My Missionary

My brother Benjamin is serving his mission in the Long Beach, California Spanish speaking mission.  This letter he sent to my little sister, Becky and she shared it with the rest of us.  It was so powerful that I wanted to share it with everyone else.  He is giving Becky advice about how to best prepare to go on  a mission:


The best way to prepare for a mission is to put Heavenly Father's will before you're own. We each have our own individual way of being instruments in the Lord's hands, but not even we have the mental capacity to understand what it takes to really do the Lord's work. If you are willing to do what God wants you to do, He will show you and guide you. He won't tell you things to study, He'll tell you things to DO. You MUST be willing to serve and act, you MUST be willing to correct your own mistakes, and you MUST rely on the Spirit. That takes a lot of work. You have to study, you have to be converted to the Gospel, but most importantly, you have to LOVE people. So, what you need is faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the Glory of God. You have to thrust in your sickle with your might, being willing to do whatever it takes, whatever God requires. And you can't have pansies, you've got to be a hard core, weathered, blistered farmer to know how to plant, water, and reap. 

Ultimately, the motivation for going on a mission is out of love for your fellow men, and out of love for God. As a missionary, you are becoming more like God than you have ever been in your life. You are doing what He does all the time. If you have an eye single to that glory, and are willing to submit yourself to His will, and you qualify and are called by His voice, He will give you the necessary power in the very moment that you need it. You will progress faster and learn more quickly, and you will also be shown your weaknesses more painfully. I need to be a missionary, or else I don't learn. I have to be willing to share the Gospel, or my social skills will die. God called me to be a missionary because I would basically shrivel up and die otherwise. 

When you study, if you study with the mindset of "I'm going to use this so that others can understand, or for the benefit of others" and you truly intend to do so, God will bless you, He will inspire your mind, He will more readily answer prayers about people you are willing to help, and He will be closer to you than ever. He'll be right at your side because now you and He are a team. When you do talk with the person, you must follow the Spirit. He will use your skill sets and the skills of your companion to make the best lesson possibly available to Him from each of you. If you weren't inspired to speak, it's because He didn't want you to speak. If He wanted to you say something, it's because He trusted you and your knowledge, and He knew that what you would say would have a greater effect on that person than the words of any other person in that moment. That's why we go to Church. That's why we read the scriptures. For other people who need it more than we do. If we truly are thinking of others, and are planning on helping others, then He will inspire you in your studies, and He will piggyback revelation for other people little things that you needed to know. If you set goals so that you can be a better teacher, a better missionary, or a better friend or more Christlike, then Heavenly Father will bend over backwards to help you with those goals. He'll remind you of goals that work, and he'll tell you that something isn't working. If we become a more selfless people, we will be a people of God. But first must come conversion. 

That's the practice what you're planning on preaching part. Study the doctrine for others, willing to do as God wills, then set goals for yourself, so that you might be more converted to that principle, then pray so that you might have the Spirit as you preach, and then pray that you might be more converted and be more like Christ. Conversion is the key to effective missionary preaching. A natural fruit of conversion is a desire to do good, and to preach the gospel.

Becky, I know that this gospel is true. It is the most substantial truth. I know that God lives and gives us opportunities to be like Him in missionary work, and that He can and will work through you if you have a testimony and are willing to do what He asks, even to the smallest degree. You can and will be the source of great goodness brought about in this generation, and I'm proud to know you. You will have greater power in your conviction and your testimony of living Gospel principles and the blessings that come from them as you work to be converted to the gospel by learning and applying the principles of the Gospel, looking anxiously for the fulfillment of that faith, which is the blessings of being righteous.

This very letter is a great example. I'm writing intending to help you, but God is also giving things to help me as well. So, will you print this out for me, and send it to me in the mail? and then will you print another copy out, and give it to someone thinking of going on a mission? I love you, Becky. 

Elder Bowen