Thursday, July 31, 2008

Mission Moment

I have been thinking a lot about my mission recently. It all started when I took my nephew to the MTC. Then, when sitting with friends, we all started talking about our missions and sharing stories. It was not your typical "tell mission stories" but a more open and heart to heart as we talked about how our mission really changed us personally.

Then, I got a call from a sister missionary who just got home from the same mission I served in Argentina. She had served in an area where I served 14 years ago. For me, it was my first area in Argentina. The area was known as a "hard" area in my mission and my companion and I were opening up a section of the town that hadn't had missionaries in it for a long time. We had to start from scratch and we literally knocked doors every day for four months.

One family did let us in. It consisted of a young mom, her husband and their baby who lived with her parents. The young mom was the one who let us in initially but we ended up teaching the young mom and her mother. The men in the house were always very nice to us and we ended up spending a lot of time there. Because I was this very blond and blue eyed American, they were fascinated by me and wanted to teach me all about Argentina. Most of my first experiences with typical Argentine food were at their house.

After a few discussions with them, my companion and I both thought that they weren't really that interested. They seemed more interested in teaching me about Argentina and just being nice to two Mormon missionaries. However, since they were the only people that would let us come back, we ended up being at their house a lot. I was transferred from the area after we had taught them the 3rd discussion.

Anyway, back to the phone call from this sister missionary. She was calling to tell me that this family did indeed join the church, 14 YEARS after my initial contact with them. She said that now 8 (with the likelihood of one other soon) people are now members of the church because of that initial contact. It is a long story how it all happened but it really is an amazing story. And, because I had left with these people my home address, which for some amazing reason they saved, I was contacted. I guess it just goes to show all of us, that we do plant seeds daily and never know when they will start to grow!

5 comments:

Jan said...

Janice-That is so very awesome. What a story of seeding the field and then they grew and blossomed. What a blessing to find out and know too.

Thanks for sharing. I guess we are both thinking about missionaries today. :)

Queen Elizabeth said...

YEAAAAAAAAAA FOR YOU! You should seriously write into the Ensign with that one!!!

Way to go girl!!!

Jane Anne said...

I'm sending this story to Michael.

love.boxes said...

What a fabulous story Janice! Love that. :)

EMPTY NESTERS said...

Janice, I just have a good think and a laugh at your POSTS. You are able to put on paper the things that we have all dealt with and say "in the years to come we will have a good laugh over this." But we can have fun with it now. I loved your missionary story.