Having
a Great Day on Your Mission (Part
3)
by
Ed J. Pinegar
COMPANIONSHIPS
If you want to have
a great day, be with your companion and build a relationship so
strong that you are one. “A new commandment I give unto you
that ye love one another . . . By this shall all men know that ye
are my disciples” (John 13:34–35). If you want to have
a bad day, don’t stay with your companion—every major
problem happens when missionaries are separated. You can have a
very tough day on your mission if you have companionship problems.
Ask any husband or wife, when things aren’t going well at
home, how nice it is to be home. They will tell you that home is
not such a happy place. You will have the same trouble in the mission
field if you don’t maintain a relationship with your companion
built on trust, love, and respect.
When you get your letter
from the Prophet, remember, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ,
a minister of the Lord, a full-time minister—every day you
are Christ’s representative. What kind of missionary are you
going to be? What kind of companion will you be? Will you be full
of love? One who supports your companion?
Sometimes your companion
doesn’t want to work, your companion has a problem. What do
you say? “Dear Mom and Dad, have I got a loser. The guy doesn’t
want to go out. This is the lamest thing. They say missionary work’s
the best. I can hardly stand this. This is just more than I can
handle. He doesn’t want to be on a mission. Why did he want
to come out here? I’m out here begging him. Anyway, I can
just hardly handle it.” Now stop and think. Is that what we
should say? If we’ve done it unto the least of these my brethren
we’ve done it unto . . .? How about this, “Heavenly
Father, Elder Bill is having such a hard time today and he doesn’t
want to go out. Help me help him so he will want to go out. Help
me tell the president in the right way so he’ll inspire me
to do what’s right, and maybe the president can talk to him
so he can be a good missionary. Heavenly Father, please just bless
my companion. He just doesn’t understand, and he needs help.”
Isn’t that what a mother and father do for a child. Have you
ever heard your mother and father say, “You stupid dork, why
in the world were you given to me anyway?” You don’t
hear that. Good mothers and fathers don’t say that. Do everything
you can to bless and encourage your companion. And if you don’t,
you won’t have a great day on your mission.
WATCH
OVER THE FOLD
If we read the great
commandment in Matthew 22:36–40, we find that love is the
fulfillment of all the law and the prophets; because in the love
of God, and the love of Christ, all things are fulfilled. Now you
can understand why love is the key to the entire plan of salvation.
When Jesus
was talking with His disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, He said,
“Peter, lovest thou me?” And Peter answered, “Yea
Lord, thou know I lovest thee.” In the Greek New Testament,
the word “love,” the first time when used in the Aramaic
or Hebrew, translates into three forms. There are three forms of
“love” English just does not describe. In Greek they
are agape, which means unconditional love; philia, which
means brotherly and reciprocating love; and eros, which means physical
love. So the Lord says to Peter, “Peter agape me?”
And Peter says, “Yea
Lord philia.”
Then the Savior tells
Peter to feed His sheep. The Lord then asks again,
“Peter, agape me?”
To which Peter answers,
“Yea Lord, philia.”
Finally, the third time,
the Lord gives up and He says, “Philia me Peter?”
“Yea Lord Philia.”
Then the Lord instructs
Peter, “Feed my sheep.” And what the Lord was trying
to say was, “Peter, do you love as God loves? Can you be unconditionally
kind? Can you act rather than react? Can you avoid being vindictive,
and look to be prayerful and be kind? Can you avoid contention?
Can you seek the Spirit? Can you find something to praise, rather
than find fault?”
Unconditional godlike
love means that you have ultimate concern for every person you see
in this world, and that brings about righteous service. Now think
about that as it relates to Christ—ultimate concern. God loves
His children. Jesus Christ loves His brothers and sisters, Heavenly
Father’s children. He has ultimate concern for our welfare;
He died on the cross and suffered for our sins in Gethsemane, that
we might live again and be resurrected if we would but repent. That’s
the kind of ultimate concern that brings about righteous service.
Unconditional godlike
love means that I love you, and I separate you from your behavior.
No matter what you do I will always love you and try to help you
come unto Christ—like the Sons of Mosiah. The point is this:
look for the good, look to serve, and look to be a beacon of light
rather than a judge.
To be a great missionary
and have a great day, you must look to serve like Christ did. You
must have His ultimate, twenty-four-hours-a-day concern. You must
be a full-time minister, a full-time servant, every day. You’re
not just to baptize and forget them. You’re to be out there
every day, building up the kingdom of God, strengthening members
and building confidence with them. Visit those who are less active.
