Missionary Work

Wednesday we taught a woman and her three sons the first discussion with the sister missionaries. It seemed to be going well until about midway through when the woman started telling the sisters that she’d seen someone like them before, confusing them with a pair of women from another religion with whom she had a terrible time. They couldn’t convince her otherwise. Then she turned to me and told me that she was not a religious person. I told her that we were not here to sell her or convince her. Even though I could see at times during the discussion that the Spirit touched her and felt a confirming witness in my own heart, there was a struggle within her. In the end she said she did not want to learn anymore. As we drove the sisters back to their area, there was complete silence in the car. We all felt like we had just lost a battle for a very beautiful soul…at least this round. It was very draining.

Last Monday we had a sports day for the entire mission. I was the referee for the basketball games. The sports were fun and exciting, but I won’t talk much about that. What I want to talk about was the incredible feeling of camaraderie, love, joy—I’m working to find one word or a group of them to describe the feeling of being there with all of those young people and a few older ones. All of us had the common bond of being instruments for the Lord’s Spirit, struggling to reach out to those who don’t understand, like the lady above. I was shaking hands and hugging people whom I barely knew, but who I was really happy to see and they were just as happy to see me. It was like we had known each other all of our lives. I don’t want to give you the idea that it was celestial or anything—there were some arguments about some of my calls or lack of them. Just the same, the feeling of sharing that day together I will remember the rest of my life.