Editor’s Note: This is the final installment in a four-part series.
The Life After
There will come a day when James Tate and Marques Schroeder, two Mormon missionaries stationed at the UF campus, will have to turn in their name tags and go back into the world that they did without for two years.
They will be able to go by their first names, sleep in, hang out with friends, date and enjoy any other social activities that they weren’t able to partake in during their time of service.
Although the idea of being able to do whatever they please sounds more than idealistic while on a mission, many returning missionaries note that the adjustment is quite difficult.
Jeff Hostetler, a UF history major who served a two-year mission in Colorado, said that while it can feel awkward to have so much free time on your hands, mission trips give you more focus and better perspective.
“I would say that it was the best two years for my future,” said Hostetler, pointing to the McDonald’s job he had after he completed his mission. He said the tools that he learned on the mission helped him rise fast in the workplace.
However, the teaching aspect of missionary work never quite left him as he decided to go back to school to become a history teacher.
“I just always liked being able to serve others,” he said. “Just because you’re done [with your mission] doesn’t mean you stop helping others.”
Diana Ellis, a UF chemistry junior, has seen the development process unfold before her eyes. When her brother, Christopher, left for his mission in Chile in the summer of 2006, she said that he left a boy but returned two years later as a man.
“He was always a good person, but when he came back, you could see that he was totally changed,” said Ellis. “He would hold the car door open for me and take out the trash for me when it was my turn, as if he’d done it like that his whole life. At first I wanted to ask, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”
After graduating, Ellis plans to go on a mission.
“If I can touch one person’s life, then I know I will have done my work,” she said. “But hopefully it will be more than that.”
A Soul Renewed
A faint rumble of excitement begins to build as a herd of worshippers head toward the room at the end of the hallway. James Tate and Marques Schroeder, two Mormon missionaries stationed at the UF campus, walk among them.
At first glance, the room offers nothing but blue carpet and wooden doors. But behind the two wooden doors, a large pool of water lies.
In a few minutes, Brandon Feldman, a UF aerospace and mechanical engineering junior, will wade into the water. After a few words of devotion are spoken, he will be completely submerged.
When he rises out of the water, he will be the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For Tate, this will be his first baptism in Gainesville, his 23rd overall.
“This feels like when you have something really amazing, and you get to share it with a friend,” he said.
Raised in a Jewish household, Feldman wasn’t the most religious teenager growing up. However, he couldn’t shake the growing void he felt inside.
Driven by a desire for something more, he became a religious free agent, trying out different denominations of Christianity, such as Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Catholic.
Despite his list of options, Feldman felt empty.
That changed when he visited the Mormon church.
“Everyone was so nice, it felt like home,” he said.
Eventually, he came in contact with Schroeder and Tate.
“Whenever I would have doubts or questions, I could call them up, and they were more than willing to sit down and talk to me,” he said. “They took care of me.”
For Feldman, the greatest lesson that the missionaries taught was one of compassion.
“In today’s world, so many things are going down the toilet. It sucks,” he said. “They are an example of what one should be like.”
For the few seconds that Feldman is under water, only the clicks of the clock can be heard. Before the swoosh of the waves can fully develop, a flash of excitement overtakes the room as cheers and applause erupt among the congregation. Schroeder and Tate, each standing by one of the wooden doors, break into beaming smiles.
From the waters, a saint has risen.
For the first part, click here.
For the second part, click here.
For the third part, click here.