In our mission we had a goal to visit one less-active every day.
Within six months 200 members were reactivated and 400 more had
come to church, just because our missionaries were full-time servants
seeing less-actives as well. You don’t put notches on your
belt when you baptize. You don’t put hash marks in your journal.
No, no, no! You put the name of the child of God you were able to
serve, because you’re a full-time minister. You work with
your priesthood leaders to receive instructions from them. You help
your new converts. You continually follow up with visits, loving
and nurturing your brothers and sisters.
“And after they
had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed
by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people
of the church of Christ; and their names were taken that they might
be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them
in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer,
relying alone upon the merits of Christ who was the author and the
finisher of their faith” (Moro. 6:4). Think of that, when
converts are baptized you keep working with them on a regular basis.
And as you do this, every day will be a joyful day.
When people are committed
for baptism, follow through carefully. Bridge the gap with the members.
Take members with you whenever you can so there is a social connection
with the investigator or new convert. Our joy is to bring souls
unto Christ. This is our duty, to proclaim the gospel, to bring
all Heavenly Father’s children that come within the sound
of our voice back home to our Heavenly Father.
Make your baptisms special—have
a printed program if possible, be sure that people are notified
and invited well in advance; make sure that everyone is prepared,
that the ward mission leader is there, the bishop is there, and
everyone is in place so that the baptism is a wonderful event. I’ll
never forget the day the elders said, “Oh President Pinegar,
be sure and come to the baptism.” I thought I could make it.
I drove twenty or thirty miles down to the baptismal. I got there
and the building was locked. The investigator to be baptized was
out front with a couple of members. The elders had forgotten to
tell their ward mission leader, and the font wasn’t full.
It takes about an hour to fill the font. No program was printed,
no program was even arranged, but the elders just had to get him
baptized that afternoon no matter what. I became very sick to my
stomach. I felt like I had let the Lord down. And I’ll never
forget when I walked in and the missionary could not even look me
in the eye because he knew he’d let me down, and he’d
let the Lord down, and he let the investigator down. Baptisms are
so sacred and so special. To have a great day on your mission, make
each baptism memorable, because they only happen once. Needless
to say, those missionaries always had wonderful baptisms after that
learning experience.
SERVICE
Seek to serve. Once
you start thinking of yourself, that’s when the problems begin.
Your problems will become difficult when you become selfish in nature
rather than looking to serve. So, every morning say, “Whom
can I bless? How can I help my companion? Can I call anybody up
to help them?” In other words, a seeking-to-serve attitude
makes a difference on your mission.
One of the biggest problems
in the mission field is the use of numbers. Everyone says, “Oh
my zone leader, all he cares about is my numbers. Six first discussions.
Five copies of the Book of Mormon. Two committed. Five second discussions,
four other general discussions. All they do is call me up and say
what are your numbers? And I feel like I’m just a machine
out here turning in numbers.” And the only reason missionaries
feel that way is because they don’t understand what a number
means. In the field, when you think of a number, think of it this
way: Six first discussions; “Dear President, this week was
a joyful week. I had the blessing of teaching six special people
the first discussion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, and several
of them are going on with the second and third, and we’ve
had some of those already. It was wonderful President. It’s
so good. Yes, six discussions.”
People often separate
the number from what the number stands for. Numbers in the mission
field are a representation of your Christlike service to Heavenly
Father’s children. “Heavenly Father, today’s a
great day. I taught six of Thy children the first discussion. I
placed two copies of the Book of Mormon with two people who promised
to read it, and I feel so good.” Numbers represent Christlike
service, and you become validated by the Lord. You will never seek
to contend with your companion or your leaders because of numbers.
AVOID
CONTENTION
Contention in the mission
field—back biting and gossiping—probably ruins more
days than anything else. We must learn to bridle our tongue, our
passions; to speak kind and loving things; and to avoid contention.
Contention is of the devil (see 3 Ne. 11:28–29).
It was 10:30 at night,
every missionary should be in bed. Whenever the phone rings at 10:30
at night, something’s wrong. The phone rang. I answered and
heard the voice of a great zone leader. “Hello President,
I’ve got a problem. One of the couples is upset with two of
the missionaries because something happened that didn’t go
right, and the bishop’s upset now, and I’m the zone
leader, and you told me to take care of it and I don’t know
what to do. The couple’s angry at me, and the elders didn’t
think they were at fault, and the bishop’s ready to call you
up. I just don’t know what to do.”
