2世代のパイオニア

2世代のパイオニア

テンプルヒル

2021年8月22日

未分類, 聖人を元気づける

作成者：Yenny Mo、元々は中国語

中国語では、パイオニアという言葉は、xiānとqūの2つの主要な文字で構成されています。西安の意味は「正面」であり、qūは「ギャロップで馬に乗る」ことです。疾走する馬に乗るのと同じように、xiānqūzhěは、最初に勇敢に前進し、他の人のために新しい道を開くために全力を尽くす人を指します。

This is the same for the pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith was the first prophet after the restoration of Christ’s Church. In the spring of 1820, he sincerely asked God with great faith which church he should join. He then saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, whose light was above the brightness of the sun, and they answered his question that he should join none of them. Joseph was called to restore the original Church of Jesus Christ so that people on Earth will have the opportunity to know the living God and know how to obtain eternal blessings. Because of this great mission, he suffered immense ridicule, persecution, temptation, and heartache. After all of these trials, he was martyred.

Early saints of the Church were called to bring to pass the will of God. “Ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts…Wherefore the decree hath gone forth from the Father that they shall be gathered in unto one place upon the face of this land.” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:7-8). Thousands of converts decided to give up everything they had and left their homes to travel to the gathering place. The journey was hard. They suffered hunger, cold, illness, and uncertainty. They were expelled and persecuted constantly. Many sacrificed their lives in order to build Zion, to strengthen God’s Church on Earth so that they and all people on Earth—past and future generations—could have the opportunity to receive eternal blessings. The state of Utah has established July 24th as the Pioneer Day to commemorate their heroic effort and sacrifice.

However, the word pioneer doesn’t just apply to those who crossed the plains. There are pioneers from every era of time. Adam and Eve were the first human beings on Earth. Vincent Van Gogh was a pioneer of expressionism in the 20th century. Howard Reingold pioneered the development of virtual communities. We can be pioneers within our own families. I would like to share the experiences of two generations of pioneers in the Mo family.

私の父は中国広東省の村で生まれました。彼は19歳で陸軍に入隊しました。3年後、彼は故郷に戻り、体育教師になり、私の母に会いました。その間、私たちの家族は貧困の中で暮らしていました。それから1984年に、彼は彼のために道を計画し、旅行と旅行書類の費用をカバーするために彼にお金を貸した彼のいとこの助けを借りてベネズエラに行く機会を与えられました。

習近平村から沙湖町、広州へと旅が始まり、翌朝まで友人の家に一泊しました。その後、彼は別の電車に乗って香港に行きました。到着後すぐに、彼は新しい服一式、靴一足、そして中国のエチケットの伝統としてのいとこの贈り物を買うために持っていた唯一のお金を使いました。買い物の後、彼はついに飛行機に乗ってパリ、そしてコロンビアに向かった。当時、彼は無一文で、英語の単語を知りませんでした。

到着すると、運転手が彼を迎えに行き、指定されたホテルに車で行き、ベネズエラに到着するための他の交通手段が手配されるまで数日待ちました。当時、ベネズエラ政府はビザを発給していなかったため、国へのルートは非常に長かった。

車の中には、2人のコロンビア人、2人の中国人（私の父を含む）、そして運転手がいました。数時間運転して急な丘を通過した後、お父さんは大きな人けのない鬱蒼とした森を見ることができました。その光景は彼に不吉な予感を与えました。空が暗くなり、突然運転手がベネズエラの国境に近づいていると説明したので、できるだけ早く車から飛び降りて隠れなければなりませんでした。彼は国境警備隊を迎えに戻る前に国境警備隊と交渉しなければなりませんでした。乗客は、運転手が戻ってくるのを待つ間、彼が指示して車から飛び降り、木に隠れて行動しました。恐ろしい夜でした。彼は、こんなに巨大な野生の森や崖を見たことがないと言った。いつでもトラ、オオカミ、野獣に食べられることへの恐怖も彼を悩ませました。崖の端には底なしの深淵があり、誤って倒れた場合は必ず死んでしまいます。彼らにできることは、車が戻るのを震えながら待つことだけでした。

After more than half an hour passed, the car finally came. They got in the car, breathed a sigh of relief, and passed the border safely. The car advanced into the barren mountains and ridges. Soon the driver told them that there was one last border to pass. They had to jump out of the car again. Unfortunately, my dad happened to jump onto an unstable tree trunk. The trunk was about to break, but there was another stable tree trunk not far away from the other person who was with him. My father asked him to give him a hand as he jumped over. The other person didn’t understand what he had said and didn’t reach out to help, so my father got stuck and was hanging on the tree trunk. He then exerted all of his strength to climb up by himself, firmly grasping the tree trunk until he pulled himself up safely. His newly-purchased clothing was torn, and his leather shoes were broken. They endured hunger in the cold night, and waited, listening to the howling of wolves.

