Comments on: Breaking up is hard to do

By: eljee

eljee — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:46:10 +0000

Having served a mission gives me the greatest respect and compassion for anyone who proselytes for their religion. I know what guts it takes. I always try to be polite and kind to those who come to my door.

However, I do think it’s better to be up front about my beliefs from the beginning. As a missionary, I would have rather people just been honest if they weren’t interested. It’s much less awkward to do it early on than to do it after a relationship has formed or after those proselyting may have formed expectations about my interest. I was in many situations on my mission where it was fairly apparent that things were not going anywhere with people we were visiting, yet until they said something, we felt we had an obligation to continue.

By: Geo

Geo — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:20:46 +0000

So much grace, from you, from them.

By: Jennifer B.

Jennifer B. — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:13:34 +0000

Great post Elizabeth! You are so kind and tactful. Have you ever traded literature with your non-visiting teachers? (You know, “I’ll read your stuff, would you like to read some of mine?”)

Let us know if they return!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:19:57 +0000

Thanks for your comments, everyone. As of this writing, they haven’t come back (I told them my religious affiliation about a month ago, so they’re due). But every Wednesday, I wonder if they will.

By: Heather O.

Heather O. — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:42:00 +0000

I had a very similar experience, and although I haven’t served a mission, I can appreciate the slog that tracting can be. I had a companionship from the Jehovah’s Witnesses come by 3 times, and when they brought me a pamphlet on parenting that just “made me think of you because we saw you holding your sweet baby last time, and we just had to stop by and share,” I thought, Oops. They think I’m a good contact. I told them, finally, that I was LDS. They were very polite, very kind, but did not return. I felt guilty on all fronts–guilty for not telling them initially I was LDS, and therefore sparing them their time, and also guilty for not inviting them in, giving them some food and drink, just to give them a small break from the burden of tracting. But then I would have carried it further–well, you see my problem. No wonder missionaries like referrals rather than going door to door.

By: Sharlee

Sharlee — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:02:17 +0000

Amen, Justine. I’m always so uncomfortable whenever anyone insinuates that we somehow have a corner on the “truth and goodness” market. A ward member recently bore her testimony and told how a young man had clapped to get everyone’s attention at her teenage daughter’s birthday party and then suggested that they pray before they began eating. “Where else in the world would that ever happen?” she said. “Umm,” I thought. “Just about anywhere along the Bible Belt for one.”

Elizabeth, you are my hero. Thank you for showing such kindness. As I send my two oldest children out into the world to preach the gospel, I can only pray that they will be received with such basic human courtesy and civility.

By: Justine

Justine — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:33:43 +0000

It’s funny that I think we sometimes equate the idea that we have the fullness of truth with the idea that no one else has any of it.

I really love talking to other religious people who aren’t necessarily LDS. There are so many ways the Lord lifts each of us up. And if (follow me, here) the Spirit will act as a witness of truth, and other religions hold a measure of truth, wouldn’t it make sense that the Light of Christ can witness truth to those that know it? Why else would anyone devote so much of their life’s endeavors to something that they found no spiritual fulfillment in? I think so many of those religious experiences had by others not of our faith only serves to improve our world and bring more and more people closer and closer to the truthfulness of this gospel.

I’m glad you were a good representative of true Christianity. Who knows the impact you had on them, just as they had impact on you! Good luck with the missionaries!

By: Laura H. Craner

Laura H. Craner — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:33:12 +0000

We live right by a meetinghouse for another church and we get “tracted” all the time. We never get the same people back though. My neighbor is often outside smoking and she jokes that she is scaring them off for me. I do find it encouraging though that other churches are out there trying to bring people to Christ. They may not have everything we’ve got but it’s nice to know we’re not alone in our convictions. Seeing them out with their kids, each toting their scriptures and their pamphlets, always makes smile.

By: Lee Ann

Lee Ann — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:33:29 +0000

A while ago, I got done reading my scriptures and had the thought, “That was good, but you need to read the words of Christ out of the New Testament today.” I agreed, but didn’t do anything about the prompting, since it was time to make breakfast.

Later that morning, after everyone had left for school, representatives from probably the same xx church knocked on my door and shared a few words of Christ out of the New Testament. It was just what I needed at that moment, and I was so grateful to them, and to God, for sending them.

Everyone looked at me a little funny when I shared that experience in my Relief Society lesson…

By: Dalene

Dalene — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:15:37 +0000

I love this post. Having served a prosyletizing mission myself I have a great respect for people who are so convicted and who go about boldly spreading the good word. Tracting was hard and I not only admire the people who can do it, but I also appreciate the people who receive them kindly.

“…my religious beliefs were enough for me, and I didnâ€™t need anything else”

That phrase is so beautiful to me. I have loved ones who have the fulness of the gospel but they almost desperately seek for more. It breaks my heart when they seem unable to recognize the completeness–the wholeness–of what’s right there before them. It’s always joyful, then, to see people who embrace it in its fulness.

Thanks Elizabeth!