The missionary half-story

[Hagoth]

I just heard another of these today.

"I was riding on the subway with my companion when the spirit told me I needed to talk to this guy I was looking at. He got off at the next stop. We jumped up and were barely able to get out of the door in time. Then we chased him down the platform, up the stairs and out onto the sidewalk. I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around and said, "God wants you to read this," and I handed him a Book of Mormon.

I transferred shortly after that and never heard what happened to that guy but I have a powerful testimony that his life was greatly blessed because I listened to the spirit that day."

[blazerb]

I was guilty of sharing a missionary half-story. One day we were proselytizing. We offered a man a Book of Mormon, and he told us he already had one. He had found it the day before. He seemed excited by the serendipitous sequence of events. I excitedly wrote home about the story. I failed to follow up that he quickly lost interest and, if I remember correctly, threw the BoM away.

When I got home from my mission, my mom really wanted me to share the story. I had to fill her in on how it all ended so that she would understand why it was not a part of my homecoming talk.

[wtfluff]

Hmm... It seems I may have missed out on telling many missionary half-stories. (They sound a bit like ghost stories?)

Since it sounds like many of these ghost stories are related to giving away "the most correct book" I served my two-year sentence during the "give away as many BoM's as possible" so I probably distributed thousands of Books of MORmONs somewhere near the equator in South America. We would literally hand them to complete strangers on the street and walk away, or put bus fare in a BoM and hand it over as "payment" as we exited public transit. It was a bit of a competition to give away as many of those stupid books as possible.

Hundreds if not thousands of missed opportunities for me to make up ghost (spiritual) stories.

[græy]

I transferred shortly after that and never heard what happened to that guy but I have a powerful testimony that his life was greatly blessed because I listened to the spirit that day.

I served in Japan. At some point a good friend from the MTC was transferred out of his city and I was transferred into his place.

For days after I first got there, my new companion told me several times about their "golden" new contact they'd been directed to find. He told me how they prayed and then followed the spirit directly to this guy's apartment. How he opened the door as soon as they knocked and invited them in. They taught the first discussion and the spirit "was so strong" the new investigator couldn't turn them away. The investigator asked for a follow-up meeting. He asked to come to church. He even asked how he could join!

A couple days later my new companion and I make our way to his place for the 2nd discussion. He is obviously home, but won't open the door. We figured maybe something had come up decided to come back the next day. But the next day was the same story.

The next week, we spent one entire day riding/walking around knocking on doors in the freezing rain. It was a pretty crappy day. We prayed and my new companion felt that we needed to return to golden-boy's home. He prophesied that we'd be able to meet with him and get him to commit to baptism, thus justifying the crappy day we'd had so far.

We rode across town, getting drenched as we did so, and finally arrived at his apartment. A window was open and we could smell dinner through the rain. We approached the door, paused to offer another prayer, and finally knocked. All sound in the apartment stopped. We waited. And waited. We knocked again. Nothing.

We finally gave up and left. On the way out of the parking lot, we rode our bikes past the complex's garbage cans and found our investigator's copy of the BoM sitting right on top. The book was soaked and completely destroyed by the rain. The bookmark had not moved from when it was given to him.

A couple weeks later I met my MTC friend at a zone conference. His first words were asking about this golden investigator. I only had time to say that we'd visited him before he interrupted with his testimony that he "knew" the guy was going to get baptized soon and be a leader of the local branch.

One year later, my MTC friend and I were at the Pres's house getting debriefed before going home. Again, MTC friend shared his testimony of golden boy. By that point he knew the guy hadn't been baptized, but he also "knew" that he still would someday soon. MTC friend said that knowing this guy would be a local leader someday strengthened his own testimony.

Six years later, that branch was closed because no one was attending any more.

[Hagoth]

Anybody remember paul Harvey? "...and that's the rest of the story."

[Culper Jr.]

Hah! I love this thread. So much cringe in my past.

I remember bearing testimony in a zone meeting of how my serving a mission was blessing my family back home. Some missionaries had tracted into my elderly aunt, and knowing that I was a missionary, she invited them in. If I had not chosen to serve a mission, my aunt would likely not have invited them in and would not be learning about the blessings of the gospel. Indeed, because of my righteousness, the blessings of sealing and temple ordinances would now be available to my extended family! How great is the plan of our God!

Yeah... she had zero interest in the gospel; she was an elderly shut in who enjoyed having two strapping young men come and visit her. And the elders enjoyed talking to her and drinking lemonade more than getting doors slammed in their faces.

Of course it never came to anything, but for one brief moment in a zone meeting I was awesome!