Washing Cars for the Lord: Good Public Relations

From an early age young men and young women from the United States and Canada learn the value of washing cars. Most in any type of high school or college club hold free car washes where usually they take donations. I even read that some teenage boys make money to go on their missions by holding car washes.

Mormon missionaries are leveraging their ability to wash cars in to a system of receiving referrals. Some do it when the weather is warm and others do it when they want to drum up some attention for the missionaries. Missionaries who are service oriented can use it to improve public relations in their communities. It doesn't really even matter in what country they are serving.

Landon Rich serving in the Peru Lima North Mission described their approach:

Friday we held a zone car wash. We washed the taxis for free as long as they gave us their addresses! The chapel that we did it at is a little ways from the highway so the four of us gringos in the zone had the responsibility to go to the highway and get people to go to the car wash. I wish I had my camera with me because it was very entertaining! Picture this, four white elders dancing around with pink and purple signs yelling “Free car wash, at the chapel of the Mormons”. Yeah it was a blast! It was crazy and our zone leader said that we probably wouldn’t get to do this again on our mission so take advantage of it, lol. We did! But we got quite a few people to stop and get their taxi washed and alot of names to contact!

President Mike Murray of the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission says:

Our missionaries serving in the Logan, Independence and Philadelphia 5th Wards (i.e. congregations) held a free car wash for the public. They washed almost 90 cars, including a police car and an electrician's large truck. One man thought it was such a good deal that he went come and brought his wife's car back. He got a two-fer.

While cars were being washed we invited the drivers and passengers to come into the church building for a tour. Over 100 people toured the building. Women from the three wards provided homemade cookies and punch. One visitor was excited when he saw that we had a large indoor basketball court and that there was a Saturday morning "pick-up game" in progress. He abandoned the building tour and joined in the game.

There are all kinds of outcomes for a car wash by missionaries. You can give tours, find referrals, handout Book of Mormon, or just do some good community service. There is lots of different ways to help out and washing cars is a simple, fun way for missionaries to give back to the communities in which they serve. You can do it even in the winter when people's cars are much dirtier. In fact hot chocolate sounds good to serve to all the attendees.