Missionary Moments: 'Did rejoice'
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My wife, Annette Pierce Marler, had been substituting for the regular gospel doctrine teacher for about a month. The regular had been ill for about three weeks and was to have returned this Sunday. But at the last moment, he asked my wife to teach for him again. At the beginning of one class, a sister stood and introduced her niece, Carol, and her husband, Dee Sharp, of Orem, Utah.
Fifty-two years earlier Annette was baptized by Elder Dee Vernon Sharp in Harriman, Tenn. In the ensuing years, she moved to Utah and lost track of Elder Sharp. She remained active in the Church and served in Primary, Relief Society and Young Women as a teacher and very effective leader. We were married in November 1952 in the Salt Lake Temple.
As a couple, we served two full-time missions. We also lived for a time in her hometown in Tennessee where she was an institute teacher associated with students at the University of Tennessee. We worked together in the Rockwood Branch, her hometown and place of her baptism, serving in the branch and the community.
Now, in the spring of 2001, we were back in Utah when Annette was teaching this class. After class introduction, as my wife was going to the pulpit, I turned around to Dee Sharp and on a note asked him if he had a middle name. He wrote "Vernon."
I then asked him if he knew her, pointing to my wife. He shook his head, no. I then wrote, "Annette Pierce, Harriman, TN."
He was very excited.
When Annette finished her lesson, I stood and asked Dee Sharp to stand. My wife then announced to the class that he was the elder who baptized her so many years ago in Harriman, Tenn. At the time, Elder Sharp and his companion were the first missionaries to enter Harriman in many years. There were no members in the area then.
The amazing thing about this 2001 reunion between Elder Sharp and my wife is that class was the fourth option the Sharps had for attending Church that day.
They both felt as Alma in the 17th chapter when he and the sons of Mosiah met after long missions and "did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what more added to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord: yea they had waxed strong in the truth" (Alma 17:2).
— Ben C. Marler, Morningside 4th Ward, St. George Utah Morningside Stake.
