every member a missionary

We have had the coolest P-days recently. Last week our zone came to our area for a BBQ at one of our member’s homes. They have a pond and the Elders caught a 20 lbs bass and a 14 lbs catfish. I don’t know what that means, but I guess it’s cool. The Brown’s house is like a hobbit hole; it’s covered with dirt so we hiked their house. Mostly it was fun to sit and talk with the missionaries about everything that is happening in our areas.
This P-day we had a Sister’s P-day! Wahoo. It was only the San Antonio sisters so the Austin and Border sisters didn’t get to come. We had it at Sister Cutler’s house (Mission president’s wife) and she made us lunch and we made key chains and talked and talked and had a clothing exchange. Yes! A sister missionary clothing exchange: it’s where you bring the old ugly sister missionary clothes that you are sick of wearing and exchange them for NEW old ugly sister missionary clothes from someone else! It’s awesome!
So we almost thought we lost Rebecca this week and we cried. Well, Sister Dodge cried and I laughed because everyone deals with tragedy differently. But we had an awesome lesson with her last night. She didn’t come to church this Sunday but it was because she was checking out the Presbyterian church in town because it’s where she used to go when she was a kid. We were so scared she would like it…and she did. She loved it. She felt comfortable and loved and needed…How do you tell someone to leave a place like that and come to a place like Pleasanton ward where she doesn’t feel as comfortable or as needed…but we know this is Christ’s church and we know this is where He wants her. We explained that we felt like it wasn’t an accident that the Lord placed her in the Presbyterian church when she was little. The Presbyterian religion taught her faith in Jesus Christ, it taught her to trust in God. It helped her turn to her Savior during the adversities of her life. We explained that by us asking her to leave the Presbyterian religion we weren’t asking her to abandon or forsake her childhood faith, but instead to build upon it by accepting further revealed truth. The Presbyterian religion will always be a part of her and it will have been an important vehicle to lead her back to God. But it’s still going to be a sacrifice to leave the comfort and the memories. I can’t undermine the sacrifice it will be to close that chapter of her life—and it will be a close—that’s the reality. I would never ask her to make this sacrifice and join the Church if I didn’t believe with my whole heart that this truly is Christ’s church. I believe that this church is an important branch of His work and he is soliciting all the help He can get. Call me brainwashed (many already have), call ignorant or discriminatory, call me heretical and narrow-minded—It’s a bold claim that this is Christ’s Gospel and this organization is actually headed by the Savior, but I can’t turn my back on the light that I have received. However, I can sympathize with how hard it will be for Rebecca to leave the religion of her forbearers. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be. We told her to call her LDS Brother who she hasn’t talked to for years. It will be interesting to hear his reaction.
Anna Hopp came to Church again this week! That’s twice now. She also went to the Relief Society Broadcast. What an awesome meeting: totally a call for repentance, but they did it in such a loving way that I think everyone left with a determination to do a little better. My favorite line was, “Your attendance at your Relief Society meeting on Sunday will bless YOU, but your participation in the work of Relief Society will bless the whole world!” Ouch. I felt that one, which leads me to my next tangent:
I have received several letters here and there from women who have expressed a little sadness at not having had the opportunity to serve a mission. Now, I’ll be honest. Serving a mission is the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Never again will I have the opportunity to go up to a perfect stranger and dig into the depths of his or her faith to determine whether they are ready to accept Christ’s entire message available to the earth today. I will never be able to do that like I can now as a proselyting missionary. However, until now, I had no idea the importance of the home and visiting teaching programs. As official missionaries our job is to help people enter the gate of the road to exaltation, but the job of a visiting and home teacher is then to take that person’s hand and keep them on that road as they progress through conversion. We can baptize people, but they can walk right back out that gate as quickly as they walked in unless they are able to keep their testimonies nourished and growing. Missionaries help with the teeny-weeny first step, but the rest of the road is up to the convert and to their visiting and home teachers. I can’t tell you how nerve racking it is to leave an area and wonder if the visiting and home teachers are taking care of your babies. Are they giving them the spiritual and emotional nudges they need to continue the road that they started with you. It doesn’t matter if they were baptized at eight or at 38. Everyone is at some point in this road and none of us have reached exaltation yet. I have to go, but don’t worry if you didn’t go on a mission. There’s plenty of missionary work to do as a member. You're work you've already done is important. :)
love,
Sister Johnson