The Tool Bucket Analogy

by Arlin Burbidge

I am glad you miss home, it must mean that it is something special to you and that is something Mom and I always hoped for you kids, that you would feel like home was good and where you were loved.

Now on your mission its like you have a bucket, maybe its like my tool bucket. As you meet people and have experiences in the mission field its like you are acquiring treasures and special tools. They aren't made of steel, wood or plastic but they are none the less real. Think of going through your mission meeting all these people you work with, they have trials and experiences they share with you and you help them with those trials. As you do this they develop faith and trust in the Lord and you see that, you are filling your bucket up with manifestations of the Lord's love and blessings in people's lives. Now visualize coming home at the end of your mission and you pull out that bucket, it is heaping full; you pull out all these experiences and you lay them out on the living room floor. You tell us about each one and what happened, not all of them ended up good, some were hard experiences to go through, like albert relapsing and the companion that was tough to get along with, nonetheless you will have learned alot and you will share all that and you will feel that and you will thank the Lord for all he taught you and all you felt and all the people you worked with and loved and you will feel what charity is, the love of Christ. Thinking about it like this, I think you can see what it would be like if the bucket wasn't as full as you could get it.