Tom and Jackie Malm began their 18-month mission – which their family and friends say is
more like an extended vacation – to the Hawaii Laie Temple Mission in early
June. They spent a week in the MTC where
each of them “gained about 10 pounds because our schedule was ‘work, eat, eat,
work, eat, work, eat, and eat’. In our
two weeks of instruction we heard from Church leaders and Temple Presidents
sharing stories about the brethren and about temple doctrine. We treasured every moment of it. That was worth the time and effort to serve a
mission by itself!” notes Sister Malm.
The decision to serve a mission did not come easy,
according to Elder Malm. “We had lots of
reasons why we couldn’t go. In General
Conference, Church leaders asked seniors to serve a mission, if they could. Ed and Linda Sappington pleaded for help
where they were . . . with no response from us because we didn’t think we could
do it. At Ward Conference Bishop
Goldhardt and President Anderson made a presentation asking for seniors to
consider going. At the end of the
meeting, we looked at each other and said, ‘let’s do it!’”
We submitted our papers, wanting the Lord to know we would
go anywhere and do anything. We put down
our Church and Temple experience and thought we would be called to a Spanish
speaking area. We bought Spanish
programs and started to study together.
Then the call came. Jackie found
me in a planning meeting in the Temple where I did the Toyota jump.
After meeting with the temple president in Laie, we knew for
certain why we had been called to this beautiful place. President Workman told us they had prayed us
here and as he spoke, he used the same words we had put on our paper work. The Spirit bore witness to us and we were
humbled. We have been in leadership
roles for several years in The St. George Temple but feel totally unprepared
for this. It is a huge responsibility with
special challenges. We have faith the Lord will help us.
This week our ward here in Laie will host a Hukilau. The town’s people come to the beach and put
out huge nets. Everybody helps pull the nets in full of fish( sometimes) then
they have a fish fry and party. Our
Church people here originated this as a fund raiser to build the first Chapel
here in Laie, and it remains as a great tradition.”
The Malms are happy in their service and invite others to
serve wherever the Lord has need for your skills and talents.
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