Sister Abbott's Farewell Talk Excerpt

I have given many lessons on “missionary work” and every time I did, I would bring out my favorite visual aid. Many of you have seen the pair of shoes that our son Mike wore home from his mission in Guatemala. I have kept them all these years, because they truly represent the concept of missionary work to me. They have worn through to the sole, they are covered in dust, and they are literally falling apart with all the walking over the dusty streets of Guatemala. As I think about the next six months for Steve and I, I am looking forward to missionary SERVICE as opposed to missionary WORK, and I have recently found a new and different visual aid that might be a better fit for Senior Missionaries.

When Steve and I were in Costa Rica last month we took a rainforest walking tour. Our guide was very knowlegable, and he kept pointing out interesting and beautiful trees, flowers, birds and animals as we walked along the path. At one point he asked us to stop and we were all wondering where to look to see the next amazing thing: He told us to look down, and crossing the path was a moving line of small green leaves. Upon closer inspection we saw that the leaves were being carried by fairly large reddish brown ants. Our guide told us they were Leaf Cutter Ants and they are pretty amazing creatures. The Leaf Cutter Ant has a complex society, second only to human beings. They have a chaste or class system, where the ants are divided into groups that perform certain tasks for the welfare of their community. The worker ants have a vital job of finding one certain species of plant and then biting off a portion of the leaf. The piece of leaf is then carried all the way back to the ant mound and carefully placed on the underside of a large fungus or mushroom that uses the leaves as its food supply, and then the ants in turn get their nutrients from the mushroom. The mushroom could be quite a distance for the ants to go – we watched as the line crossed the path, climbed an embankment and continued on into the forest. As we looked closer, we saw that there was really a two way highway going on with one lane of ants carrying their leaves, and another lane with ants returning for more. The Ants work continuously 24/7 – tirelessly doing their job for the benefit of the others in their community. They march single file, staying close to each other – following the ant in front and sticking close to the ant in the rear. I was amazed to learn that these ants, like almost all ants, are almost completely blind. But these little ants really get the job done – a group of leaf cutter ants can defoliate an entire citrus tree overnight!!

So this is my new visual when I think of Senior Missionary Service. I like to think of Steve and I as part of a great army of other senior missionaries willing to do whatever we are asked to do to help build up the church throughout the world. We want to work in front of or behind other missionaries – we aren’t picky. We will do whatever is asked of us and we will do our best. It is wonderful to think that there is this large volunteer army of senior couples willing to serve. We want to join with others, follow the example of those who went before us, and make a difference.