How did serving a mission draw me closer to God?
Personal Response by Nathaniel
Friends of other faiths have asked me why I wanted to go on a Mormon mission in the prime of my life. I was 23 years old, and most of my high-school friends had already graduated from college. My motivation for going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) stemmed not only from my parents’ encouragement but a conviction that a mission would draw me closer to God.
I don’t want to go into details into what a Mormon mission is. General information about missions and missionaries can be found on the official Mormon Church Web site at LDS.org. However, the mission was a period of significant personal growth for me. From September 2003 to September 2005, I traveled to, and lived in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Malaysia as a full-time volunteer representative for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church). I spent a lot of time talking to people on the streets and in the buses, knocking on people’s doors, and teaching in people’s homes. I would write or email my family and friends every Wednesday, but on the other days of the week, my companions and I would always be out in the streets-talking, knocking, and teaching.
This period was a period of deep spiritual refinement. Without the convenience of living at home, I learned to rely on God and not on myself; however, I struggled to put my faith in God. How could I find people to teach when I didn’t have the convenience of the Internet and the technology of search engines? How could I help people to change their lives when I wasn’t even making enough money for myself? These questions, along with many others, compelled me to seek help from a source who had all the answers-God.
I have always believed in God. I didn’t always express my belief publicly; nevertheless, I had my private and personal moments with Him. However, my experiences could not really prepare me for my mission. During the first few weeks of my mission, I struggled to know if what I believed was really true. It was a different matter altogether to believe in God and to teach someone about your belief in God. I asked many questions in those few weeks, and those questions didn’t disappear. It took weeks, months, and many spiritual experiences before I really developed a strong belief in God.
These spiritual experiences had always been precipitated by prayer. I remember an incident when I had lost my keys. My companion and I had just returned home from dinner, and I had reached into my pockets to get my keys when I found that my keys weren’t there. Fortunately, my companion had a set of keys, and we were able to enter the house. However, despite my frantic efforts, I could not find my keys in the house. Feeling very helpless and lost, I got down on my knees and began to offer one of the most sincere and humble prayers I had ever offered. I felt that there was no way that I could ever find those keys. They could have dropped out of my pocket when we were in the rickshaw. I could have misplaced them at the restaurant where we had dinner. There was just no way of finding them in the city of Lahore. I felt that the only way that I could find them was through a miracle.
A few minutes later, I heard the doorbell ring. My heart leaped as I ran down to open the gate. Standing in front of the gate was the rickshaw driver who had dropped my companion and I off at our apartment. He asked me if I had lost my keys-apparently, another passenger had noticed a set of keys lying on the backseat. I answered yes and began to thank him profusely.
I have often thought back to that evening where I had witnessed a miracle. In my mind, that evening was a watershed event because it changed my relationship with God. There simply was no other way for me to explain the experience, except that God had heard and answered my prayer. Through that experience, I learned for myself that God is real and personal. I also learned that He cares about us. I also learned that he hears and answers our prayers. I began to see Him as a fatherly figure. I began to talk to Him in the same way I talk to my own father.
Since that evening, prayer has become more than just a daily ritual. It has become a tool for communication. I begin to look forward to prayer, I no longer hesitate to get down on my knees to speak with my Father in Heaven, and the more fervently I pray, the closer I feel to God.
Tags: Faith, God, Miracles, Mission, Mormon missionaries, Prayer
This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 10:33 am and is filed under Faith, Miracles, Mormon missionaries, Prayer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
I grew up hearing great things about serving a mission. I had heard the amazing stories and experiences of friends who had gone before me. ALmost everyone who had described it as one of the best experiences of their lives. I just expected that if I went I was going to have those same things.
I was assigned to serve in the England Birmingham Mission and unlike some of my friends who had to learn new languages, I simply had to adjust to some new accents and a couple new words. I thought it would be easy. I had become quite skilled at public speaking while growing up and felt I also had a solid knowledge of the scriputres and the church. I was confident that I could teach and open the eyes of anyone.
Wrong.
I was humbled faster than you can imagine. I quickly realized my weaknesses as they were made known in almost every situation I was placed in during the first few days. I can remember coming home one night after spending all day talking to people who did not want to listen to me and who seemed to not like me before even meeting me. I was frustrated and wondered how I was going to keep this up for two years. I thought about all the great stories I had heard and wondered why things weren’t exactly like I had heard.
I knelt down in prayer and pleaded for help. I finally recognized that if I was going to make any kind of difference that I was not going to be able to do this alone. The skills I thought I had and my knowledge was not enough. This was a turning point not just on my mission but in my life.
The relationship I currently share with my Father in Heaven is much different than it once was. Serving a mission helped me to understand that I need to rely heavily on Him for strength and for the ability to do those things required of me in all aspects of my life. I know that He loves me and wants me to be happy. I feel that those humbling experiences on my mission helped me to develop a much deeper relationship with God. All those great experiences I had on my mission I attribute to my willingness to finally turn my life over to Him.