Post Mission Stories

Submitted by Vickie Savory {Smith} ('75-'76)

The Gift of Tongues--

Returning home from serving in Japan, I tried for a while to keep in touch with other missionaries. Susan Holmes Shimai and I were visiting by phone one day several years after our mission and I told her how I had always marveled at her language ability, seemingly from day one. Confident of her language, she was fearless in street contacting even from the first day we arrived in Japan. She would approach a family in the park and strike up a conversation with them, they would nod and smile and carry on with her for several minutes. I was awestruck and told her I had always wanted her gift.

When she heard this, she started to laugh and said, "Vickie, I have to tell you what happened shortly before the end of my mission. My companion and I were in the local church and the phone rang. I answered and spoke with the caller for a few minutes, telling them the person they were trying to reach was not in the building at that time...would the caller like me to leave a message. I took the information and posted it in a visible spot." Later when Sis. Holmes bumped into the person she 
had left the message for, she asked him if he had received the message. The person said, "Oh, yes, was that you, Holmes Shimai? The caller was not a member of our church and without being able to see the person answering the phone he thought someone retarded (Japanese) had answered his call." 

She laughed, I laughed. If our very best speakers still sound "retarded" we should all be humbled, studying and praying more earnestly for a greater bestowal of the gift of tongues.

Submitted by Jared Stucki ('75-'77)

Wrong Number

A few years ago (I had been home from my mission about 20 years) I was at home when the phone rang.  The moment I said hello the person on the other line began to speak in NIHONGO. "OGENKI DESU KA", he asked. "GENKI DESU YO", I answered.  "What you doing now days?", he asked in NIHONGO.  We chatted for about 10 minutes, all in NIHONGO, when the person on the other line began to realize that I wasn't the person he had intended to call.  "ANATA WA DARE DESU KA", he asked.  He thought he had called an old companion, but it was a wrong number.