Mission Moments

Some Insights

We all have challenges of all sorts, but seldom do we experience this:

Few gave to the cause of missionary work as did Brigham Young.  His description of coming to Kirtland Ohio, after serving a mission for about a year is a tender account of the sacrifice he had made for this work.  He said, “When we arrived in Kirtland in September of 1833, if any man that did gather with the Saints was poorer than I was, it was because He had nothing.  I had two children to take care of and that was all.  I was a widower.

(I said to myself) Bro. Brigham do you have any shoes?  No, I had not a shoe to my foot, except a pair of borrowed boots.  I had no winter clothing except a homemade coat that I had for three or four years.  Any pantaloons?  (tight fitting trousers that fasten at the instep of the foot).  No.  What did you do?  I borrowed a pair of trousers to wear until I could get another pair.

I had traveled and preached and given away every dollar of my property.  I was worth a little property when I had started to preach.  I had worked and preached till I had nothing (left) with which to gather.  But Brother Joseph said, ‘Come up!’  So I went up the best I could.” (Deseret News, semi-weekly, March 9^th 1867, page 2).

Can Common Ground Be Sacred Ground? (By BYU Professor Joseph Fielding McConkie, Fifty Truths, page 117

“The single greatest heresy in missionary work is the idea that we seek common (religious) ground with those we teach.  Any time a missionary tells an investigator that we share common (religious) ground, he or she has testified against the need for the Restoration.  Joseph and Hyrum Smith did not die in Carthage Jail to assure that we could believe in the same things everyone else already believed.

There are (many, many) different Christian denominations.  When I have asked how I am to find a sure path amid such confusion I have always been told

by (other religious leaders) that though various Christian churches disagreed on matters of lesser importance they were all united on the basic and important doctrines.  (It was) here they shared common ground. 

This response raises at least two important questions:  First, what are the lesser or optional commandments that Christ gave?  And second, what principles of the gospel are negotiable?  Furthermore, one might ask if there are really principles upon which all the (different) denominations agree.

It is not enough for these churches to say, ‘Well, we all believe in the Bible.  The question is, what in the Bible do they believe?  Do they all believe in the necessity of baptism?  And if not, are they all united in the rejection of this ordinance God required of His Only Begotten Son?  Yet another question steps forward which also demands an answer.  What if their common ground unites them on principles that are false?

For instance, what if they all ascribe to the creeds of men?  This forces on us certain beliefs that cannot be sustained by the Bible.  In like manner, what of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity or the idea that the heavens are sealed, that all revelation that God intended man to have has been given and nothing can be added to it?

If these things are numbered among the common ground doctrines, then how are we to know it?  We have no acceptable scriptural text to sustain them and we have robbed God of a voice whereby He can reject them.

In a revelation given to those of our day for the purpose of responding to the kind of difficulties just noted, the Lord said:

‘But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye would do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men and others of devils.’ (D&C 46:7)

If ever there was a doctrine born of confusion and mischief it is the doctrine of common ground.  Where the truths of salvation are concerned there is no neutrality.  The Lord told his missionaries, ‘Ye are not sent forth to be taught, but to teach the children of men the things which I have put unto your hands by the power of my Spirit;

And ye are to be taught from on high.  Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken.  (D&C 43:15-16)

Our divine directive is to be in the world but not of it.  The greatest heresy in missionary work is the concept that we want to be just like everyone else.  We do not answer questions about our faith by making it appear that we are just like others.  Ours is not a common ground, it is sacred ground.  It is where the heavens open and the God of heaven speaks.”

Theology

CONVICTION  (An ordinary member passed on this story.  From the Journal of Scott Anderson, a former full time missionary)

“We had an unexpected moment in the mission field.  We knocked on a door and a lady said something to us we had never heard before. ‘Come in.’ Now, I was a German missionary.  This never happened to us, not even the members would say that to us.  At this point this dear lady invited us in.

My companion said, ‘Do you know who we are?’  ‘You want to talk about religion, don’t you?’ she said. ‘Yes, we do,’ explained my companion.  ‘Oh, come in.  I’ve been watching you walk around the neighborhood.  I’m so excited to have you here.  Please come into my study.’  We went in and seated ourselves and she sat down behind the desk.

She looked at us with a smile, and then pointed to three PHD’s hanging over her head.  One was in theology, the study of religion, one in philosophy, the study of ideas and one in European history, specializing in Christianity.  She then rubbed her hands together and said, ’Do you see this row of books there?’  We looked at a well arranged row of books.  She then said, ‘I wrote them all.  I’m the theology professor at the University of Munich.  I’ve been doing this for 41 years.  I love to talk about religion.  What would you like to discuss?’

My inspired companion said we’d like to talk about the Book of Mormon.   She said, ‘I don’t know anything about the Book of Mormon.’  He said, ‘I know.’  Twenty minutes later we walked out of the room.  We had handed her a Book of Mormon and this trade off that we had been on was over.  I didn’t see this lady  for another eight and a half weeks.

