Day to day missionary work analogy

I have been blessed with wonderful spring weather this week. Life is always that much better when the sun is shining. It just brings a smile to everyone's faces. Last week, I sent you a schedule of my day to day life and this email goes along perfectly with it.

As you all know, I love math (or maths as they say in England)! The world usually just makes sense to me in terms of numbers, percents, statistics, etc. As a result, I was very excited about President Preston's presentation about constants during trainings. I do not think I have been so excited to talk about the ratio of the circumference to the diameter, pi, in so long. Ironically enough though, this morning during personal study I thought of this great analogy. However, this one does not involve maths. It involves English, which is not my favorite subject. Here it is (and I hope you enjoy it):

Day to day missionary work is like an essay. The introduction is simple and clear—wake up, exercise, prepare for the day, personal and companion study. The thesis is already laid out—our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

With a solid introduction, it appears the rest (from 11:00 am onward) would fit nicely into place. In my experience, that has not been the case. The transition been paragraphs (activities) is not always smooth. And over time you realize there is more than your beginner’s five paragraph essay. There is a wide range of paragraphs (finding, teaching, eating, and meetings) that could be written. You may even try starting one and realize it does not work out so you go ahead and move to the back-up plans.

Finally, the conclusion. It starts off easy: restate the thesis (review key indicator goals). The rest of the conclusion is the part I always struggled with; some things just never change. Now is the time to take what you have written and apply it to the future or broaden the overarching theme. (It is time to make plans for the next day.)

Sometimes (some days) it is harder than others to conclude and make plans, but the amazing part is you always have the chance to rewrite or start anew. A new day in the mission field gives you the chance to write the second draft or if it was that bad, you can start with a clean slate. As you do so, you continue to revise and perfect your essay (day of missionary work) until you have achieved the desired result (doing the Lord’s will). Unlike mathematics, there is no final answer. No matter how many different ways you go about the work, the result will be different depending on who you are, where you are serving and what the Lord needs you to accomplish.

For whatever reason, this idea just made sense to me today. It helped me relate missionary work to my life and something that I am very familiar with, even if it is not something I actually enjoy being familiar with. I really love analogies and I know that as we teach with analogies it may help people to understand a concept or idea better. Know that I am doing well and am continuing to work hard. Hope you are all well.

Love, Becca