Image by David Perry.
When David Perry received his mission call, his birth mother, who dealt with very heavy substance abuse issues, told him that if he went on a mission, she would kill herself. She was never one to say things that she didn’t mean, but he felt like he needed to answer the mission call and so he left, not knowing what would happen as a result.
On Mother’s Day after he’d been out over a year, not having heard anything from or about his birth mother, he was given a phone number to call to find out something about her. He called the number not knowing what to expect and introduced himself to the unfamiliar voice on the other end. It turned out to be his mother, unrecognizable for her wholeness and happiness. She told him that she was two weeks from hitting one year of being clean and sober. She had hit rock bottom in his absence and that turned out to be just what she needed to turn her life around.
These were truly miraculous manifestations in the life of the man who would decide to make his career about helping people to “remember the temple,” but the thing that surprised me about our conversation was his declaration that it wasn’t the miracles that gave him his testimony. It was reading his scriptures every day of his mission rather than that amazing Mother’s Day call that made his testimony.
To read the full article on Meridian Magazine, click here.
