Sister Rasband and I had an experience in the last months of our mission leadership service with the New York New York North Mission that profoundly changed our understanding of the importance of ministering to God’s children “one by one.”
We learned that Elder Neal A. Maxwell would also like to have a mission conference when we learned that he was visiting New York City on Church work. I was invited to choose one of our missionaries to offer the meeting’s opening prayer.
Normally, I would have chosen a missionary at random, but as I was looking through the roster, I felt compelled to consider my options and choose one that the Lord would have me question. Just one name
I informed Elder Appiah about the prompting I had received to pray during our regularly planned interview before the mission conference. He started to cry hard, his eyes full of wonder and humility. I began to reassure him that it was okay and that he didn’t have to pray if he felt uncomfortable, somewhat taken aback by his response.
At that point, he told me he was feeling very emotional because of his love for Elder Maxwell and that he would love to say the prayer. He informed me that because Elder Maxwell had appointed his father as the district president of Accra, this Apostle holds great significance for the Saints in Ghana as well as for his own family.
Now, the Lord knew all of this beforehand; so, on behalf of one missionary, He prompted a mission president to arrange an experience that would leave a lasting memory and strengthen the missionary’s testimony.
Let us all make an effort to accept President Russell M. Nelson’s call to serve people “one by one,” just as the Saviour did.
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