Missionary work styles

Let me just say this. I am not a blogger. I have never written a blog or had an interest in blog writing. I rarely read any blogs and make few exceptions. I like reading things that are worth reading but I usually find that the writing must be exceptional to keep my attention.

That being said, I am not an exceptional writer. Chances are that I won’t be able to write something that is worth reading even if it was worth experiencing. And while I knew that my crossover into blogs was inevitable, it seems strange that the first blog post I would ever post would be about member missionary work.

I’ve had experiences sharing my religion before as a missionary. I’ve even had experiences sharing my beliefs as a regular member too. But I’ve never been challenged to have those experiences and find someone to share my religion and religious views by missionaries in my ward and the ward mission leader.

So I had the date set. And while it wasn’t that far away, all I could try to figure out who this person was that I was supposed to find. God had someone he wanted me to share the gospel with. That’s why I had a date set. All I kept doing was thinking about this “mysterious person”, the person who fit my idea of an ideal person that would want to listen to the gospel. This idea fit my “mysterious person” in my mind as tight as a jello mold. I just kept getting more anxious and nervous…and the whole time I never did find someone. About the last week before my date came and went, instead of praying to find someone or to know who this “mystery” person was, I prayed to know what I should be doing or saying in regard to sharing my beliefs with other. And that’s when I found my own style in missionary work. I found that everyone else has a style when it comes to missionary work. A different approach. And it is never the same for every person.

For myself, I found that “missionary work” was just listening to the spirit, that little voice in my head or gut feeling that comes up once in a while that just says, “Hey, you should do this”. And it was always telling me to do simple things. Like recommending an conference article to a non-member friend who could use the advice in it, or making sure I had pass along cards in my purse, just in case. The whole month and a half instead of thinking about who I should be focusing on, I could have been focusing on what I could be doing. Missionary work is much less intimidating and more natural for me when I let the ideas come and just go with them, instead of finding ways I should be bringing up my religion with “the person” or finding ways that the gospel fits into their lives.

While this is not everyone’s style, I know that this is my style: Doing the little thing and not focusing on the big things or people that make missionary work harder for me to do. There is no one way to do missionary work.