Sparks in a dark sky

Have you ever watched a campfire burning down to embers at night? The coals glow hot and an occasional spark rises up and floats away, bright and glowing against the immense blackness of a cold sky. Sometimes missionary work is like that. There is the soft, gentle glow of the embers in the midst of darkness and then there are a few very bright sparks. The sparks stand out and are memorable.

Some of you may be wondering why we don't write more about our mission work. There are several reasons for that. One is there are a few bright shining sparks of missionary success against a background of lots of work, much of it routine and rather humdrum. Those of you who have served missions will remember how many miles you walked or how many people you approached before you established one new contact, and how many contacts you worked with until one seemed really interested in the church. Why, the sons of Mosiah were on full-time missions for fourteen years and the account of their exploits only filled a few chapters in the Book of Mormon.

Another reason is most of our work is behind the scenes. We spend lots of time working hard to make sure the young missionaries are comfortable, well fed, healthy and where they need to be. We also spend significant time encouraging or coaching and occasionally reprimanding them to keep them safe while they are out there driving on the roads or walking on the streets, striking up conversations with all that they meet, and nurturing and teaching those who will let them into their lives.

Amidst all the work in the background it is the weekly P-Days that we tend to write about. We love the exploring and the shopping, and the opportunities to meet people, at the beach or a museum, or perhaps on a walking trail, and usually accompanied by a dog, the dog being an almost infallible conversation starter. Then we may be able to share our feelings about the Saviour and the Church, or at least be friendly, helpful and kind, and so on P-days we do get to do just a little direct missionary work.

But there are bright moments that stand out at the office too. For example it can be very rewarding to talk to a missionary with health problems, helping them understand what they need to do, and arranging for them the medical support or medicine they need—and then talk to them again, or perhaps even meet them, a week or two later, when they are brighter, focused, committed and working hard to fulfill their calling as best they can. We work hard to ensure the missionaries get the money they need as soon as possible, (especially when the ATM has eaten their debit card and the bank refuses to return it, which strangely happens much more often to the Elders than the Sisters) so they can be focused on missionary work, not on being hungry and anxious.  It is fun to help an enthusiastic pair of missionaries get the bike parts they need so they can be mobile and reach a much wider range of people and visit some members and investigators that really need a personal interaction. 

Sometimes when you spend a morning struggling with a recalcitrant computer, or battling to master an accounting procedure it is hard to remember that the purpose of all this is to share the gospel, but then a missionary or a member takes a minute to thank you for what you have done, or a stranger met in a chance conversation indicates that you have brightened their day, and it all snaps back into focus and you are ready to move on with the helping and supporting and, just occasionally, directly testifying.

So, if a lot if these blog posts are about us exploring the country and meeting the people, it's because that's easy to write about and enjoyable for us, and hopefully for our readers. A photograph of us on the phone or solving a missionary's problem on a computer is not at all exciting. Similarly a picture of one of us in conversation with a miserable missionary may have more visual impact, but would be highly inappropriate.

The missionary work that we do is lots and lots of work in the background and tends to be monochrome with a few shining sparks. Our tours around Scotland paint things in glorious colour, which is much easier to write about and to share. So we will continue to spend most of our time and energy doing our missionary work and most of our blog posts on our journeying and exploring, rather than our office work.

But for all that there is no doubt in our minds which is the more important.