of Jesus Christ shown on it —that was the exact scenario.
As we continued walking along the road, we began to feel a little bit of confidence that we’d be fine and that we’d survive the ordeal. Whilst following the light coming from the photo of Jesus Christ, I jokingly said to my companion, “Sister, we are literally following the light of Christ right now!”
Amongst the laughter, we steadily followed the light every step of the way until we finally reached the end of our journey, realising that we had reached our destination safely because of that simple beam of light.
Later that evening, I began reflecting on the events that happened that day. To this day I still reflect back on what I learned from that frightful event —the idea of the light that the photo of Jesus Christ beamed to bring us to safety and the pure joy it brought to our hearts as we reached our destination.
I learned He is there, He is real, and He is the way. We may not know where we are going, what lies ahead, or whether we are going the right way at all, but one thing we can be sure of is that when we follow Jesus Christ, we will reach our destination safely and rejoice when we get there. Jesus Christ isn’t our last chance to our heavenly home; He is our only chance.
His message was not, “Stand back, I’ll handle this.” Rather it was, “Come, follow me.” His love and His atoning sacrifice give us safety and surety that we won’t be in darkness for long, but that the light of His love and example will help us get back home.
I look back on what happened that night and what it meant to me. It meant that I came to know who Jesus Christ is as a person, what His purpose is in my life and what I need to do to keep Him in my life. It’s expected of us to take a little step into the uncertainty of life, but we do it with Christ, not on our own. We are designed to be great, but we are even greater with Jesus Christ there guiding us along the way to perfection and eternal joy.
I’m so grateful that there is an actual person who can make all that happen. That’s pretty cool. Think about what Jesus Christ means to you and remind yourself of that every day. He is our greatest hero, our best friend, our way back. All we need to do is follow His light.