One of my favorite days on my mission was when I was working with one of my supervisors on CMU campus. I think I enjoyed it because let’s face it, young people are more excepting of change and difference than old people and I never had to deal with nasty debate and argument with any of these kids, and seeing as how they were the same age as me I felt like I could actually be a bit more of myself than normally. I have a ton of stories from just 3 days spent there but for now, let’s just focus on this one:
On the last day, I was on that campus I got to do a little bit of proselyting as I walked out of the main complex and into the parking lot of the school where our car was at. Along the way, there was a girl who kind of stood out to me (not in a crazy hormone-driven way either. It’s a spiritual impression). I felt the need to ask her name and where she was heading and so I did. We talked for only a couple seconds before she had to keep going to class. The missionary I was with shrugged off the experience but for some reason, I couldn’t.
A couple weeks had gone by and I had all but forgotten the experience. At this point in my mission, I had gone through this same kind of thing thousands of times where I would invite someone to hear us out and they wouldn’t. I had to go to a meeting and it was close to the last meeting I had to attend on my 2-year excursion. The missionary I served with that day came and found me and told me the rest of the story.
Apparently, a couple days after I left to go back to my area, the girl called the missionaries. They went to her apartment and taught her the message we had to share and she got baptized. In Fast and Testimony meeting she got up and bore her testimony that she was feeling a little down trodden and she was walking off to class when a missionary who wasn’t even assigned to the area (me) stopped her to talk to her for a minute. She changed her life based on that quick conversation and not only got baptized herself but started bringing friends to church as well.
I was lucky in that instance to hear the rest of the story. Not many people get that chance. I learned that day that the work you put forward in spreading the gospel and God’s teachings will amount to good things even if they may not be so immediate that we may see them.
Humans like to see results from their efforts. We like to know that what we are doing isn’t pointless and that we are making a real difference for people. At the same time, we need to remember to have faith. Everything we do will yield a result. We will reap what we sow.
The next time you feel like your efforts aren’t big enough, don’t worry so much. Every good thing you do will eventually lead to the overall betterment of the world. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for your support. I hope you all have a glorious Sunday and a fulfilling week.
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