More than an hour had passed when the car came for them again. They jumped inside, thinking that their adventure was finally over. Not long after they got going, the driver told them to get out of the car once again and switch to another large truck full of boxes of plantains, where they would hide underneath. When my father saw the plantains, he realized that if the trestles under the boxes were to fall apart, the person underneath would surely be crushed. But they had no other option, so they went in as they were told. Other drivers and co-workers worked together to cover them up tightly with the remaining plantains. My father described that he couldn’t move his hands and feet, and had difficulty breathing due to the weight and lack of oxygen. They endured this hardship until they arrived in Caracas, Venezuela. My father’s cousin met him as he got off the truck and drove him to his house for a temporary stay. Finally, he could eat, change clothes, take a shower, and go to bed. He slept all day and night for about a week.

すぐに彼は$8,330の借金を返済するために工場で残業する仕事を得ました。その間、彼は毎月家に手紙を書き、借金が返済されるまで家にお金を送ることができないと家族に言いました。彼が借金を返済するのに4年連続でかかった。

Later on, my father moved to St. Maarten to work in a Chinese department store for a fellow who was from the same village. He was also responsible for making lunch and dinner for the man’s family. Unfortunately, the man would complain that my father didn’t cook enough, while the man’s mother would complain that he cooked too much. This caused them to quarrel against each other more and more over time. The man’s wife believed that my father was the cause of the disputes in the family, so she kicked my father out of the house one night. He wandered penniless for three days until another kind man took him in to work in a restaurant. He let my father sleep in the corner of the restaurant. Due to the heavy workload, he felt exhausted to the point that he decided it wasn’t working out.

His former employer eventually reappeared and begged him to go back to work in the department store, so my father went and worked for him again. But a few months later, the man’s wife still didn’t like my father and kicked him out again. Soon, he found another job in a supermarket, where he was mistreated and abused physically and verbally by the wife of his boss.

Sometime later, a wealthy man named Afoo, who passed by the supermarket daily, noticed that my father was an extraordinarily hard-working man. Afoo offered to hire my father to work for him. Because of my father’s diligence, Afoo looked after him and offered help wherever needed. He increased his salary over time, which enabled my father to send more money home, and even helped many family members to come to the island, including my mother, brother, uncles, aunts, and other relatives from both of my parents’ families. Eventually, Afoo sold one of his restaurants to my father. With that opportunity, he was able to open up more businesses. He provided sufficiently for my grandparents and his four children so that we no longer lived in poverty.

Finances were not the only blessing. Because of his success in business, my father had the ability to support my sister and me as we attended college in the Netherlands. During the first year of college, we both wanted to find a church to do voluntary work, hoping to live a more meaningful life in addition to studying. One day, my sister met the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who invited her to attend the church services and we both did that Sunday.

私が教会に足を踏み入れたとき、それについての何かがなじみがあり、暖かく感じました。まるで光が私の全身、心、そして心を不可解な喜びで満たしたかのようでした。その時、私はたくさんの恐れと悲しみを持って生きていました。私の人生で感じた真の幸福の欠如は、私にその前例のない喜びの気持ちを維持しようとして、毎週宣教師と会い続けるように私を駆り立てました。やがて、私は神が生きておられるという証を述べました。彼は私たちの天の父です。彼は私たちをとても愛しており、このため、私たちの永遠の幸福のために無限の犠牲を払うために、彼の愛する息子、イエス・キリストを送ることに苦しみました。同時に、彼は私が謙虚になるように多くの経験と試練を経験することを許し、彼が永続的な幸福の唯一の源であることを理解するようになりました。私は2016年6月に末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会の会員にバプテスマを受けました。

In February 2019, I was doing an internship in England. I had the opportunity to attend a local church meeting one Sunday. I ran into a missionary and learned that she was younger than me, and a more recent convert. Because she insisted on serving a mission, her parents didn’t talk to her. The story was very sad, but at the same time, her bright countenance and calm smile were unforgettable. In an instant, some impressive words appeared in my mind, as was described in the scriptures, “notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center… It did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn” (3 Nephi 11:3). That voice said to me, “Are you not in easier circumstances than her? What reason do you have to not to go on a mission?” It was very obvious that Heavenly Father was calling me to serve a mission through the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

I didn’t want to hurt my family, so I kept telling Heavenly Father in prayers the many reasons why it wasn’t necessary for me to serve a mission. Every time I had an excuse, I was convinced otherwise by the example of a missionary. This became a pattern and happened four times in three weeks. Finally, my sister and I fasted in the temple to gain clarity on this matter and asked Heavenly Father if it was His will. We got the same answer at the same time, that I should go.

