“CEO of multimillion-dollar company steps down to serve LDS mission with husband”

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865622135/CEO-of-multimillion-dollar-company-steps-down-to-serve-LDS-mission-with-husband.html?pg=1

One of the things that have always deeply impressed me about the Church and the Saints is illustrated in this article:

Faithful Saints are willing, time and time again, to step away from successful careers, comfortable homes, large bank accounts, familiar surroundings, family and friends, status, and other such things (worthy in themselves) in order to serve the Lord.

I was impressed, when Russia began to open up to missionary work, to see my Russian language and literature colleagues down the hall leave, one after the other, to preside over new missions there.

I was impressed when a long-time friend of mine gave up a promising academic career and an active commitment to publishing to serve as a member of the Seventy.

I was impressed to see the tiny apartment in an expensive European city where friends of ours — he the former chief executive of a large California hospital — were serving among the local Church youth, running programs to benefit them, supplying refreshments for them, and so on.

I was impressed by the service given by a close relative of my wife, the remarkably able CEO of a substantial engineering firm, as a member of a stake presidency in the Denver area during the building of far-flung chapels and the new temple there; he brought a level of expertise to his work that would have cost an arm and a leg to hire, but he did it, of course, for nothing.

I don’t claim to be in their league, and my service has been far less impressive.  But I recall an amusing incident with a young man several years ago.  I was serving as the bishop of a singles ward, and he and I had spent quite a bit of time together as we worked through an issue that he had.  Finally, I determined that the process was complete.  He thanked me for all the time that I’d taken with him, often fairly late into the night.  I told him not to worry.

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks,” I said.

“Oh,” he replied.  “I’ve always wanted to ask: How much do they pay you to serve as a bishop?”

It occurred to me that his understanding of the Church might perhaps be a little less complete than I had assumed.  It also occurred to me that I had better correct him on this point:

“They don’t pay me a nickel,” I said.  “I’ll do this for free, but I would never, ever, do it for money.”

I think of a friend who, at the time, was presiding over a Spanish-speaking branch of the Church on the American east coast.  (He has since served as a mission president in West Africa.)  Holder of a Harvard doctorate in economics and finance and son of a long-time CEO of a multi-billion dollar company whose name you would recognize, he managed many billions of dollars himself entrusted to him and his associates by major investors.  And he had taken it upon himself to spend time, among other things, trying to teach the rudiments of budgeting and home finance (e.g., how to balance a check book) to very poor immigrants in his branch.  (Sometimes, when his father was in town, the two of them did it together.)

I love to see and hear of such things.

They’re among the very great features of a very great church organization.