{"id":71353,"date":"2019-03-10T21:53:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T03:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=71353"},"modified":"2019-03-10T23:48:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T05:48:27","slug":"thoughts-on-some-worldly-benefits-of-missionary-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/thoughts-on-some-worldly-benefits-of-missionary-service.html","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on some worldly benefits of missionary service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Der<\/a>
The first temple on the continent of Europe was this one, the Bern Switzerland Temple (actually located in Zollikofen), dedicated nearly sixty-five years ago, in September 1955, by President David O. McKay. \u00a0 \u00a0(LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tad Walch, of the Deseret News<\/em>, has written a number of thoughtful and interesting articles on Latter-day Saint subjects, and this piece is certainly among them:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Francis meets with President Nelson in the Vatican\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already read it, I encourage you to do so, even if you think that you already know all you need to know about the meeting of the Prophet and the Pontiff in Rome the other day. \u00a0It offers a fascinating glimpse of the recent history of relations between the Catholics and the Latter-day Saints, as well sketching the cooperation of the two churches on humanitarian projects, which is, I suspect, much more extensive than many people realize.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One dimension that could have been included would be the efforts of the pre-2012 Maxwell Institute to digitize documents in the Vatican Apostolic Library. \u00a0That story needs to be written down before it\u2019s lost. \u00a0I was somewhat involved in the project, which involved (among other things) meetings with several cardinals at the Vatican.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also by Tad Walch:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Nelson refers to apostles Peter, Paul during Rome Temple dedication\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washington Post<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cAfter decades of behind-the-scenes diplomacy, leaders of Catholic, Mormon churches meet in Rome\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Voice of America<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cCenter of Christianity Has its First Mormon Temple\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deutsche Welle<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cEurope\u2019s biggest Mormon temple complex opens in Rome:\u00a0In the heartland of the Catholic Church, a new Mormon temple is now open for business. The Rome Temple has been 10 years in the making.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I recently read a very negative discussion of the missionary program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, arguing that the Church keeps its missionaries in a cultural bubble, restricting them from immersing themselves in local theater, music, literature, and art, and thus effectively preventing them from being more than robotic, cookie-cutter, uncultured, small-minded, provincial cultists.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true, of course, that missionaries in Japan don\u2019t spend much of their time reading\u00a0The Tale of Genji<\/i>\u00a0(\u6e90\u6c0f\u7269\u8a9e<\/span>\u00a0Genji monogatari<\/i>), that missionaries to Russia don\u2019t often return as experts on either Dostoyevsky or Shostakovich, and that missionaries in Austria don\u2019t typically study Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they return well equipped to become very knowledgeable on those topics if they so choose \u2014 I didn\u2019t serve in Austria, but my wife and I are very fond of Klimt, have visited sites associated with him and his movement, and own several reproductions of his work \u2014 because, where it\u2019s applicable, they typically learn the languages of their assigned areas better than they would from multiple college courses in Japanese, Russian, or German. \u00a0And that\u2019s an inestimable gift. \u00a0Moreover, by the end of their missions, wherever<\/em> they serve, they will have spoken with and been in the homes of thousands of people, of all socio-economic, educational, and religio-philosophical backgrounds, giving them a familiarity with ordinary daily life and with a range of congenial and uncongenial worldviews in Japan, Russia, or Austria (or Bolivia, or Louisiana, or New Zealand, or Thailand, or Ghana, or Finland, or Brazil, or Australia, or British Columbia, or the Dominican Republic, or Scotland, Romania, or Mexico, or Wisconsin, or Korea, or South Africa, or wherever) that no semester-abroad program could ever bestow.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, I don\u2019t know how atypical my mission was, but it was on my mission that I became acquainted (at the Oper Z\u00fcrich) with Mozart\u2019s Die Zauberfl\u00f6te<\/em>, and learned to love it. \u00a0I can read Goethe and Schiller and the lyrics of Wagner\u2019s opera in the originals because of my mission. \u00a0It was on my mission that I learned at first hand about Swiss foods and culture, about Alpenhorns, about seasonal aspects of cowherding and cheese production, about the folklore of the Bernese Alps, about the political side of religion in the Swiss Confederation, about the subtle differences between Z\u00fcrchers and Berners and Appenzellers, about the country\u2019s citizen army, and so on and so forth. \u00a0My early residence in Switzerland, along with the love that I developed for Alpine Europe in general and Switzerland in particular, has been a source of continuing blessings and happiness to me. \u00a0And I expect that I\u2019m not the only returned missionary whose life has been altered for the good \u2014 even leaving religious considerations out of the picture \u2014 by my experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, although it\u2019s deteriorated rather badly (as can be readily detected from the recording below), I\u2019ve made use of my German ever since \u2014 most recently a couple of days ago:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDaniel Peterson \u2013 Freiberg Temple Stake Education Day\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(The text for the brief talk above can be found here: \u00a0\u201cIhr seid \u2014 wir sind \u2014 seine Zeugen.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Tad Walch, of the Deseret News, has written a number of thoughtful and interesting articles on Latter-day Saint subjects, and this piece is certainly among them: \u00a0 \u201cPope Francis meets with President Nelson in the Vatican\u201d \u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already read it, I encourage you to do so, even if you think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1809,156,3988,2692],"class_list":["post-71353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-missionary","tag-rome","tag-rome-italy-temple"],"yoast_head":"\nThoughts on some worldly benefits of missionary service<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Tad Walch, of the Deseret News, has written a number of thoughtful and interesting 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