Editor's note: This story was submitted by Elder John Totten and Sister Helen Totten, Japan Nagoya Mission . If you have any inspirational missionary stories you would like to contribute to Meridian Magazine, please write to Laurie Williams Sowby by clicking here.

There must be thousands of stories of people being in the right place at the right time to bless the lives of those around us.

It was our goal as newlyweds in 1959 to be able to serve a mission and bless lives together, so we set aside money for that as we raised our seven children. When they were all out of the home, we put in our papers and were called to Japan, where I had served in the U.S. Air Force toward the end of the Korean War.

My wife and I had been serving in the Japan Tokyo South Mission for a while, and I often went to Narita Airport to help transport missionaries to and from the airport. On one of these occasions, I had the opportunity to speak to a young woman who had come to see a missionary off after he had completed his mission in Yokohama, Japan.

It was an interesting experience because neither of us knew much of the other person's language. But with my broken Japanese and her broken English, we were able to communicate spirit-to-spirit. I am sure that there was more than one person who passed by and wondered what was wrong with these two adults standing in a busy airport, talking, with tears streaming down their faces!

It turned out that this young woman had received the missionary lessons four years earlier, but had not joined the Church. She had continued to pray and read the Book of Mormon but was not progressing toward baptism. I encouraged her to continue to study and pray, and to contact the missionaries and receive the lessons again.

This was the situation when we were released from our mission and returned home to California. Eriko Shebata continued to study and pray about what we had discussed and decided to take the lessons again. When we returned to Japan seven months later to help out in the office (for three months, while they got another couple to take the place of the couple who had been reassigned to another mission), we found that Eriko was now a member of the Church. She continued to progress and was called to serve in the Primary presidency. She eventually went to the temple.

We have attempted to maintain contact with Eriko and continued to think about the opportunities to bless the lives of those around us by talking about the truths that have been such a blessing to us as individuals. We never know when we will be used as a tool to communicate the Good News to those we come in contact with.

We have attempted to be in the correct spirit to have the Spirit speak through us as we served in the Arizona Phoenix Mission, working with welfare and employment on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. We are now back in the Japan Nagoya Mission, attempting to find the one that Heavenly Father has sent us here to find.

We are thankful for the influence of the Spirit in our lives and know that often it is just a matter of opening our mouths and letting the Spirit do the teaching.