This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the April 2001 Conference.
April 2001. The month I got married! I think I went to the temple for the first time the Friday after this conference. I don't remember what I felt or what stuck out to me when I listened to this session back then. But 22 years later, I'm finding a lot of meaning in Elder Holland's great talk on missionary work.
It's funny how having a missionary out makes me consider things I've never thought about. I've been hearing "every member a missionary!" my whole life. But talking to Abe about the wards he serves in, listening to his testimony of how members affect the work, makes it real to me in a way it hasn't been before. One of the things Abe is always going on and on about is that just "finding" random investigators (which isn't the word they use now…but it describes what I mean here better than "friends" does, ha ha) is the least effective way to share the gospel. The people that get baptized and actually become committed members of the church are nearly always (I think it really is like 98% of the time) people that are found through existing members—friends, family, and acquaintances who are already known, loved, and cared about by someone in the church.
Well, here is Elder Holland saying exactly that in 2001:
Indeed, one of the axioms of our day is that no mission or missionaries can ultimately succeed without the loving participation and spiritual support of the local members working with them in a balanced effort. If today you are taking notes on a stone tablet, chisel that one in deeply. I promise you won’t ever have to erase it. Initial investigators may come from many different sources, but those who are actually baptized and who are firmly retained in activity in the Church come overwhelmingly from friends and acquaintances known to members of the Church.
I think there have been many years when I've kind of tuned out whenever there's a talk about missionary work. No matter how much the apostles have said how easy, how natural, how possible it is—my mind just shuts off and thinks "I can't!" I keep trying to break through that barrier and remember that missionary work isn't some special work—it's the work I'm already trying to do of being a disciple of Christ! I just need to bring that discipleship into every situation I encounter. So, I loved this description from Elder Holland about how simple sharing the gospel can be:
When the Lord delivers this person to your view, just chat—about anything. You can’t miss. You don’t have to have a prescribed missionary message. Your faith, your happiness, the very look on your face is enough to quicken the honest in heart. Haven’t you ever heard a grandmother talk about her grandchildren? That’s what I mean—minus the photographs! The gospel will just tumble out. You won’t be able to contain yourself!But perhaps even more important than speaking is listening. These people are not lifeless objects disguised as a baptismal statistic. They are children of God, our brothers and sisters, and they need what we have. Be genuine. Reach out sincerely. Ask these friends what matters most to them. What do they cherish, and what do they hold dear? And then listen. If the setting is right you might ask what their fears are, what they yearn for, or what they feel is missing in their lives. I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer more.
I really do think I can do that. And I want to! When I hear about the members in Abe's wards, faithful men and women who are so busy and have all the same worries and responsibilities and demands on their time as I have—and yet they are making time to go out with Abe and his companion, befriending missionaries and investigators, feeding them, caring about them—it makes me want to do the same. And I want to fill myself up so full with the gospel that, like Elder Holland says, it will just tumble out of me!
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