"If ye love me, keep my commandments"

Leona and Lou at the Frankfurt Temple

There are a few things which I must tell you that impressed me the most about our mission.

This kind of experience, shared with my beloved wife, enhances a marriage experience which had already exceeded my fondest expectations. But now we had much more uninterrupted time together than ever before. We had no telephone in our room, no truck or automobile, and no TV. I really didn’t think I could survive with no football games, no sports of any kind to watch. We had no news except once an hour over the Armed Forces Radio, and we missed it most of the time because we couldn’t stand to listen to the music that went with it!

Why was it so great? Well, we spent a lot of time talking and reading and visiting with our fellow missionaries. We read the scriptures more than we ever did before, and we did some writing in our journals and a lot of letter writing. Not having a car, we did a lot of walking. First, because we had to, to get groceries every day, almost; and walking was very interesting, because there were forests within a few blocks from everyplace we lived and the towns were also very interesting. We loved to see the beautiful homes and well-kept gardens and yards. Of course, it is always interesting to see the people.

At the temples in Europe, it is the five groups of people who are so terribly important: the full-time temple workers (the staff), the local temple workers, the local patrons, the groups of patrons who come in for the week, and the other temple missionaries. We had a special relationship with each group. It was only the temple missionaries from the US that we expected to be able to see again after our mission, and that was questionable for many of them.

The temple missionaries are mainly couples, but some singles. We found these to be great, and we did many things together, especially in Switzerland. We worked together in the temple, learning from the ones who arrived before we did, and teaching those who came after we arrived. We shared our testimonies, our birthdays and anniversaries, and our pictures from home. In Switzerland we would all take our tables and chairs to the apartment foyer and have a covered dish dinner on the holidays and we would sing and visit and have a good time for the evening.

Throughout our entire mission, I was constantly impressed with the theme of the two great commandments given several times in the scriptures, “to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” As I was impressed with the constant flow of love among the missionaries and in the temple with the temple workers and patrons from Europe, I was desirous of being more like so many of these people that we met. I know that in order to improve anything, you need to be able to measure it to determine how to improve upon it; but how do you measure love?

The Lord said in John 14: 15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” And in verse 21, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

So, I need to live the commandments to prove my love for Christ and Heavenly Father – that is what we came to the earth for, anyway, so it’s no additional problem.

The Lord said to Peter in John 21: 15-18 three times: “Lovest thou me?” And the three answers were: Feed my lambs, Feed my sheep, Feed my sheep. So the other way to measure my love for the Lord is to serve his children. So, obedience and service are the things that we must measure to show improvement in loving the Lord.