Sometimes, its nice to just sit back and realize: "Wow! I'm a missionary! I'm actually living what I have been preparing my whole life to do!"
Being a missionary is hard work, but I love it. I'm constantly bettering myself as I strive to do my absolute best to help others make the necessary steps to come unto Christ. Sometimes getting better sucks though...but only because it makes me realize that I could have been doing more better, more sooner for the people we are teaching. Like just a quick list for example: I could have taught more simply, I could have spoken more clearly (Spanish...yikes! yep, still working on that one), I could have more meaningfully understood their true concerns, asked better questions.... oh the list goes on and on. And it will go on and on... It must. I need to be bettering myself daily in the same way that the people I teach must be bettering themselves on a daily and consistent basis. It's part of the gospel. It's part of life.
One thing I hate so much hearing as a missionary is: "Oh, they weren't prepared to hear our message" or "If they were prepared, they would have accepted our invitation to act." I think that is absolute bogus. I believe that takes all the responsibility off of us as missionaries and our imperfections. There is this weird opinion (or at least I find it weird) amongst missionaries, that if we teach a lesson, and then invite them to live the word of wisdom, live the law of chastity, obey the 10 commandments, pray about the Book of Mormon, or even be baptized, that a "No" response from the investigator automatically means that the investigator was not ready... or not prepared (whatever you wanna call it). But I have come to realize that while there is a chance the person may have not been "prepared" (that is such a loaded term) that a greater portion of the responsibility is actually on us as missionaries. Many times the problem wasn't willingness to act, but a lack of understanding on the part of the investigator why they should want to act. We just absolutely have to do better. And as we do better as missionaries, the people we teach will feel more desire, have more understanding on why it is important to act.
I think the funniest one for me is when we teach the story of the restoration. Its easy to teach the restoration and then just invite the person to "Follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized." That's easy. Whats a little less easy, is to help them understand that because of the knowledge of the restoration, baptism is necessary. But so often, I feel like we treat the story of the restoration and the invitation to be baptized as two completely separate things... Almost as if they don't relate at all. And then, when our invitation is declined, rather than look in and realize what we did wrong (what principle we obviously didn't teach well) we walk out of the lesson and think "They weren't prepared". And that is a problem. I finally have come to realize it as the problem and now I want to work to fix it. I could never really put my finger on why I didn't agree with the "They obviously weren't prepared" comments, but I feel like I have finally come closer to understanding. If you ask me, I think I smashed the nail right on the head....but, I'm not perfect, and there is definitely a chance that I'm not quite to the point of smacking the nail on the head just yet.
Another interesting realization: The sister missionaries in my Zone are impressive. They have it figured out. Not a slam on sister missionaries of the past, but I'm pretty sure they have it figured out more so than the sister missionaries that have gone before them(not entirely sure, but pretty sure). But there is one thing that I am for sure on. And that is that they have it figured out more so than the Elders. Yes, sister missionaries put me to shame... I said it. They know how to do missionary work. I'm trying to find ways to develop my sister missionary skills without having to wear a skirt and make-up and stuff like that. They are legit. They always have all the best teaching ideas at zone meetings and zone conferences. This is definitely just my theory, but my opinion is that the sister missionaries who are currently in the field, and are coming into the field within the next 6ish months, are the best of the best. They have to be. They are gonna be the ones training all the new sister missionaries coming into the field. So I'm calling it right now. Saydi Ostler is going to be training in her 3rd Transfer in the field...if not sooner. And she is gonna rock it. She is the best of the best.
Well, I'm outta time. My fingers hurt from typing so fast. Love ya all!
Your Missionary,
Elder Ostler
