Holes in his shoes

It was a high council Sunday, so Ernie was at church today in Bogalusa, Louisiana, while the kids and I were at our own ward. His topic was “What the Lord Expects From Us”. I was very interested to talk to him when he got home this afternoon and to hear how he’d decided to approach the topic (since he was still working on his talk late last night). In Bogalusa there is a small branch and they requested that Ernie bring a youth speaker with him. Ernie and the youth speaker were the only speakers on the program and Ernie said that he had to fill 40 minutes. Needless to say, he had some time to say whatever it was he felt like needed to be said. Ernie told me that he shared with the members that he felt that the Lord expects two main things from us: to remain faithful and to serve others. He had some great quotes and good scriptures, but what stood out to me was a story he shared with the Bogalusa Branch from his mission. It’s one I’ve heard before, but it really touched me this afternoon.

Ernie never really wanted to go on a mission and he “kicked against the pricks” for awhile after he turned 19. When he eventually decided that he was going to serve a mission (he was 20), he was concerned about what his dad was going to say. At that time his father was inactive and Ernie felt like his dad also had some hard feelings against the church. So you can imagine his surprise when his father offered to pay for Ernie’s mission. Ernie was called to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ernie’s father decided that instead of buying Ernie new shoes, Ernie would be okay taking Big Ernie’s old dress shoes on his mission. So Ernie took his dad’s shoes on his mission and when he got to Argentina, Ernie quickly found that he could wear through the soles of his dad’s shoes in a matter of months. When the shoes got holes on the bottom, he would make do by folding up a piece of cardstock and putting it in the bottom of each shoe to try and protect his feet.

The people in Argentina were very poor and often Ernie and his companion would go to dinner appointments and the children in the family would sit and watch them eat, because there was only enough food to feed the two Elders. There were families that lived in homes with dirt floors and no indoor plumbing. Money was also very tight for Ernie and his companion because even though they were given money once a month from the mission home, the value of money fluctuated so much each month that in some months the money that they were given might only last two or three weeks.

It was during a month like that, when there was only enough money for food, that Ernie had holes in his shoes again and no money to get them repaired. The people in the ward noticed that he was walking around with holes in his shoes and that his shoes were patched with cardstock. One evening a group of youth came to the door and requested Ernie’s shoes and the next morning his shoes were returned to him with brand new soles. Ernie says that he was overwhelmed at the time, knowing the level of sacrifice it took for these youth to pool their money and repair his shoes for him. 

Ernie shared with the branch that sometimes the Lord needs us to help others by serving spiritually and sometimes He needs us to help them temporally. I’ve heard Ernie share this experience before and when he shares it, it is obvious to me that this amazing act of service still impacts him today. What was a temporal act of service almost 20 years ago, over time has turned into a spiritual act of service as well.