I had this thought today during Relief Society. I had just had a discussion in the hallway with a counselor in the bishopric and the ward mission leader {I'm a ward missionary} and we were discussing the situation of a few of our less active members. I was still thinking about them during the Relief Society lesson when I had a memory pop into my mind.
I saw myself back in Alabama with my trainer and we were at a correlation meeting at the ward mission leader's house. We were discussing our investigators and the members of the ward. Our goal was to find people in the ward that the investigators could bond with and become attached to rather than attaching themselves to missionaries that would soon leave. The goal of a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to help people come closer to Jesus Christ. A lot of the time, people would draw closer to the missionaries and as soon as they left, the person would stop attending church. We didn't want that to happen, so to fix that we would try to get the ward members involved so that the newcomers would have a friend and feel comfortable attending church long after the missionaries left.
I remember a lot of our correlation meetings would have discussions about who we could get involved in missionary work to make that transition for our investigators easier. Because of this, my mission taught me to have a deeper love for people and to have a concern for the people in the ward. I still have that love today and absolutely love my calling as a ward missionary. I will be leaving this ward in January because I will start school and will be put into a student ward. I am so sad to leave this loving ward, and I am concerned about those we are working with. My goal now is to get as many less active members involved in the ward as I can before I leave so that they can help each other to be strong.
