That "Knowing Look"

I have heard a somewhat similar comment in both of our missionary's letters about the new elders who have just arrived at the MTC looking so young and by the time they leave looking much older.

That comment reminded me of a book called, “The Velveteen Rabbit”. You may remember watching a video of it when you were young, or not.

The velveteen rabbit, over time, got a “knowing look about him”. You both have noticed that “knowing look” in the missionaries after spending some time in the MTC..

I looked for a quote about the knowing look, and found this quote from the book:
From "the Velveteen Rabbit"
By Margery Williams

"The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

After reading the quote from the book, I could imagine the Nursery as being either the MTC or the whole Mission experience, or even the journey of life.

The child loving you or becoming Real, could be compared to being a missionary or “being a tool in God's hands”

If the skin horse really is wise and always tells the truth, then we can believe what he says: becoming Real “doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept”. Also, he says, “It doesn't happen all at once” “You become. It takes a long time.”

I am glad that you both have decided to give the time it takes to serve a mission. I know that you will bless other peoples lives but you will also be blessed. (You are already becoming Real as God wants you to be).