I'll tell you of a little
miracle that happened during the writing of the book. As it arrived at the
publisher, there were suddenly thoughts in my head, and I
believe coming from the Lord, that there were three chapters
that were not included that needed to be included. One of those is
the chapter we have kind of addressing those to
serve on a full-time mission. We call it "Preparing to Serve." And I had a memory that
was quite remarkable. I remembered a letter I had seen
about 10 years previously from a missionary who
had, unfortunately, entered the missionary--the
mission field unworthily, so he confessed to his mission
president and returned home. And he had written a
most beautiful letter that had described his process
of understanding the Savior's powerful gift of forgiveness. And he talked about the
difficulty but also the joy and the peace and
the satisfaction that the Savior
brought into his life. I didn't even know if I
could find the letter, but, surprisingly, we found it. And then it had a name, but I
knew nothing about this person, so I started a search,
and I found him. And I had a beautiful
conversation with him and asked him if he'd be
willing to share this letter. And he gladly gave
me permission. At about the same time, I knew
a young man who--the bishop explained that this was a very
wonderful young man who had made a few mistakes, and he
was helping him through it. And to my great happiness, this
bishop wrote to me the process that he had taken
this young man through to help him prepare
for the mission field. These two letters form
the bulk of that chapter, "Preparing to Serve." And they're worthy of anyone
thinking of serving a mission, and they're worthy of any
bishop who is preparing people to serve and for any of us
who are disciples of Christ. We will appreciate the
power of their testimonies.