missionary work

this past sunday, our stake presidency asked us to fast so that we might have opportunities to share the gospel this holiday season.  sometimes i hear rumblings that too big an emphasis is placed on member missionary work, that it is all anyone in the stake presidency talks about during stake conference.  that makes me a little sad, and a little irritated.  not only did we covenant to be missionaries when we got baptized, but i sit here as the daughter of two converts who were introduced to the gospel by member missionaries.

when my dad was a kid, his neighbors were mormon, and they had a home teacher who shared the gospel with a widow (my grandma) and her two young children (my dad and aunt).  this man later baptized them, and became a father-figure to my dad.  grandma wasn't necessarily looking for a church to join.  a brother fulfilling his calling as a home teacher to one family introduced another family to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

my mom is the daughter of a methodist minister.  she was not looking for a new church to join.  she was fairly content with what she had.  when she was backpacking through hawaii as a teenager with her friends and brothers, a stranger stopped on his drive home during a torrential downpour, prompted by the spirit, and took the group of six hippy-looking teenagers to his house and allowed them to use his shower, fed them, and then invited them to join his family for family home evening.  he declined their invitation to go snorkeling the next day because he and his family were going to church.  this man and his family were mormon, but they did not preach at my mom or the rest of the group.  they took strangers in, washed them, fed them, and found room for them.  they were examples of Jesus Christ.  from this encounter, my mom and one of the other women in the group were receptive to the spirit when they were again introduced to the gospel by separate people and baptized.  my dad was the member missionary who more fully introduced my mom to the gospel.  she was baptized and they married a few months later.  a year after their wedding, my parents were sealed in the los angeles temple.

i am a daughter who is sealed to her parents, a sister sealed to her brothers, a wife sealed to her husband, and a mother sealed to her daughter, for time and all eternity, because of member missionaries. do not discount the impact you have when you invite someone to your home, to an activity, when you discuss the gospel and church attendance as part of your everyday life.  when you let your light shine, others are touched by it.  you might not see the result of your interaction.  the gentleman who stopped and helped my mom and her group in hawaii?  he has no clue what became of his following the promptings of the holy ghost.  two women found the fullness of the gospel, were sealed to their spouses in the temple, had children born into the covenant and were in turn sealed to their spouses, and now have grandchildren born into the covenant.  a group of people have a positive association with members of the church because of members who were kind and reached out without expecting anything or being "preachy."

member missionary work is exceedingly important.  people like me are in the gospel because someone was an example of Christ and reached out to those around them.  just let your light shine. do not discount the impact you can have for those around you and the eternal nature of their family.