I tried it, and it is MUCH easier than I expected

I love sharing the Gospel because of how Christ has transformed my life.

It has never been easy for me! Due to rejection, I’ve felt constrained from doing what I would like to do — bring the joy of the Atonement and the association with Church members to others. I have tried and not had the success I hoped for.

Our bishop asked me, the ward mission leader, to read The Power of Everyday Missionaries. I was surprised at the directness of its message.

Assigned to speak on Sunday, I decided to give it a try on Saturday with two people I had wanted to invite earlier but didn’t know how. One scheduled an appointment. The other said he didn’t have the time, but would listen to the missionaries if they caught him at home.

I asked the first one if he ever saw our missionaries around. He said yes, but he wasn’t interested. I said, “Did you know that they come from another part of the country and and are here at their own or their family’s expense for two years? Every day they get up and knock on doors from morning to evening, looking for someone to share their message with. Imagine yourself in another part of the country you are not familiar with. You are knocking on doors — hundreds of doors. How do you think you would be received?”

“Not very well,” he said.

I told him I felt he was a good man and a visit with him would give them a positive experience. He could always say no. But he might find what I did when the missionaries shared their message with me. He could make it as hard on them as he wanted to.

He said, “I had no idea they came out here from somewhere else. I always thought they lived here with their families. I see the problem. I would be happy to listen to their message.”

The second one was a young single adult. I had called the YSA branch president the night before to see what activities were coming up. I was going to ask the young man what he was interested in, let him know what the YSA branch members were doing and see if he would accept an invitation to meet the missionaries.

But coming fresh from my first attempt, I had the same discussion with him that I did with the first person.

He said he was busy and didn’t want to schedule an appointment, but would listen to them if they caught him at home. I believe if I had followed my original impression, sharing the YSA activities, I would have had a better result.

I felt inspired the day before and took the course of least resistance in the moment. Nonetheless, he said he would listen even if he saw them on the street, which was also a positive result.

I believe the Lord will help us find these people and even let us know how to invite them. Next time I hope to do a better job of following the promptings.

I hope to invite every week now, maybe every day! Saturday was a very good day.

Please pass along my thanks to Bro. Christensen for a very helpful and inspiring book. I purchased the Kindle version for $5.95 for immediate download.

-Jim L. Puyallup, Washington

July 29, 2013 Uncategorized