Michael Evans summarized his service in the Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission from 2022 to 2024 as going 12 rounds in the ring with a world champion heavy-weight boxer.
“It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life,” he said while speaking in his Garland 6th Ward of the Garland Utah Stake on Sunday, Nov. 17.
Evans acknowledged having many sweet and meaningful mission experiences, but on at least four occasions during his two years, the 21-year-old struggled and wanted to return home. Each time he decided to stay.
While Evans was able to finish, the Church acknowledges circumstances when some missionaries return home early for reasons related to physical, mental and emotional health, and the Lord is accepting of their service and sacrifices, as President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said in 2016.
“When someone asks if you have served a mission, you say ‘yes,’” President Holland said. “Cherish the service you rendered. Be grateful for the opportunity to have testified, to have been out in the name of the Lord, to have worn that missionary name plaque. … Please, please do not relive this; do not rehash it; do not think you are inadequate or a failure.”
For Evans, the last pivotal turning point came with just over a month to go. As he contemplated going home, Evans read in Chapter 13 of “Saints,” Volume I, where new convert William McLellin approaches the Prophet Joseph Smith in Ohio in 1831 with questions, primarily wanting to know “where to go and what to do with his life.”
Seeing relevance to his own circumstances, Evans followed the footnotes to Doctrine and Covenants 66, a revelation in which the Lord gives counsel to McLellin. Words Evans read in verse 9 were like a flashing neon sign that provided an undeniable answer to his question about going home.
“Return not till I, the Lord, shall send you. Be patient in affliction,” the scripture says.
Another phrase in verse 12 jumped off the page as well — “Continue in these things even unto the end.”
“OK, I will stick it out,” Evans said, wondering if perhaps the Lord still had something important for him to do in Guatemala.
He did. Days later, Evans and his companion were in their apartment when a damaged spare phone normally carried by the zone leaders began to ring. Evans was reluctant to answer at first, but as the phone continued to ring, he finally picked up.
The caller was a distraught young man whom Evans had met and taught several times. The teen, a recent convert, was dealing with many problems and at that moment was thinking about taking his own life.
One afflicted soul was able to minister to another afflicted soul. Evans said he kept the youth talking for the next 30 minutes, discussing among other things one of the teen’s favorite topics — Japanese animation — while his companion contacted other missionaries and the bishop, who rushed to the young man’s home and ensured he was safe.
Evans said the youth was subsequently embraced by ward members and is doing much better.
Looking back, Evans is deeply grateful he followed the Lord’s direction to stay, which enabled him to be there for this young man in his hour of need. He shudders to think, “What if I had gone home early?” He learned that being available is often all the Lord needs to answer a prayer and/or orchestrate a miracle.
“The Lord wanted me to be available and willing,” the returned missionary said before bearing his testimony. “If I accomplished nothing else on my mission, it was worth it to help that one person.”
Listening to Evans’ powerful experience, I was reminded of Heavenly Father’s love for all of His children, as well as President Russell M. Nelson’s prophetic counsel to “let God prevail” and allow Him to be the most important influence in our lives.
“It takes both faith and courage to let God prevail. It takes persistent, rigorous spiritual work to repent and put off the natural man through the Atonement of Jesus Christ,” President Nelson taught in 2020. “As you choose to let God prevail in your lives, you will experience for yourselves that our God is ‘a God of miracles.’”
Trusting in the Lord and learning to “stand still” (Exodus 14:13) — be where you are supposed to be, do what you are supposed to do — allowed those involved to see the “salvation of God.”
“Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall … follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:3-4).
— Trent Toone is a reporter for the Church News.
