During the week of Sept. 7-11, 1992, my wife, Valmai, and I attended a Church Educational System convention in Sydney, Australia, with all of the other CES personnel in the country. At the time, my wife and I were serving a two-year mission in Perth.
On Tuesday morning, Sept. 8, we started our convention by going to the beautiful Sydney temple. As we entered the temple, I gave my recommend to a man at the front desk. He saw my name and said, "Vaughan! Have you ever been out here before - on a mission?""Yes," I replied, and looked more closely at him and his name tag. I exclaimed, "Eric Young!"
All at once my mind flashed back to when I was a young man serving a mission in Australia from 1950-51. A flood of memories came of my companion and I teaching and baptizing Eric and his wife, Pat.
I spontaneously ran around the desk, and Eric and I embraced. I felt again the unexplainable joy the Lord talks about that comes through missionary work and bringing souls unto Christ.
Eric's wife was also at the temple, so again we rejoiced together. It was such a beautiful experience to meet them in the temple. And one of the most delightful things about this experience was I didn't have to ask them if they were still active in the Church after all those years!
In addition, we discovered that we knew the Youngs' daughter, Eril, and her husband, Harvey Scott, who is bishop of teh Como Ward, Perth Australia Southern River Stake. Eril was the early morning seminary teacher, and we admired her as a humble, dedicated and outstanding teacher.
We also knew the Scotts' children - Diana, Luke, Ruth and Riley - all active members of the Church.
As we pondered this chance meeting, we felt Heavenly Father arranged the circumstances to bring us together again after 41 years. Meeting in the sacred house of the Lord like we did caused me to reflect on how it will be to meet our loved ones in the celestial kingdom after our resurrection if we remain true and endure faithfully to the end of our mortal lives.
We look forward with hope and faith to that most glorious day when we meet loved ones again.
