"A Fork, A Fork, My Kingdom For A Fork!"

This past week I found myself quoting the words of the desperate king in Shakespeare's play, Richard The Third when he is knocked off his horse in the middle of a terrible battle and he pleads, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"  Only in my case it was a fork that I was crying for.

We hosted the Area President, Claudio R. M. Costa for a mission tour this week.  It was wonderful!  He spoke in General Conference in 2010 and is a powerful teacher and seasoned General Authority.

At the first lunch we held during one of our mission conferences with him, he insisted on being the last person to go through the food line.  I was so busy making sure there was going to be plenty of food for him that I didn't realize we were running out of utensils.  The women who planned the meal assured me they had planned for well over the 95 people present. Utensils included.  We had plenty of food, but somehow we ended up short on utensils.

Elder Costa got his plate of food and sat down. We quickly realized that neither he nor David nor I had a fork to eat the food with.  Unlike our chapels at home, there was no silverware in the kitchen to fall back on. With no stores around for miles what could I do?  In my moment of desperation all I could do was think of Richard The Third. I turned to David and said, "A fork, a fork, my kingdom for a fork!"  I really would have paid dearly for just one clean plastic fork.  I thought about the story of the loaves and the fishes, but I didn't remember there being any mention of utensils.  Just when I thought I was going to have to grab some dirty forks out of the hands of missionaries who were still eating their meals and go and wash them in order to give Elder Costa a way to eat his Spaghetti (not exactly finger food).  David's counselor, who works at the Institute building next door, realizing what was going on, appeared with some forks he was able to find there.  I could have kissed him.

Lesson learned:  Always take extra utensils and plates to these meetings and always make sure your guest has food and utensils before everyone else eats!

Our time with President Costa was incredible.  This is a man whose entire life has been guided by the Lord.  He joined the Church at 28 years of age when two sister missionaries taught him.  He took 14 hours one night to read the account of the first vision written by Joseph Smith.  He read each paragraph and prayed about it one paragraph at a time.  At the end of 14 hours he called the missionaries and said he wanted to be baptized immediately.  They had to get permission because he had not yet had all the lessons nor attended church.

He has served in several Area presidencies in South America.  He was one of the seven presidents of the Seventy and was the first mission president in the Manaus, Brazil Mission which covered two and one half million square miles including Amazon jungle. He also served as a mission president in another mission in Brazil. In addition to attending sometimes three Stake Conferences a month in Brazil and overseeing 34 missions he travels to Brasilia regularly working with the government to help American missionaries obtain visas.  He feels that in about two years the Church should no longer have problems getting visas for our missionaries called to serve in Brazil! He was one of only five baptisms that the sister missionaries who taught him had.

He shared amazing missionary stories and gave us all some wonderful counsel.  We were richly fed. (with or without a fork. )

Our favorite time with him was in the car. We had about four hours with him alone as we traveled and he was so loving and kind and shared some fascinating things with us about his life and time serving as a mission president and general authority.  He is actually a second generation Italian on his mother's side from Bologna, Italy.  He is the second member of the Area Presidency here that we have met that has Italian roots. Of course I am thrilled about that!

We felt very fortunate to be so well taught so early in our mission.  I loved seeing the faces of the missionaries as he taught them.  They hung on every word he said and could tell that he knew what he was talking about.  His wealth of experience with missionaries and missionary work provided so many great stories and example for him to teach with.

He told of a man that was out in a remote village way in the Amazon when he was opening the Manaus Mission.  The man had previously been given a Book of Mormon and read it and he wanted to be baptized.  President Costa said he could send a missionary out to baptize him, but that he could not start a branch of the Church out there because there were no other members within many miles of that remote village.  One of President Costa's missionaries told President Costa, "Send me and I will not only baptize him, but I will baptize enough people for a branch to be made there for that man to attend."  He sent that missionary and his companion out there and because there were no cell phones then he did not hear back from them for two weeks.  He was worried about them.  They finally got to a phone and said they had been busy teaching many people and had 149 ready for baptism.   That little branch had over 200 members in a short period of time. There is now a Temple in Manaus.

Manaus Brasil Temple

Another lesson learned:  Never underestimate the power of two sister missionaries, one convert and a determined missionary sent to the jungle.

Elder Claudio R. M. Costa

Until next week, Até logo!