A couple weeks back I had the opportunity to give a church talk in my singles ward. The topic was on missionary work-- my favorite. Now I'm not much of a public speaker and I've never been someone who enjoys getting those "would you be willing to give a talk" phone calls... but once I found out my topic, I was actually excited. Weird, I know. And since missionary work is something that is dear to me, I thought I might as well be a missionary and share my talk on here. So here it goes.
{Hello Brothers and Sisters. My name is Lexee Syddall for those of you that don’t know me, and today I was asked to speak on missionary work. Brother Gardiner gave me a month’s notice for this talk, yet I still managed to put it off until the last minute—let’s just say, you can probably guess what I was doing this morning. When I heard that my topic was on missionary work, I actually got pretty excited. Even if I were to have the choice on what I wanted to speak about, this would be it.
I would say that missionary work is kind of a reoccurring theme in my life right now. Some of my closest friends are out serving in places such as Virginia, Africa, Argentina, Bolivia, Ohio, Alabama, Arizona, Washington, Australia, and Brazil. I’m pretty lucky because I get to start off my week right by getting those Monday Missionary emails. I love hearing their stories, seeing pictures of them with some of their investigators, and just being able to witness their testimonies grow firmer as their mission’s progress. I am so impressed by what all the full-time missionaries do around the world. I have such a high respect for them and their willingness to dedicate two years of their lives solely to do the Lord’s work and expand this gospel.
But guess what? You don’t need to have a ward calling, or be out in the mission field to be a missionary.
My dad has this book called, “The Power of Everyday Missionaries” by Clayton M. Christensen, and I thought that that would be a great resource to go off of for my talk. Christensen starts off in the first few sentences of his book by stating his purpose for writing it. He says, “My purpose in writing this book is simply to offer my witness that being a member missionary can be a source of deep happiness. It need not be hard. You will pull wonderful friends into your life because they will be able to feel your love for them when you invite them to learn more about their Heavenly Father… [and] you will feel how deeply our Savior loves you and loves the person whose hand is in yours.”
We often hear that we will be blessed for our efforts of sharing the gospel, but have we ever taken the time to consider the blessings that have been promised to us? The Doctrine and Covenants is “filled with remarkable promises that God has offered to those who accept His call to share the gospel.” Christensen made it easy, and made bullet points of those promises. We are told that:
- You shall receive strength such as is not known among men (D&C 24:12)
- He Himself will go with you and be in your midst. Nothing shall prevail against you (32:3)
- Your enemies will not have power over you (44:5)
- You shall have power to declare His word (99:2)
- Your arm will be God’s arm. He will be your shield and buckler; He will gird up your loins and put your enemies under your feet (35:14)
- Your joy shall be great (18:14-15)
- He will make you holy (60:7)
And those are just a couple examples. He goes on to list a whole two pages of blessings. As I was reading through these promises, it made me realize just how important this work is.
So why do we share the gospel? Well not only are the blessings for us priceless, but “we share the gospel because we know it will help others become better, happier people.” “Sharing the gospel doesn’t just require that we have the power of God unto the convincing of men. It gives us this power. It will magnify our words to be scripture: to be the will of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.” In my dad’s words, “Missionary work is the Balm of Giliad. It will heal the troubled heart, calm the distressed, bring peace to the sinner, and strengthen the weak.”
But first, we must find those in which we can teach. We can’t simply predict who will or won’t be interested in the gospel. As we learn in 1 Samuel 16:7, “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Christensen states that we should not “cross people off our list” whose lifestyle, habits, or appearance make them seem like unlikely candidates. It is through the gospel that they will be transformed, so maybe all their needing is that invitation to learn and know. “The only way all people can have the opportunity to choose or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ is for us, without judgment, to invite them to follow the Savior.” While we are inviting those to learn of what the gospel has to offer, “we must be honest, loving, and direct. For these are God’s ways.”
