Local Priesthood Leader Message
Serve: Be the Answer to Someone’s Prayer
“Every morning, we could wake up and ask ourselves, “How can I be an answer to someone’s prayer through the service I am going to render?”
One of the goals of the Africa Southeast Area Plan is to “Love, serve and minister to one another”. Love and service are closely linked because service is one of the outer expressions of love, which in turn is an inner feeling. When we love, we render service; and when we render service, our love for others awakens and grows. The Bible teaches that the first of all the commandments is to love God, and the second is to love thy neighbor.1
President Russell M. Nelson said, “Living that second great commandment is the key to becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ.”2 And, “Latter-day Saints, as with other followers of Jesus Christ, are always looking for ways to help, to lift, and to love others”.3
As members of the Church, we receive opportunities to serve others, either through a call to serve in the Church or otherwise. This gives us the opportunity to serve others, who sometimes are people unknown to us and for whom we have no feelings of love at first. I have been blessed with simple opportunities to serve those I found around me. They gave me the opportunity to express my love to others.
My wife, Mamie, has often shown me the example of selfless service. She is an ordinary woman whose abilities to love and to serve others are extraordinary. I really appreciate her swift response when service is needed. I am impressed by her vigor and caring spirit when it comes to rendering service. Recently, she made a nonmember woman feel happy. This woman was afflicted by terminal cancer. My wife’s unannounced visit to this woman, to whom she brought food and a bit of money for medicine, turned her pain into joy. My wife knows that this sick woman probably will not recover, but her act of service has shown the woman that she still matters to someone.
Some years ago, my wife and other sisters in our ward took the initiative to provide help and relief to some families, both in our ward and outside. This act of love expressed through a selfless service had not only made the recipients feel good, but it has also been a source of satisfaction to them. There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.
I also remember a joint effort of my family with another friendly family. We provided care, comfort and food, for a relatively long period, to a single brother who had no family, and of whom it was being said was afflicted with a contagious disease. We found reasons to render a service to him instead of finding excuses to not come close to him. This act of love and service changed the life of this faithful member of the Church who now has raised a family.
Christ, our perfect example of love and service, has restored hope to some and given a purpose in life to others. The Savior was mindful of the needs of others and found the opportunity to serve all the time. Nowadays, the world has more and more need for helping hands. In addition to the opportunities that the Church provides to us, we can also, individually and as families, prayerfully seek and find opportunities to serve. In some places and circumstances, the opportunities to serve carry serious risks and we can walk away from those. But we should not generalize and overlook precious opportunities to render service and thereby relieve those who are hungry, those who are sick or who have special needs. When we are willing and we express our desire to render a service, the Lord, through his Spirit, will lead us to the right people and opportunities. Every morning, we could wake up and ask ourselves, “How can I be an answer to someone’s prayer through the service I am going to render?” We render service by giving of our energy, our goods, our time and our attention.
President Nelson said, “They who are willing to be called the Lord’s people ‘are willing to bear one another’s burdens, . . . to mourn with those that mourn; . . . and [to] comfort those that stand in need of comfort’”4.
Recently during a trip, I performed a small act of kindness and what a joy it was to hear that lady, whom I did not know, and whom I just helped to carry her bag onto the plane, say, “Thank you sir. It feels good to know there are still people out there who are caring and willing to help and render service.” I like rendering service to strangers. This lady, who may always remember this story and even tell it to others who do not know me and who probably will never meet me, will continue to feel the happiness for having received selfless service. Often, the great difference is made when we are rendering simple service which can, at times, appear to be trivial in the eyes of the world. Simple and unobtrusive service come from the bottom of the heart and which are rendered away from public gaze and social media.
President Russell M. Nelson said, “Giving help to others—making a conscientious effort to care about others as much as or more than we care about ourselves—is our joy. Especially, I might add, when it is not convenient and when it takes us out of our comfort zone.”5
I testify that service is the core of the second commandment. There is joy in serving, there is happiness in loving. May we get out of our comfort zone and express our love by rendering services to others.
Elder Eustache Ilunga was named an Area Seventy at the April 2018 general conference. He is married to Mamie Thérèse Muela Mutatayi; they are the parents of four children. Elder and Sister Ilunga reside in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.