STIMULATOR message for the week of January 25, 1972
Message from President Eugene C. Ludwig, dated January 25, 1972
“I KNOW WHAT HAPPINESS IS, FOR I HAVE DONE GOOD WORK.”
Dear Fellow Missionaries,
What makes a happy missionary? Working hard, and doing missionary work the Lord’s way. Missionaries who are not happy are usually looking for happiness tomorrow, but usually their tomorrow happiness never really comes. Happiness is not a gift which is given to someone like a birthday present, it isn’t something you can purchase tomorrow. Many people feel that with money you can have happiness. Money when used for personal reasons is merely temporary gratification. People seek happiness through different types of activities, but this is only sensation, which after a period of time dwindles. Some people seek isolation, which is only rehearsing self problems. As long as self gratification, sensation, isolation and hoping for tomorrow is your road to happiness, you will end up unhappy.
If you are not happy, then the solution to your unhappiness problem lies with you. Your present world is simply a projection of you, your thoughts, and your activities. Your present world cannot change unless you commit yourself to change. Happiness is change, growth, development, a becoming. It is not gratification, sensation, isolation or acquisition. Happiness is the quest for truth — truth about yourself, your little world and what really is, such as acknowledgement of truth and compliance with truth. This is the road to happiness.
“Truth is knowledge of things as they area, and as they were, and as they are to come.” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:24) Knowledge of things as they honestly are, void of rationalizations and personal deception, realizing that as things have been in the past, is the reason, to a great degree, why things are as they are now. Only as we realize the truth, and from the point of truth commit ourselves to change though self improvement, and growth by doing what is right, can we achieve happiness and inner peace. “But learn that the who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the worlds to come.” (Doctrine and Covenants 59: 23)
Happiness is a positive feeling derived from service to others, and works of righteousness. When a person is helping others and doing what is right, he is growing, changing and becoming a more perfect being, which creates this happiness we are all seeking.
Happiness is — “Missionary Work”
Faithfully yours,
President Eugene C. Ludwig
“Happiness is a quest, a journey not of receiving but of giving.”
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