When I have grown a foot or two

Some friends invited me over Tuesday night to facilitate a missionary visit with their new roommate (another adult male must be present when LDS* Elders visit women). It was the first time I'd had that experience in quite a while, and it was awesome. Some things I loved in particular:

--Both Elders were from Missouri, including one from Independence! The LDS-Missouri relationship has come a long way since the 1838 extermination order. The other Elder is from Joplin, and has heard of Purdy, the tiny town in SW Missouri where my grandpa lives.
--My friends are admirably bold, and extremely welcoming. Their new roommate has only lived with them two or three weeks, and has already been to church with them and met with the missionaries.
--This new roommate of theirs is a delight. She's a graduate student from China, studying world religions. She's incredibly smart but very humble. She's met with missionaries in the past, has read the entire Book of Mormon, and knew the answer to every question asked, and then some. (Example: "Do you know what a prophet is?" "Thomas Monson is your current prophet.")
--In commenting on the testimony meeting she attended the previous Sunday, she said (paraphrasing here--wish I could remember her exact words, they were very profound), "Everyone said they know the church is true, and they know the Book of Mormon is true, and they know Thomas Monson is a prophet...but that is just the result. Nobody talked about the process." Something for all of us to keep in mind when sharing our testimonies--don't just declare what you know to be true, but tell how you know it.

Missionary work has been on my mind more than usual lately. July 4th was the 12th anniversary of my return from my two-year mission, which always causes me to reflect on the time I spent preaching the gospel in Scotland. The week before that, my parents received a mission call. They will be serving in the New Mexico Farmington Mission! The whole family was thrown off a little by the distance--the surprisingly close distance of their area of labor, and the surprisingly far distance of their start date (about two months later than expected)--but we're all very excited. They have been told that their main assignment will be in the local employment center, with some welfare and addiction recovery duties, but that their mission president will also adjust their responsibilities as needed.

Hofmanns have a long missionary history, but there were likely none greater than my great-grandfather Karl, the first Hofmann in my bloodline to join the church. His daughter compiled a short autobiography from his journals, and there are some really cool stories in there.

Born and raised in Germany, Karl attended a Protestant church with his family. He was "confirmed" at 14, after which he was

...permitted to partake of the "Lord's Supper" for the first time. Now we were considered to be full members of the Protestant church of the state in which we lived. We were also entitled to learn to smoke and drink beer and wine...under those circumstances who could suppose that this custom was against the mind and will of God? Headaches on Monday, however, convinced me soon that this usage was not the best one, but I had the power to overcome only after I heard the Elder's message about the Word of Wisdom, and after I had asked the Lord to help me overcome.

After college Karl moved to Switzerland, where he met Mormon missionaries for the first time. He investigated the church for a year, devouring every piece of literature that had been translated into German:

After I had read the Book of Mormon I knew that it was true and that I had found the true Church on earth. I decided to join the Church, but I also thought not to join  alone. I thought that if I gave the Book of Mormon to the pastor who instructed me in school and to my parents, brothers and sister, they also would join with me or before me. This did not happen; I received booklets written against the Church. Thereupon I went to Germany to tell all my relatives that those booklets are not true, but that the Church is true.

Karl, 28 years old at the time, still followed through and was baptized, though his family did not join with him. He was a faithful convert:

As soon as a principle of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ was explained to me and I understood it, seeing that it was revealed from heaven and recorded in scripture, I began to keep it. Several months before baptism I began to pay an honest tithing and to keep the Word of Wisdom for I knew that these two laws of the Church are righteous laws and of God.

The Word of Wisdom seems to have been a favorite topic for Karl:

In Lucerne I worked for the architectural firm, Theiller & Helper...I went to Andermatt to supervise the construction of the [Central Hotel]. The owner of the hotel tried to reconvert me to smoking and drinking...once he gave me a bottle of liquor. In his presence I used it to wash my body and told him that is what liquor is good for.

There are several other stories of his friends and colleagues unsuccessfully tempting him to violate the Word of Wisdom (and usually becoming hostile towards him when they failed), but I will stop here for now, because the post is already quite long, and because if I recounted here how he lost his leg in World War I, the title of this post would seem more like a cruel joke, rather than a reference to a cheesy Primary song.

But there is plenty more, which I plan to share on my blog over the coming weeks and months. My great-grandpa was committed to the Lord and His church 100%, but even more impressively he was fully committed to sharing what he knew with everyone else. He was absolutely fearless in doing so. If we need some encouragement to do the same, there are friends, ancestors, and the scriptures (including this week's Sunday School lesson) whose examples can give us strength.


*There's a good chance that everyone who reads my blog is a Mormon; but just in case, if anyone needs clarification on any words or phrases used here or in my other posts, or has any questions about anything related to the LDS Church, feel free to contact me or leave a comment.