Missionary Work

We had a great lesson in RS yesterday on missionary work, it is found in lesson 28 in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Whether it is in our own home or with those we come in contact with every day...

“After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel.”

Dawn shared a story of when she was in school...
In her civics class, they were assigned to write a report and then present it orally in the class - on the subject of: something historic that happened in the state of Pennsylvania. So...she picked the topic of Joseph Smith's baptism and the restoration of the priesthood that happened in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She thought she was taking the easy way out, but little did she know that it would cause a stir among one of her classmates' parents. She presented her speech and one of her classmates said that she would like to know more about it, so Dawn took a Book of Mormon to her the next day. This girl's parents were furious - and thought Dawn should be expelled! (don't think that happened though...) There was such a fuss over this, that it discouraged Dawn to share the Book of Mormon.
But then she shared the ending to this story of thinking she took the easy way out... the girl who was interested in what Dawn shared in class that day - waited until she was 18 and was baptised along with another classmate - and they BOTH went on to serve missions touching countless other lives.

Joseph has said about missionaries/missions, in a letter to the Twelve,

"Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race. This has been your feeling, and caused you to forego the pleasures of home, that you might be a blessing to others, who are candidates for immortality, but strangers to truth; and for so doing, I pray that heaven’s choicest blessings may rest upon you."

Becky Eves once told a story in Sacrament meeting about sharing the Gospel, that I thought was relevant. If it's not exactly right, I'm sorry, you get the point of it though.

She asked, if we went to the store and found out that they were having the greatest sale on meat, $0.01/lb. Wouldn't you want to tell everyone you knew about that great sale ? Think how happy you are to get that good deal, and you just wanted to share such a great deal - your friends/family wouldn't be offended by you calling them up and letting them know about it...
Think how happy the Gospel makes us and the wonderful blessing we receive by living it - shouldn't we be just as excited in sharing that wonderful thing with our family and friends?