So what makes a successful missionary? Christensen shares a story that his friend Ben told him on one way we can look at it. Upon Ben’s search of being a better missionary, he told him this:
“First, you say that you can’t predict in advance who, of all the people you meet, is going to be interested in learning about the gospel—right? Second, as a general rule you say that about one of four people whom you invite will say ‘yes.’ This means that you’ll hear ‘no’ three times for each ‘yes’ you’ll hear. Right? That is a hard one because I am fragile about things like this. If I fail the first time, it is really hard for me to try again,” Ben explained. “But I figured out how to solve this paradox. I promised the Lord that I would find someone who would say ‘no’ to my invitation. That’s right. Someone who will say ‘no’. That is easy. Sure enough, the first person I asked said ‘no’—and I had succeeded! Finding someone to say ‘no’ was a lot easier than I had thought!”
Ben succeeded because “you succeed when you invite, regardless of how it turns out.” Success is measured in the faith of action, not by missing or making a number. If we act, God is pleased. If we don’t act, He is disappointed. “Once we have realized that we succeed as member missionaries when we invite people to learn and accept the truth, much of the fear that kept us from sharing the gospel vanishes. We give them the opportunity to exercise their free agency. Some will use that agency to accept the gospel. Others will not, and that’s fine. We succeed when we invite.”
Now going back to my friends that are on missions, I have about ten good friends that have all left for their missions recently, so I decided to make this missionary board in my bedroom with pictures of all of them, along with flags of where they’re serving by them. When I made that, it never occurred to me that by seeing that board every day it would be a daily reminder to me of what I want to stand for, and what I want others to know. I’ve started to feel myself leaving my house kind of with an attitude that “Today I want to be a missionary.” When I did that, I started to realize how many opportunities I have to share the gospel on a daily basis. I’ve gotten to the point where I have some sort of gospel related conversation with someone nearly every day, whether it’s been at work or with a good non-member friend. I’ve promised myself that whenever an opportunity arises to share with someone what I know to be true, I take it.
I’ll share part of an email I sent to one of my missionary friends back in October of a missionary experience I had:
I said, “After work Monday night, my really good friend Matt (not a member) came over to my house. Right when we got there we were just talking to my dad, and somehow missionaries and genealogy got brought up-- two things that Matt had a ton of questions about. And my dad, being my dad, gave him like the complete run down of how missions work, how they're called, what they do, etc. So that lasted a good 20 minutes. And then me and Matt watched a scary movie, and afterwards he was asking what my beliefs were on life after death. To make a long story short, we pretty much ended up having a two hour long discussion of practically everything that our church believes. We talked about the creation, the plan of salvation, tithing, temple work, eternal marriage, the second coming, standards, things that were said in general conference, the prophet's roles, scripture doctrine-- seriously everything. It was just super cool for me because that was the most in depth, thought provoking, and testimony building experience I've ever had. And with someone who has been one of my really good friends since freshman year in high school too. I’m pretty sure this was the first time that me and Matt have ever had a gospel related conversation. There was so much he wanted know, and it never occurred to me that he’d be someone I’d be sharing that with. I pretty much gave him my testimony of everything I believe and that alone strengthened mine. I think I've been in this missionary mode lately because all of you guys are constantly on my mind. I'm not kidding when I say you are such a role model to me. I am trying so hard to be a better person in general, and just hearing from you really helps me out with that.”
Matt came to church with me last week, along with about five other non-members that went to high school with us to hear two mission farewell talks that were given. Just having them there made it such a neat experience and I’m almost positive that every single non-member that was there felt the spirit.
And I’ll just end with a quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard’s talk, ‘Now is The Time’, “This is God’s work. He wants us to participate with Him and His Beloved Son in bringing the gospel into the lives of all of His children. The Lord has promised us that our joy will be great if we bring just one soul unto Him (see D&C 18:15–16). Let us exercise greater faith and work together, members and missionaries, to bring many more souls unto Him. Let every family in the Church include as part of their daily family prayers a plea with the Lord to go before your family members and help them to find someone prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now is the time for members of the Church to be more bold in reaching out to others, helping them to know the Church is true. Now is the time..”
I know of these things to be true. I’m so thankful for missionary work and the blessings and joy it brings us an others. I am thankful for the missionary program and all that it does for this gospel. This is the true church, it's our job to let others know it. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.}
And speaking of missionaries, here are some of their most recent pictures :)
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| Jake's board My board |
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| In Brad's words, this is is "favorite drug dealer" haha |
I love missionaries.
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