It’s hard to believe, but we arrived at our “hump day” last week. That’s missionary talk for halfway point when serving a mission. We have nine more months to go. Serving a senior mission is one of the best kept secrets in our church, for some reason. And I’m not sure we share this secret enough with members of the church. So, listen very carefully, because I’m going to share this very special secret with you right now.
My husband and I are serving a Member Leader Support (MLS) mission. We volunteered for this type of mission because we wanted to work closely with ward leadership as well as less active, and more active people in the area. Our focus is on helping the bishop and stake president in any way they need. We are here to support them.
For the last nine months we have been:
- Visiting hundreds of people (this is not an exaggeration). We visit everyone listed in Tools and find out who they are, how interested they are in the church, if they still live there, and what their needs may be. We create a spreadsheet, that gives all the information we learn, and share it with the ward council. We are on our third ward doing this.
- We teach a Book of Mormon class. We teach a Come Follow Me group. We teach Institute for YSAs. And we teach in people’s homes.
- Going to meetings. Sunday Meetings, Ward Council, Mission Coordination, District Council, Zone Conference, etc.
- Working with missionaries. We help them teach friends (investigators). We give them sage advice. We feed them. We celebrate baptisms with them. We love them.
- Making lasting friendships. How can this not happen? There are great people everywhere and many have become our dear friends.
We are busy all day, every day, yet we set our own schedule. We give ourselves time to prepare lessons. Sometimes we forget to give ourselves time for meals. We pick up fast food a lot or get invited to dinner. We semi-obey all of the missionary rules. We don’t wake up so early and we don’t go to bed as early as we should. We brought our own TV, and after a long week, we sometimes sit back and watch a good movie. And so far, for every General Conference weekend, we have an apartment full of missionaries watching and eating the day away.
Our experience is serving in the United States. This gives us a few extra luxuries. All senior missionaries take their own car to the mission. We live in relatively nice apartments, all furnished by the mission. We are allowed to bring anything that will fit in our car, except for family members and pets. But family can come out to visit and we were lucky to experience this.
We’ve had some great experiences. And we’ve met some wonderful people. We
learned early on that it was better to knock on doors rather than make appointments. So, we did a lot of door-knocking as we tracked down people. Some weren’t very receptive, but some were, and we had great visits with them. It felt great to make connections with them and we were hopeful it would lead them to possibly coming out to church again. We sat down with one couple that hadn’t been to church since before COVID, and by now they’d gotten out of the habit of going to church. They told us their conversion stories and we laughed at other stories shared and had a wonderful time with them. At another time, we visited an active woman who said she was ready to die, but she refused to go until all of her children became active again. We had a lovely visit with her, and we even learned that she and my husband are related. We’ve run into many others, all with interesting stories to share.
There have been a few doors slammed in our faces, and several have asked that their names be removed from church membership. But when we run into a positive encounter, it makes it all worthwhile.
Because temples are going up in so many places, it’s exciting to be a part of an Open House. We had the privilege of taking several friends through the temple. We even got to volunteer as ushers and that was an experience never to be forgotten. So many people had questions and it was wonderful to be able to share our testimonies with them.
Getting to know the younger missionaries has been great fun as well. We invite them over as often as we can. They love getting together. And when they get together, guess what they talk about? Missionary work and who they’re teaching! These young people are so diligent and focused. It’s wonderful to see.
So far, we have loved serving on our mission. Do we miss our family? Yes. Do things happen at home we wish we were home for? Yes. But somehow, we are compensated, and we receive blessings, more than we can ever count. The Lord needs our help, and we feel very useful working in His kingdom.
Thanks for sharing your experiences! My brother and his wife LOVED their MLS mission too. Sounds like yours is much the same as theirs, ministering on steroids. I’d love to go on a mission, but my convert husband isn’t as enthusiastic. I’ll keep praying.
I’m amazed at all the different ways there are to serve a mission. Family History missions are often served right out of your home. I’ve even heard of a mission secretary serving in the Philippines, but out of her home in the US. Women can serve senior missions without a husband, but men can’t serve without their wives. (Don’t know why, but this is true.) The most helpful of all, though, is to ask for more people to minister, especially the less active, elderly and forgotten (every ward has several), and visit them regularly. No one has time for that, but someone who is willing to set apart that time is, in fact, serving a great mission.