Why Missionaries Serve

By A. Lynn Scoresby

There is one part of missionary life that all missionaries have in common no matter where they are from or where they are called to serve.

One Thursday evening at a branch meeting at the Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah, a large group of Primary children came and sang about being in the army of Helaman and hoping to be called on missions.

When the children finished singing, they remained standing. The elders and sisters stood to sing “Called to Serve,” the hymn which has become a missionary anthem. The missionaries had been so moved by the children’s songs that many were close to tears. As they sang I noticed the children. They were not looking at the floor or at each other. They were gazing intently into the faces of the missionaries whose song bore testimony of faith. The children believed the words they heard, and they knew the missionaries believed them too.

Both missionaries and children were witnesses to a demonstration of faith that is almost miraculous, and both accepted it as they would a more normal event. Yet, in that group of missionaries were individuals who had saved for years to serve a mission. All of them were willing to go where and when they were asked. Most had received a letter from someone they had never met which informed them they were going to a place they had never been, to meet people they had never seen and learn languages and discussions they did not know. Most were going at their own expense or were helped by other equally faithful people who made contributions.

As a branch president at the training center, I was able to watch several hundred young men and women begin their missions. The power in their devotion and faith impressed me greatly. I never found an end to what seemed a tremendous willingness to give, learn, teach, and serve. If tired or less productive on one day, they arose the next filled with the determination to do better. Some had minor complaints. Some had weaknesses. Many were immature. A few were unprepared. Overall, however, it was evident that a strong sense of purpose was moving them onward.

I learned that what a missionary makes of his or her time is clearly an individual thing. Some work faster, some slower. Some are more prepared than others. Some work hard to learn; others give less effort.

There is one part of missionary life, however, I am certain that all missionaries have in common no matter where they are from or where they are called to serve. When faced with the work involved, possible hardship, new and strange places, the missionaries all spent time thinking, talking, and probably praying about their reasons for serving a mission.

I noticed many groups of missionaries discussing the subject. I learned that companions often discussed with each other their reasons for serving missions. The search for reasons to serve a mission was also a major part of talks given in church meetings. Many speakers told conversion stories about how they had been prepared through spiritual means at a very young age. Some told of vivid dreams that were confirmed when they later heard about the gospel.

For example, one missionary, we’ll call her Maria, told of a dream she had at the age of nine or ten about God as an individual person, not three in one, and of a Heavenly Father whose son was Jesus Christ. Maria’s belief in this idea caused problems for her and her family during the time she went to private religious schools. She would ask her school friends and teachers, “Do you believe God is a person who has a son?” After a while, getting no satisfactory answer, she stopped asking.

Years later at work, when Maria was in her early twenties, she started talking with a co-worker about religion. Eventually, the woman asked Maria to attend church with her. “I must ask you a question first,” Maria said, and was thrilled at the woman’s answer: “My church teaches that God is the father of us all and has a son who is Jesus Christ.”

Maria gladly accepted the gospel message, was baptized, and as soon as possible she began serving on her own mission. On her first day at the Missionary Training Center, she recognized her instructor as the elder who had taught her the gospel months earlier.

There were many ideas presented as reasons for serving missions. Some missionaries wondered if they were going just to please their parents, to satisfy a girlfriend or boyfriend, or because their family and ward expected them to go. Others considered the possibility that they were part of a cultural tradition where the importance of missionary work had been taught through song and lesson from the time they were young. Many had other more individual reasons such as gratitude for miraculously surviving accidents, or seeking forgiveness for something they were ashamed of.

Faced with being away from home and family and the difficult parts of missionary life, they searched for “real” reasons. They did not want to undergo the challenges and hardship ahead of them unless they had good, inspiring reasons for doing so. Straining to learn a difficult language, for example, might not seem worth doing if a missionary were only trying to please his or her parents.

I was interested in their conversations. I wanted to learn what they had discovered about themselves. As I watched them from the day they arrived, I could tell they were progressing and beginning to sense and understand some things they could not express in words. It showed in their faces, in the gospel focus of their conversations, and in what they did in their times of quiet contemplation. Most quickened their scripture study and increased their attention to learning language and discussions. Watching all this, I finally recognized it for what it was—the real reason missionaries serve.

I learned that a mission is a joining between a mortal soul who prepares and embraces the things of God, and God’s Spirit. When this happens, every missionary learns he or she is part of something greater and more important than the individual. Missionaries have an important part to play for themselves and for others. It involves being entrusted with the most essential ideas and ordinances of all. As they feel the Spirit and share his work, they come to know and love his Son—and to understand why they serve.

Illustrated by Richard Hull