The Things that Missionaries Do

Sister Aubrey Bjarnson serving in the Italy Rome Mission on the blog Quiet Rain shares this interesting parable The Game of Life:

And I want to tell a story.

The Game of Life: A Parable of Member Missionary Work

Okay, so I’m going to first tell you what happened, and then I’ll explain the parable. Monday morning, our District Leader calls us to ask if we’re okay with having lunch in the church after DDM. Okay, that sounds fine. Then he says, “Elder Torres is going to try and call you, but do not answer the phone.” “Why not?” “I’ll explain later.” Sure enough, shortly thereafter, Anziano Torres calls, and we did not answer. In fact I think Sorella Swenson hung up on him. Then they called again. We did not answer. We continued to get ready to go. Besides, we thought, we’re going to see the elders in a few minutes because DDM was in a half hour. The phone rang again. This time it was a private number. My insides squirmed. It was most likely the elders, but why was it so important for them to reach us and why did our district leader want so badly that we not listen? Again we did not answer.

Okay, in actuality, at this point my companion figured it out. However, for purposes of the parable we are going to say that we were still in the dark.

Again the phone rang as a private number, and we did not answer. And then, Marco Antonio called. We couldn’t not talk to Marco Antonio even if we knew that he was probably trying to relay a message from the other elders. Marco Antonio informed us that were to bring UNO so we could play in the church.

Our District Leader represents a priest of another religion. Me and my companion represent normal people who do not know the church. The other elders represent (dun dun dun) missionaries. Marco Antonio represents a member of the church and our friend. UNO represents a game that I love and would be sad if I realized that I had unknowingly passed up the chance to play it.

Anziano Nielson (our district leader) hates Uno. Other leaders of other religions do not understand the joy that comes from the true gospel. They tell their congregation not to listen to other religions. People can be confused. They will hold tightly to what they know (their district leader told them not to answer the phone) and are hesitant to open the doors to unknown (whatever it was that the other elders wanted). However, when you bring in member missionaries, the work moves forward. People trust their friends. Through their member friends they can be brought to the knowledge of the gospel. They can be told what they have to do to receive Eternal Life (or to have a great game of UNO).

 I find it interesting the simple things that amuse missionaries.