Good morning brothers and sisters! Surprisingly enough, even
though I have been serving here in Poplar Bluff for almost four months now,
this is my first time giving a talk. It’s not my first time being asked—Brother
Richardson actually asked me a few months back, but he had forgotten about the
Primary Program!
But like I said, I’ve been a missionary in Poplar Bluff now
for almost 4 months. This is the first area I’ve served in on my mission, so I
am still pretty new to being a missionary.
I’m going to forewarn you though—this month is missionary
month. You have Elder Vincent and me today, and next week we’ll be blessed to
hear from our companions.
As you may imagine, today I’m going to be talking about
missionary work. I’m going to answer two questions—first, why did I choose to
serve a mission? And second, what exactly do we do as missionaries?
No matter who you are, or who your family is, it is a very
personal and soul-searching process to choose to go on a mission. It’s not a
decision you should make on a whim—and for good reason! A mission changes your
life. As I was growing up, I never really thought about serving a mission. No
one in my family had ever served—my dad was a convert, and he married my mom
shortly after she turned 21. My older sister got married when she was 20. I
knew that my grandpa on one side had served a mission in England, but I had
never asked him about it or heard any mission stories. So, serving a mission
wasn’t even really a blip on my radar.
The first time I even thought about serving a mission was
during my second year at BYU. I was blessed to room with several returned
sister missionaries. These were some of the best women I’ve met in my life.
Each one of them was a spiritual giant, and a great example to me. I started thinking—I want to be more like
them! And I knew that for each of them, their mission shaped their life.
But hey, I was only 19. I had two years before I had to make
a decision, right? Wrong! General Conference, October 2012—changed so many
lives. Suddenly, for many young women—including myself—we could decide NOW to
serve a mission. And honestly, when I heard the age change announcement, I
pulled out my phone and sent a text to my mom—“Hey Mom! I’m going to serve a
mission!”
That was in October 2012 though—I didn’t leave on my mission
until September of 2013. There was a lot of time there in the middle to really
ponder my decision. There were quite a few moments of panic—“What in the world
am I doing? I can’t serve a mission!” But honestly, for me, I needed that time.
I needed to think, pray, and fast about going on a mission. And as I did so, I examined my reasons for
wanting to serve a mission.
When I think about being called on a mission, I think of two
examples in the scriptures of people being called by God to serve a
mission—Jonah and the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.
The first example is Jonah. He’s kind of the example of
“What not to do when God tells you to do something!” I’m going to read some of
his story to you: Jonah 1:1-3
1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of
Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up
before me.
3 But Jonah rose up
to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa;
and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went
down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah learns that fleeing is not a good idea.
Jonah 3:1-4
1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time,
saying,
2 Arise, go unto
Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and
went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an
exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
4 And Jonah began to
enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days,
and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Jonah figures things out, and does it right the second time.
What happens when Jonah preaches?
Jonah 3:5-10
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a
fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of
them.
6 For word came unto
the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from
him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to
be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his
nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let
them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast
be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every
one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God
will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their
works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that
he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Wow! Jonah has 100% success! Can you imagine? Now, we tend
to kind of laugh a little at Jonah—and expect a little better from him. After
all, he was a prophet! But who of us hasn’t acted a little like Jonah?
Sometimes, as I prepared for my mission, I felt like I was going somewhat out
of a sense of duty more than anything else. I knew that this was what God
wanted me to do, so I’d better do it—but I would think about all the things I
could be doing instead and wonder if I was doing the right thing.
But I didn’t—I don’t!—want to be a Jonah. The people who
truly inspire me are the sons of Mosiah. Like Jonah, they received revelation
from God that they needed to serve a mission. Like Jonah, they were called to
preach to a wicked, hardened people. But unlike Jonah, they had zero desire to
run away. Yes, they were nervous—in Alma 17, they pray to God and ask Him for
comfort and courage. But here’s what the scriptures say is the reason the sons
of Mosiah wanted to serve a mission with the Lamanites-- Mosiah 28:2-3:
2 That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the
Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that
perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they
might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become
friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all
the land which the Lord their God had given them.
3 Now they were
desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could
not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that
any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.
Wow. For me, that is the definition of charity. The sons of
Mosiah knew that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” And the
worth of each of the Lamanites’ souls was great in their eyes—not because those
Lamanites had done anything to deserve it—but because those Lamanites were of
value to God, and therefore of value to them. Jonah was motivated to go on a
mission because he felt a duty to go serve God, and he was afraid of the consequences
of disobedience. The sons of Mosiah went on a mission because they loved God,
and they loved the people they were going to go serve.
