A Widowed Mother's Tearful Happiness Sending Her Son on a Mission

“I know of none more truly happy than the active missionary upon whom rests in full measure the spirit of his divine commission. To him no duty, no requirement, no feature of his appointed labor is irksome; he finds joy in the very effort of service. I have seen a widowed mother, who had already given her husband to the cause of the Master—for he had died in the mission field—stand in the Annex to the house of the Lord, and with tear-dimmed eyes, but with a face radiant with the light of a holy joy, witness the setting apart of her only son for the same ministry. I asked, 'Don't you want him to go?' 'Want him to go?' she repeated, with beaming countenance; 'Oh yes! yes! I am so thankful to have a son worthy to go out into the world as a missionary of the gospel that I can't help crying: I am so happy, you know.' Then, after a pause, which to me was profoundly affecting, she added: 'His father filled an honorable mission, and has since died. Now, our son goes to continue his father's good work, thank God.' And the thought of it all filled that widowed heart with such over-powering happiness that she could but weep and sob.”

— James E. Talmage, The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star