Thoughts On My Mission

My friend Katie recently posed a series of four questions on her blog, asking people to answer them in regards to their LDS missions. I thought I'd share my response here.

I want to start off by stating that I served in the California San Bernardino Mission, although I often claim to have served in the California Victorville Mission, due to the fact that I spent almost a year and a half in that city (three different areas, though). I was an English-speaking missionary. I also will say right now that I had a wonderful experience on my mission, even with the hard stuff I went through.

1)–What was your thought process when deciding to serve a mission and why did you ultimately decide to go?

I had honestly and sincerely decided to serve a mission when I was young. In my ward, many of the young men left the church after turning 18, but I had made a conscious decision to stay active and to serve a mission. This was reinforced when I was 16 and found myself defending my faith to a large group of friends of other faiths. I realised that I enjoyed talking about my religion with others, and I felt that this would be what my mission would be like. The decision was partly influenced by my three brothers who also served missions, but I also had two brothers who did not, so I really felt like it was my decision, and not just family/social/cultural pressure.

2)–How hard was it and why?

I honestly did not feel my mission was very hard. The hardest thing I went through was being a junior companion after the half-way mark, and serving with an elder who managed to offend just about everyone he met as soon as he met them. This was especially hard because I had already been in the ward for six months and had spent most of that time rebuilding the members’ trust in missionaries. He destroyed all of that within a couple of weeks. That was hard on me, because I saw good people getting hurt by someone who, of all people, had no business hurting them.

There was one day that I remember as being one of my darkest. It was actually my first full day in the field. My trainer took me out tracting and I had no idea what to say. I was embarrassed and ashamed–of myself. But I was able to learn from it, recognise what I did wrong, and made a personal personal vow to never do that again.

3)–What was good about it? What made it good?

The best thing was seeing people change their lives. Very early in my mission, I noticed that the first line in the old missionary handbook stated that my purpose as a missionary was to “bring souls to Christ through the ordinances of baptism and confirmation.” I underlined the first part of the sentence and made that my personal mission: to bring souls to Christ. I recognised that some people would come to Him through different routes. I remember teaching a couple of different families in Victorville that, as a result of our lessons, decided to become active in their old churches again–not LDS churches. I sincerely believed (and still believe) that people coming closer to God in any way is better than not coming closer at all. This mindset helped me overcome the despair that came from being in low-baptising areas (for our mission). It also helped me have a broader view of what I was there to do.

In addition to that, I met amazing people every day. My companions were great, except for the one that I hated–oddly enough, though, he and I still keep in touch, and he considers me his best companion. Go figure. I learned so much from these young men I was around. I still use their advice in my life and share it with others. The members were amazing, the people in Victorville, even the crazy guy who said he’d join the church when I became the prophet, were awesome. I looked for the bright side to every situation. So when I actually had a door slammed in my face, I was able to laugh when the door popped back open and we were still standing there.

4)–If you could go again, would you?

If I could go back to being a 19-year-old guy, yes, I would definitely do it all over again. I would also love to serve a mission in the future with my wife. But I would never want to serve another proselyting mission like I did seven years ago. It was an incredibly important part of my life, but I have moved forward. I am one of those guys who will never describe my mission as “the best two years of my life”–that is just silly. But it was the best two years on the day I got home from my mission. Now the best two years have been the past two. And I hope that I can always say that.