When I saw her again, it was in a small room filled with people as she was standing in the front dressed in white.  This theology professor at the University of Munich was well known throughout southern Germany.  She stood up in front of this small congregation of people and said, ‘Before I’m baptized I’d like to tell you my feelings.  In Amos, Chapter 8, verse 11 it says there will be a famine of the word of God.  I’ve been in that famine for 76 years.  Why do you think I have three PHD’s?  I’ve been hungering for truth and have been unable to find it. 

Then, eight and one-half weeks ago, two boys walked into my home.  I want you to know these boys are very nice and wonderful young men, but they didn’t convert me.  They couldn’t.  They don’t know enough.’  Then she smiled and said, ‘But since the day they walked in my door I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, all of Talmage’s great writings.  Evidence and Reconciliations by John A. Widstoe and 22 other volumes of Church doctrine.’

She then said something which I think is a challenge for every one of us here.  She said, ‘I don’t think you members know what you have.’  Then in her quiet, powerful way, she said, ‘After those years of studying philosophy, I picked up the D&C and read a few little verses that answered some of the greatest questions of Aristotle and Socrates!   When I read those verses, I wept for four hours.’

Then she said again, ‘I don’t think you members know what you have.  Don’t you understand the world is in a famine?  Don’t you know we are starving for what you have?  I am like a starving person being led to a feast.  Over these eight and one-half weeks, I have been able to feast in a way I have never known possible.’

Her powerful message and her challenging questions were then ended with her favorite scripture.   For don’t you see the truth can make you free?’  She continued, ‘These missionaries don’t just carry membership in the Church in their hands, they carry within their hands the power to make the Atonement of Jesus Christ a full force in our lives.  Today I’m going into the water and I’m going to make a covenant with Christ, for the first time with proper authority.  I’ve wanted to do this all my life.’

None of us will forget the day that she was immersed.  When she got finished being baptized, she got back out and before she received the Holy Ghost, she stood and said; ‘Now I would like to discuss the Holy Ghost for awhile.’  She then gave a wonderful talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost.’

Later in Elder Anderson’s Journal:

Two young missionaries, both relatively new, (one had been out about five months, the other, three weeks) accidently knocked on the door of the Protestant seminary in Reagansburg.  125 wonderful men were studying to become priests inside.  They didn’t realize this was the door they had knocked on because it looked like any other door.  They were invited in.  In somewhat of a panic, the man exclaimed, ‘I am sorry we just don’t have time right now.’

The two missionaries were relieved, but then the man at the door spoke, ‘Would you come back Tuesday and spend two hours addressing all 125 of us and answer questions about your Church?’  They agreed that they would and ran down the road joyfully.  They made a phone call to the mission president and cried for help.

The mission president called the two of us, who had originally found the lady Doctor of Theology, and commented, ‘Do you think that dear lady that you have just brought into the Church would like to come help these two missionaries with this assignment?’  I called her to ask and she said, ‘Yes, more than I would like to eat, & more than I would like to sleep.

We drove her to the seminary and as we went in, she grabbed the two missionaries that had originally found the seminary, put her arms around them and said, ‘You’re wonderful young men.  Would each of you spend about two minutes bearing your testimony and then sit down and be quiet please?’

They were grateful for their assignment.  They bore their testimony and then seated themselves.  She then got up and spoke, ‘For the next 30 minutes I would like to talk to you about historical apostasy.’  She knew every date and fact.  She had a PHD in this.  She talked about everything that had been taken away from the great teachings the Savior, mostly organizational, in the first part of her talk.

The next 45 minutes was doctrinal. She gave every point of doctrinal changes, when it happened and what had changed.  By the time she was done, she looked at them and replied, ‘In 1820 a boy walked into a grove of trees.  He had been in a famine just like I have been.  He knelt to pray, because he was hungry just like I have been.  He saw God the Father and His Son.

I know that is hard for you to believe, that they could be two separate beings, but I know they are.’  She shared scriptures that showed that the Father, Son & Holy Ghost were separate beings and then said. ‘I would like to talk about the historical restoration of truth.’

She then, point by point, date by date, from the Doctrine and Covenants, put forward the organizational structure of Christ’s Church.  The last 20 minutes of her lesson was absolutely brilliant.  She doctrinally put the truth back in place, point by point, principle by principle.  When she finished this profound speech, she said, ‘I have been in a famine as discussed by the Prophet Amos.  You know that, because last year I was here teaching you.’

For the first time we realized that she was their theology professor.  She continued by resounding, ‘Last year, when I was teaching you, I told you that I was still in a famine.  I have been led to a feast.  I invite you to come to the supper of the Lord.’  She finished her testimony and sat down.  What happened next was hard for me to understand.

These 125 sincere, wonderful men stood and for the next few moments gave a standing ovation.  By the time those minutes had gone by, I was crying.  I remember standing and looking into their eyes and seeing the tears streaming down their faces.  I wondered why they were applauding after the message she had given.  I asked many of them later.  They said, ‘It is to hear someone so unashamed of the truth, to hear someone teaching with such power, to hear someone who has finally spoken with conviction, that is so astounding to us.  The truth is what can set us free…Do we really know what we have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”