As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we adhere to a general 3-fold mission of the Church: 1. Perfect the Saints 2. Proclaim the Gospel 3. Redeem the Dead I had the opportunity to serve a full-time mission in Haiti for 2 years teaching the restored gospel of the church. So, I have a great love for the 'Proclaim the Gospel' portion of our church's mission.
Although I didn't intend for this post to be religious in nature today, I wanted to make a couple observations about a man who has been 'investigating' our church for the past 8-9 months. Bob West is a chain smoker. He grew up in and around Romulus, Michigan before the airport came. His parents and grandparents owned land that his grandfather farmed for his whole life. Bob started working very early in his life, around 6 years old. He was always a skinny man, but had remarkable strength for someone his size and stature. From the time he was about 10 years old, he'd work down at the local mill doing grunt work and getting gullible passersby to bet on whether he could haul a load that a man typically 2x's his size couldn't do. The thing is, Bob won every gullible bet- he was that strong.
Bob enlisted into the Navy and found himself working on ships out at sea. He was a natural fit as a shipman sometimes staying up for more than 40 hours on a shift. He loves his country and had many amazing experiences as a shipman. This is the kind of patriot Bob is.
Bob has always been a giver. Friends, throughout his life, have always called on Bob when in trouble and Bob ALWAYS answered the call. Sometimes even at his own personal peril. On one occassion, Bob's friend's family were stranded more than 2 hours away on a highway with car troubles. Bob had received the call and left to help his friend immediately, although only having had an hour of sleep the prior night before. After hours of towing and helping his friend safe back to his home, Bob was called into work and straightway went back to his duties without complaint. This is the kind of friend Bob is.
Bob told me of a time when he rescued a group of Catholic Nun's from a burning car after he witnessed an accident. This is the kind of patron Bob is.
Bob was interested in learning more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ early last year and so the missionaries from our church were sent over to teach him. I made Bob's acquaintence about 6 months ago, as I like to go out on 'splits' with the missionaries. One of the tennets of our 'health code' as members of the church is that we don't chew or smoke tobacco. It is a requirement of baptism to be living the 'Word of Wisdom' and in his case, to refrain from smoking. Bob has been a smoker since he was 10 years old and this has been a daunting task for him.
Bob has sinced cut down his smoking from 2 packs a day, to about 10 cigarettes a day. His health has been steadily getting worse over the past 6 months including a couple of 'falls' where he blacked out. I think Bob feels like his time is running out. He loves the Lord and has lived a life serving others. When we leave his home after sharing a message about Christ, we ask him to pray. He always prays for the 'little hungry children' in the world. I almost tear up everytime he does. He doesn't have any immediate family left alive in this world and I can tell he receives our visits with anticipation.
I guess the reason why I wanted to share my thoughts about Bob West, in retrospect, is to just vocalize a little something about a humble man who has gone about his life quietly serving our country, his friends and his neighbors. He may never be able to 'become LDS' through baptism (the church is a stickler about God's laws); however, it's these amazing men that make up the quiet history of this fallen world and I'm grateful for his contribution thus far.
