DH's Missionary Meme

DH is catching on to this blogging thing quickly, and he has tagged me on this missionary meme:

Rules--
1. Answer the three missionary questions
2. Do the missionary activity and return and report.
3. Tag 5 of your friends.

Here are the questions:
1. Did you serve a mission, and where?
2. What was your best missionary experience?
3. Who is the most missionary-oriented leader you have ever had?

Missionary Activity:
Ask a random stranger if they have ever heard about the Mormon Church, and if they would like to know more (Golden Question)

1. I am indeed a returned missionary, and I served in the Canada Montreal Mission. (CMM) Back then we used to call it the "Canada Marriage Mission" for the amount of Elders and Sisters who met there and married after their missions. Scandalous. I was a convert of only a year, and a mission was a real eye-opener for me. I was fresh from being a Born-Again Christian, and I'm sure my over-zealousness was a real trial for many a companion and District Leader. (I wish to apologize to them all.)

2. My favorite missionary experience was when I was in a threesome with Sisters Lavigne and Carmack. It was only for a few weeks near the end of December. We put together a singing discussion, with Christmas carols, three-part SSA harmony, and references to Christ; and went around with a guitar singing to all who would let us in their doors. The discussion brought the Spirit to virtually every home we entered.
Second runner-up is the time our district was on our way home from a Zone Conference in a severe ice storm. Cars had run off the road everywhere. Our two cars would drive up to a stalled car, the Elders would jump out, and in their suits would manhandle the car back onto the road and send it on its way. Not a proselyting word was spoken. They'd jump back in the cars and on we would go to the next stranded motorist. Good times.

3. Most missionary-oriented leader was Sloan Alma Smith, president of the Charlotte NC mission when I joined the Church. He was a Bible-bashing, pulpit thumping old-style Mormon with white hair and the most energy I've ever seen. He would stop his car at red lights and signal for the car next to him to roll down the window, then hand the unsuspecting victim a missionary tract!

Challenge: I actually asked the Golden Question recently to a Filipino woman I work with. She said that when she was a little girl her family had the discussions and they were going to join the Church, but they had to go to a cousin's wedding, and several weeks went by, the missionaries were transferred, and the baptism never happened. What do you know.

I'm going to tag David, OLL, SilverRain, M&M, and MCQ

What Advice Would You Give This Missionary?

This is a leaf taken from my Missionary Journal from Thursday, 27 August 19xx in Beloeil, Quebec, Canada. It was one of my very first District Meetings.

Today we had a District Meeting to set goals for September. It was really hard because I couldn't understand why we were setting goals for baptisms, etc, if it didn't depend on us, it depended on the free agency of the person. We finally figured out that the only way it made any sense is if this was the number of baptisms the Lord would give us if we did all we were supposed to, taking into account the people that would fall through, etc.

Sister R. and I came up with the number of 4 Baptisms for our area. This is really scary because it means at the end of the month if we don't get 4 Baptisms it is because of something we did wrong, or OUR lack of faith. We are really stepping out in faith, something I haven't really tried before. If we don't make our goal, the District will say, "Why didn't it work, Sister L.?" I was so sure of it before, but fear has crept in a little bit.

I want to call down the powers of heaven by doing all the things I'm supposed to do, so that by obedience to the law, the Lord will be bound to give me the blessings. What I just don't know are all the things I must do to gain the blessing of baptizing. What is the law upon which it is predicated? I have tried to make an exhaustive list, and I am determined to follow them. If this works out, it will add a great deal to my faith. And I want so badly to be able to develop my faith!

Here are some of my questions:
Do missionaries still make monthly baptismal goals?
How do you think such goals fit with free agency?
When the goals are not met, is it the fault of the missionary?
How does D&C 130:21 apply to missionary goals?
Do you think attributing not meeting our goals to our own sin is doctrinal? Is it healthy?

Best Two Years

On Friday, Steve asked if the Mormon Mission was the "Best Two Years" or "A Waste of Time." I was interested to read Mark's response and spent a lot of time today thumbing through old missionary journals of my own.

I have the fondest memories of my mission. I was extremely idealistic. We were able to do many worthwhile projects such as teach English lessons, help build chapels, and give personal service to those in need. Yes, there was plenty of tracting, but I don't think of it as a waste of time. It helped me become disciplined and do tough work for a cause larger than myself.

Much of my mission was a cycle between killing myself working and keeping rules overzealously, then relaxing and letting standards drop, then repenting and another pendulum swing back to zealousness. One of my most shocking entries comes when I was in what was fondly known as "The Red Light District."

"Saturday was the Rev's last P-Day. (Note: we all had nicknames, mine was Tabitha. I forget why.) So we decided to spend the whole day together. We got up and went to the Elders' at 7:30 for a District breakfast of crepes. Then we all got on one bed and covered up with the sleeping bag and talked. It gradually turned into a pillow fight which was worse than our infamous football game. We later went into the country with an investigator, Pierrette, and her roommate. We were going to chop down a Christmas tree. While we were there, Tae (Elder Taetafa) and I were fooling around on a frozen lake. Well, you guessed it, the ice broke and we fell in. Can you imagine? Tae only got his legs wet but I fell all the way in and the Rev had to pull me out. So OK we went back and I put on Prince's jeans and sweater. Then we decorated the tree with the investigators.

For dinner we went to eat at I.P. Looneys. All the elders like to go there on their last P-Day because if you are wearing a tie the waitresses will come around and cut them off. We got there at 6:00 and they told us the wait was about 2 hours. So we thought we would go window shopping in the mall. Rev got in a shopping cart and Sister Fleming and I got in on top of him and the other Elders pushed. Then we went inside and sang Christmas carols in 4-part harmony to all the shoppers. As we walked back to the restaurant the Rev did a Fred Astaire dance up the side of the wall and when he came down he wiped out. He was in pain so the other Elders carried him back to the restaurant. The waitresses helped him to the table--one on each arm. We ordered dinner and finished eating around 12 pm.

The investigators took us back to our car. Then the Rev thought he'd better go to the hospital to get his leg checked. So we're sitting in the hospital at 1 am. Tae and Leggs are sleeping on the couch. Prince is in there with the Rev. Me and Elder Wood are sitting on another couch, talking about how to spiritually change the very material we are made of so we won't be burned as straw in the refiner's fire in the last days. The Rev ended up with crutches and a cast on his broken leg. We got home at 3am.

Then up for Church this morning--it was really strange. The Elders and us both overslept, but their phone rang at 8:00. They called us to see if it was us, and woke us up. We all would have missed Church! After Church we had a District DA (Dinner Appointment) at Tolley's, then back to Church for Brand & Brown's baptism. Brand, Wood and I sang "Look Inside." She was so beautiful and the Spirit was so strong. She was so fresh and pure when she came out of the water. After the baptism RL District stayed at the chapel and played the piano and sang songs until 12:30. I'm tired. Rev goes home tomorrow (with a cast!)"

The next several pages I am so ashamed of myself, I quit talking in English, will only speak in French (anybody remember SYLing?) and refuse to let myself open letters from home during the week (only on P-Day). I write a letter of confession to the Mission President and the ZL's come out to interview us!

My two oldest daughters just left on missions recently. One went to Korea in October and the other just left in January for Italy Rome. I'm glad they decided to serve missions. I have such happy memories of my 18 months, I wish I just had enjoyed the crazy times instead of feeling so much guilt. I felt like I did have opportunities to serve the Lord and my fellow man. The above journal entry to the contrary, I didn't feel it was a waste of time.


The Red Light District singing--Rev with his crutches