Follow our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/goyeforthpodcast/

Hello everyone! On today’s show, I speak with Dave Johnson who served in the North British Mission in England from 1969 to 1971

And in my missionary minute, I talk about being a lifelong missionary.

So let’s get to it!

--- Listen to episode ---

A big thanks to my new  friend Dave Johnson

In today’s missionary minute I was thinking about some of the conversations I had with Dave leading up to recording the episode. His son Nate listens to the show and connected us. One of the things that impressed me was that Dave was just as excited to talk about the friend he baptized before his mission, about being a stake missionary and the friends he baptized after his mission. For him, he really took to heart what President David O. McKay used to say, that every member is a missionary.

I remember that I was so fired up about missionary work on my mission and realized that I had not been a great missionary before my mission. I had one friend who was not a member of the church who I had some discussions with and I gave him a Book of Mormon before leaving on my mission. I don’t know if I did much more than that. After my mission, I think that I’ve been better, but I know that I could have done better and still can do better.

I think that there have been too many times where I was “work Jason,” and then I was “member of the Church Jason” on the weekend. Not that I was breaking the commandments or anything, but I have sometimes avoided telling someone what I was doing that weekend when they’ve asked me. I may have had plans to go to the temple, and someone who was not a member of our faith asked me what my plans were for the weekend, and I would skirt that and say, yard work or something. Instead of taking the opportunity to tell them about things that are really important to me. I think that I was overly cautious with some of my employees, worrying that they might perceive me as being biased toward employees or seeming like I’m discriminating based on their church affiliation or activity. And frankly just not knowing the boundaries of what I could say as their employer without getting into some hot water by sharing my religion.

Through the years my wife probably has been a better missionary. She never got the chance to serve a full-time mission, though she would have loved to.

Also, I think a lot of times I’ve thought, well, they wouldn’t understand. And that might be true. But it’s no reason to not tell someone about what things I am doing with the church or even the fact that I’m going to church on Sunday.

Through the years I’ve gotten better at telling people about my faith. In fact, I just invited a neighbor to come to church this past week. He didn’t come. And that’s OK. We are still friends. We’ve given a Book of Mormon to another neighbor. And they still practice another religion. And that’s OK. We’ve invited neighbors to a child’s baptism. And they didn’t come. And that’s OK. I think the important thing is to not hide anything under a bushel so to speak. My neighbors today know where we go to church and at least know a little about what we believe.

I love the direction Elder Uchtdorf has given, telling us to share what the Church and gospel mean to us in natural and normal ways. If someone asks a question, then the opportunity is wide open to let those conversations happen.

Well, that’s about it for today’s show.

If you liked the show, please subscribe so that you are notified when new episodes come out. We would also appreciate it if you could rate and review the podcast in Apple podcasts, or share it with a friend.

Thank you for joining me today. Until next time, wax strong in the gospel my friends!

This is not an official production of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The opinions expressed are by the host and guest.