The longer I serve a mission, the more I want to be like the
sons of Mosiah. I want to be out here because of love. I seek after the gift of
charity. Moroni 7:45-48:
45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not,
and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never
faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all
things must fail—
47 But charity is the
pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of
it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye
may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true
followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that
when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that
we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
Now I’m going to change gears a little. I want to talk a
little now about what we do as missionaries. My guess is that many of you have
not served a mission, but you know people who have. So I’m going to quickly run
through our daily schedule.
At 6:30 every morning—7 days a week—we wake up. We roll out
of bed and pray, as companions and as individuals. We exercise for 30 minutes,
then spend an hour getting ready for the day. At 8:00 am, we have personal study.
I usually spend a half hour reading the Book of Mormon, and a half hour
studying for the lesson we are going to teach that day. At 9:00 am, companion
study. Then, at 10 am we leave for the day. From then until 9 pm, with an hour
for lunch and an hour dinner, we are out in Poplar Bluff proselyting. We are
teaching people—active members, less-active members, recent converts and
nonmembers. We are contacting people who might be interested in learning more
about the gospel, through door-to-door finding, old teaching records, trying to
talk to people that members have suggested. President Eyring, in the December
2013 Ensign, states, “When your ward mission leader or the missionaries ask for
the names of someone to teach, it is a great compliment to you. They know that
friends have seen your happiness and, therefore, those friends have been
prepared to hear and choose to accept the gospel. And they have confidence that
you will be the friend they will need as they come into the kingdom.” As
missionaries, We look to do service for people. We have meetings, with our
leaders in the ward and with other missionaries. Once a week, on Fridays, we
take three hours and plan out the entire upcoming week.
But usually, on good days, what we are doing is sitting down
with people and helping them learn about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.
Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ. We spend
our time building the kingdom of God here in Poplar Bluff, and we are out every
night until 9 pm doing our best to find and teach people. Then at 9 pm, we come
back to our apartment. We sit down, and for a half hour we plan out the next
day. We think about who we can visit, and then who we can visit if the first
person doesn’t want to meet. We discuss what each person needs and how we can
help them. Then, we prepare for bed. At 10:00 pm, we offer a prayer with our
whole mission that the missionary work in the Missouri, St Louis mission will
continue moving forward, and at 10:30 pm we go to bed.
Very full days as missionaries! We plan a full day every
day, but many times—appointments fall through. People forget, or cancel on us.
We knock on doors, and no one answer. We talk to people, and they say, “Sorry,
not interested.” Or hardest of all—we meet with someone we’ve been teaching and
they say, “No, I haven’t prayed. Or, “No, I haven’t read. I don’t want to go to
church. I don’t think I can change.”
Oh! Days like that break my heart! I was a little surprised
by how much it hurt the first few times. But you know why it hurts? And do you
know why we keep going out every day, even when it feels like disappointment is
heaped upon us?
Because as a missionary, I love each and every one of the
people I teach! It’s a love I don’t really understand, but I feel it. I think
Clayton M. Christensen comes the closest to expressing it. He said, “Every time
you take someone figuratively by the hand and introduce him or her to Jesus
Christ, you will feel how deeply the Savior loves you and loves the person
whose hand is in yours.”
I have felt enormous joy as a missionary as I’ve witnessed
people having amazing spiritual experiences. I have felt terrible sadness as
I’ve seen people I love choose a path that I know won’t lead them to happiness.
But throughout it all, I have felt more love than I have ever before. In Preach
My Gospel, there’s a promise: “Charity
is a gift from God. The prophet Mormon said that we should “pray unto the
Father with all the energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love”
(Moroni 7:48). As you follow this counsel and strive to do righteous works,
your love for all people will increase, especially those among whom you labor.
You will come to feel a sincere concern for the eternal welfare and happiness
of other people. You will see them as children of God with the potential of
becoming like our Heavenly Father, and you will labor in their behalf. You will
avoid negative feelings such as anger, envy, lust, or covetousness. You will
avoid judging others, criticizing them, or saying negative things about them.
You will try to understand them and their points of view. You will be patient
with them and try to help them when they are struggling or discouraged.
Charity, like faith, leads to action. You will develop charity as you look for
opportunities to serve others and give of yourself.”
I explained a little of why I chose to serve a mission. But
that was just why I came out in the first place. The reason I stay—the reason I
get up every morning after every long and sometimes discouraging day—is because
I love the people of Poplar Bluff and wherever else I might serve, and I love
Jesus Christ. I want to be a missionary who strives to be exactly obedient. I
want to learn and serve out of a sense of love, not duty. I want to come back
from my mission changed. I want to be a different person after I come back than
I when I left. I want to be more like my Savior. It makes a difference to serve
out of love.
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