The Prophet, General Conference and Our Hermana Gurr

This is a photo of our Hermanas Erin Gurr (on the left in red), Hermana Brittany Johns in the middle, and our mini-missionary, Hermana Luna on the right, at one of our Sister´s Conferences. 

Last Sunday morning, I was sitting in a room at a church building, listening to General Conference in english with twelve of our missionaries. President Benton was in the chapel listening to the conference in spanish. 

As President Monson proceeded through his talk, he began to tell the story of a 15 year old boy named Jason who had passed away suddenly, after a long illness. I perked up and said to the twelve missionaries, "That sounds like Sister Gurr´s brother." As the talk went on, we all realized that President Monson was, in fact, talking about Hermana Gurr´s brother. We all then felt some of the sadness we had felt when Jason passed away during the time Sister Gurr was in our Mission.

Then, when President Monson said the name of the Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission when he was referring to Jason´s Sister, a cheer went up from the missionaries in the room. (We have fostered pride in our mission from day one with our new missionaries by having them hold a banner that says we are the "Best Mission in the World" and saying a little cheer for the Mission.)

Sister Gurr´s Mission was completed last December (2009), and she returned home at that time.

Late last summer (winter here), of 2009, while Sister Gurr was serving in our Mission, her brother Jason had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I had the responsibility of telling Sister Gurr this sad news.

As I reflect back on that time, I can now see that there were a number of
"Tender Mercies", or experiences of comfort and strength, that came to Sister Gurr around the time of her brother´s death. Several days before Jason passed away, we had asked Hermana Gurr and her companion, Hermana Abbott to come to the Mission Home to stay with us, because Hermana Abbott had an illness that had caused her to have a condition called "dehydration".(Weakness, weight loss and dizziness. Her blood pressure was only 80 over 60!)

Sister Gurr and Sister Abbott stayed at the Mission Home from Monday through Friday morning. During those days, Sister Gurr had the opportunity to spend alot of quiet time studying the scriptures, while waiting for her companion to recover. Also, President Benton and I nurtured Sister Gurr and Sister Abbott the whole time they were with us, as if they were our children or grandchildren. They had a warm, cozy room to stay in, a "house visit" from a trusted doctor, Dr. Garcia, lots of great conversations with each other and with us, and, when Sister Abbott was feeling a little better, we fed them lots of delicious food, as is the "Benton Tradition". 

On Friday morning of that week, it was determined that Sister Abbott was well enough to return to her area and begin working again. President Benton was gone doing missionary interviews, so, I called for a taxi and sent the Sisters off to their area, after lots of hugs and well wishes. 

Five minutes after Sister Gurr and Sister Abbott had left the Mission Home, President Benton called me and told me that I needed to call the Sisters and ask them return to the Mission Home right away, because Sister Gurr´s brother had passed away unexpectedly. They came back, and Sister Gurr had the opportunity to talk, pray, cry and sing with her family on the phone at the Mission Home.

Then, Sister Gurr was able to sit quietly in the living room of the Mission Home and compose a tribute to her brother Jason, as President Benton had suggested she do. This tribute was read at Jason´s funeral, and part of it was read by President Monson to the whole Church last Sunday.


To Sister Gurr, as your former Mission, the Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission, we all send our love, prayers and best wishes to you and your family. We miss you here in our Mission!

Also, we want to say how very much we love and appreciate our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. It was so exciting to have President Monson mention the name of our Mission at General Conference and it´s great to know that he is always aware of us and praying for our strength and success. 

Our enduring love and prayers are with you President Monson. We thank our Heavenly Father for a Prophet!