I said, “Elder,
pray tonight, and you call me tomorrow morning at 6:30 and we will
counsel together on the things that the Lord would have you do.”
Later that night the
couple called. “President Pinegar, we want to see you tomorrow
morning.”
I said, “I have
a commitment.”
“No, we have to
see you.”
I said, “What’s
the matter?”
“These two elders
in our ward . . . and you know . . . well they deserve . . . and
we want to make sure they understand it now.” That was the
basic tone of the conversation. Everyone was upset.
The next morning the
zone leader called, and contention was still rampant. The zone leader
asked, “President, what shall I do?”
I said, “Elder,
first have a kneeling prayer, then read them Moroni 7:44–48;
John 13:34–35 and Matthew 25:40. Then suggest in the spirit
of love and charity, ‘Let us solve our problem so we can be
happy in the service of the Lord.’” That was more or
less the instruction. Two hours later the phone rang. “President,
I just had the greatest day of my life. President, you never grow
until you have a challenge. I was just sick to my stomach, but the
Spirit of the Lord was so strong. We all cried, we all hugged, we
all loved each other. We’re going to do it. We made up. Things
are right, and President, the Lord healed us. The Lord healed us.”
Yes, to have a great
day on our mission, we do our best and the Spirit will guide and
direct us. We’ll have no regrets. Put it on your refrigerator.
I heard Bishop Hales speak at the MTC once, and he said, “Return
with Honor.” So then I encouraged them to “Return with
honor with no regrets.” The main thing is to do your best.
Sometimes at the MTC the elders might not have been at their perfect
best. People would say, “President Pinegar, do you know what
the elders did?” And I would say, “Do you mean some
of the Lord’s anointed weren’t perfect yesterday?”
And they kind of bowed their heads and walked out the door because
they didn’t understand that sometimes we’re not at our
best. Forgiveness then became the watchword. And all of a sudden,
doing our best was doing our best to forgive and to forget and to
move forward. Yes, the days will be hard. You might say, “How
can you say it was so good when it was so hard?” Every day
can be fulfilling.
If you are going to
have a great day on your mission, you’ve got to remember the
words of Mormon to his son Moroni: “Notwithstanding their
hardness (the investigators or the difficult situations), let us
labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be
brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst
in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all
righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God (Moro. 9:6).
KEEP
A SENSE OF HUMOR
It’s OK to laugh.
Keep a sense of humor so that things won’t get too tough.
A cheerful and light-hearted attitude goes a long way towards making
a mission more enjoyable. Cheerfulness and a sense of humor are
some of the most uplifting and contagious attributes one can possess.
They brighten both the giver and those who choose to receive it.
They give hope for the day ahead and even enhance physiological
and emotional health. Cheerfulness and good humor come from seeing
that we are all in the same boat. Laugh at yourself and laugh with
others. Be cheerful despite life’s adversities—it’s
a welcome commandment of God (see Matt. 9:3), and it makes life
flow more smoothly. The Psalmist said, “Serve the Lord with
gladness” (Psalm 100:2). Make the decision to be cheerful.
Make it a point to keep a sense of humor. Why are some people so
spontaneously cheerful? Because they choose to be. And so can you.
CONCLUSION
And whatever you do,
write home to Mom and Dad, and that special friend, because you
know what? To have a great day on a mission is to share it with
others. Everyone loves letters from a missionary. They’re
beautiful. In our mission, when I was mission president, several
parents were baptized through letters from their missionary children.
Many parents were reactivated through letters from their daughters
and their sons; and grandchildren reactivated through their grandparents.
You want to have a great day? Be a missionary every day of your
life. You’ll never know when the Lord will speak to you and
tell you to do something. You are a missionary every day of your
life, so you can have a great day every day of your life.
That’s the kind
of day you can have on your mission—a great day. Whether a
member missionary, or a full-time missionary. The joy becomes great
when we help Heavenly Father’s children. All that matters
is today. The past is gone, the future is not yet here. Do you want
to have a great day? Then do the will of the Father, and every day
will be a great day in your life.
(Adapted from “The
Ultimate Missionary Companion”, Ed J. Pinegar, Covenant Communications)
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