My wife, Edna, and I served a year and a half mission in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa, in 1997-99 for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our theme for our mission was “The Message of Gladness” as we worked with the Saints and the wonderful people there.
The following is a summary of our amazing and unusual Missionary Farewell experience.
A Special Musical Composition
In preparation for our farewell, scheduled for July 1997 I asked our oldest son, Sterling, who was living with us at the time and was a very good pianist and composer, to prepare some music for us around the inspired architecture of the Washington D. C. Temple.
At the end of May, I was scheduled to go to Boulder, CO, to teach at their annual time and frequency seminar. Time was running out and we had not seen much progress with the composition. I asked Sterling if he wanted a priesthood blessing, and he said, “Of course, I would appreciate that.” It was a sweet blessing, and when we came back over a week later, we witnessed a miracle, as he had pretty much finished this amazing composition that my wife named, THE MESSAGE OF GLADNESS.
I had provided the lyrics from the scriptures, which had a latter-day, Zion, millennial flavor to them. We had people coming from four states to our farewell, and they wanted to participate in the choir, so we made cassette tapes and gave them to those who wanted to take part. It was a very difficult piece, and Sterling was the only one who could play the piano for it.
A good friend, Al Stumphy, had agreed to be our conductor for this difficult piece of music, as we practiced with our ward choir. Actually, we only had one practice with all the family and friends from out of state and within the State of Utah that Sunday morning of our farewell.
We had 28 people who stayed in our home the Saturday night before. It was quite a gathering. We were to go into the mission home on Edna’s birthday, 27 August 1997, where we would spend two months learning French. Try that one at 61 years of age!
After our practice the morning of the farewell, I got sick and I couldn’t talk. I received a priesthood blessing and was healed almost instantaneously.
We were so pleased with the tremendous support and for all who came to that sacrament meeting and farewell for us. My brother, Dean, and my sister, Jeanne, gave the opening and closing prayers.
Our Complete Farewell Program
The following five Mp3 links are the full farewell program. You can copy and paste the link into your browser and then click on the arrowhead to start the recording. Enjoy!
Edna’s wonderful presentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q_jH1zTonbyzUVzFiN7LGY97WrMoDAdy/view?usp=sharing
Wayne Winters song which he had composed both the music and the inspired lyrics:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lLTIpchF7I5ajTa53GkFHZThqCMotTpb/view?usp=sharing
My address explains the inspired architecture for the Washington D. C. Temple and how THE MESSAGE OF GLADNESS came out of that experience.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VzsXKBr2rJ34ilfcJhCsIdAsJWViqpkP/view?usp=sharing
THE MESSAGE OF GLADNESS begins with the piano rumble denoting the coming out of the dark ages: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tJRcCQDO3gt3N0IWbW1D3p0PCrhz-JSx/view?usp=sharing
Bishop Dwight Cook’s closing remarks:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rMBtO5X5pdAynHfwHjsv0YG8Kai6EHEj/view?usp=sharing
My wife and I have listened to the cassette recording of our program many times during our year-and-a-half mission, almost always with tears in our eyes. It was so incredibly uplifting to us. I hope you feel what we feel, as we still enjoy its most timely message for the day and time in which we live. It is a Zion, millennial message to help prepare us for the Lord’s glorious coming.
David W. Allan
Photo: CC Flicker