After we left the temple on our way home, I received a shocking message from my father saying, “I just woke up and felt nervous and uneasy. Don’t tell me that you are going on a mission!” In order to not worry him, I told him that I was not. After a while, my parents told me that a fortune teller in China told them that something was preventing me from continuing my studies, so they spent a long time convincing me to concentrate on my studies and not get distracted by anything else. Even so, I still filled out mission papers. I was told that because I have a Chinese passport, I needed to have parental consent. Many people thought that would be impossible, including my sister and other Church friends.

This situation lasted until May. One day in the temple, I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to tell my father about going on a mission and was reassured that everything will be all right. At that time, I was accompanied by an elderly couple, the Gouts, who had given me great support and care in many aspects of my life. On May 4th, after dinner with the Gouts, I video-called my father from the dining table, telling him that I was going on a mission. His reaction was just as I had imagined. My decision brought him heartache like a knife through his heart.

My father’s perspective was that he had suffered much hardship to raise me up to this point, and now I was leaving to serve a God who was unknown to him. He was thoroughly disappointed in me like he had lost a daughter. He even said, “I don’t know how to be a father anymore.” I could see that it was so hard for him; he had no more energy to speak and ended the call. Although the Gouts couldn’t understand anything that was said, they also felt my father’s pain and became emotional because there were no words that could help my father understand the situation. They fasted and prayed a lot for me. I cried to Heavenly Father every night; there was a great spiritual battle in me trying to resolve the will of Heavenly Father and my own father.

1週間後、彼は40分の音声メッセージを送ってくれました。彼が自分の気持ちを表現したとき、すべての文が私を悲しませた。彼の不満を聞いた後、私の心は苦しみました。姉が指摘するまで、彼が私を手放すことに同意していることに気づかなかったからです。彼は言いました。「あなたが神と私の間で圧力をかけられていることを私は知っています。神はあなたが使命を果たすことを望んでおられます。働いたり勉強したりしてほしい。将来何が起こるかわからないので、彼に従ってください。」彼のしぶしぶ承認で、私のミッション申請はついに処理されました。

However, my family did not stop mocking me for my decision. I felt like I was worthless in my family and had only brought them harm. At the same time, I was suffering from a serious illness and was taking medication that made me feel dizzy all the time. I had to give a presentation on my thesis in order to graduate before going on a mission. A miracle happened as I began to present, I felt perfectly fine as I wasn’t sick at all until the end of my presentation. I was also worried about my visa issues. Even so, I still felt calm, and I believe Jesus Christ was carrying me and sharing my burdens.

After graduation and leaving the Netherlands, I had about two months left before going on my mission. I felt the need strongly to go to Zhejiang, China, and stayed at my friend’s house. It was necessary to avoid any potential obstacles that might prevent me from going on a mission, to apply for an American visa, and to keep going to church on Sundays. The night before I left, my family spoke to me in a negative way, causing me to fall on my knees and cry to Heavenly Father. One image came vividly to my mind: Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified, as he knelt and prayed to his Heavenly Father, and learned that he had no other way but to endure the cross to save all mankind. He said, “not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). This gave me so much strength. I stood up and wiped away my tears as though nothing had happened. With renewed commitment, I was ready for departure.

During my mission, some unfortunate things happened at home, which made it more difficult for my family to understand why I was out helping others and not them. However, after returning home, I could see that my father began to have a new view of our Church, as he saw the blessings and changes that the mission had brought me. He began to see how the gospel could help him, being a man full of anxiety. My father has always put family first, and what he cares most about is that our family should always be united. Jesus Christ has given us this opportunity to be with our families forever. My father began to realize that he really felt peace as he studied the Gospel with missionaries, which was an obvious contrast to his troubles in his career and family matters.

私は姉と私がMo家で第一世代のキリスト教を始めたと思っていました。しかし、振り返ってみると、私たちは前の世代に大きく依存していたことを認識しています。私の両親は、肉体的および精神的に多大な貢献をしてきました。彼らは勇敢に村（彼らの快適ゾーン）を世界の反対側（未知）に逃げました、そして彼らの苦労と仕事の生涯の後、私の妹と私は海外に行き、宣教師に会い、知識を得る機会がありました神様、宣教師に仕え、キリストからの平和が私たちの家族や友人の生活に流れ込むようにしてください。

2世代の開拓者をつなぐことで、開拓者の前には常に開拓者がいることを理解することができました。開拓者の世代の間には継続性があります。私たちがしたことは、以前の開拓者たちの道を歩み続け、神の永遠の目的を果たすために旅を別の場所にまで広げることだけでした。善のために犠牲を払うことをいとわない人は誰でもその一部になります。私たちが支払う代償は、空腹、涙、または肉体的または精神的な苦痛の形で来る可能性がありますが、これらの苦しみに続く幸福は永遠です。