A Day Serving with the Zone Leader

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Poteet, my zone leader.  And as expected, it turned out to be a truly blessed day.   One initial observation that I made regarding this particular day is that the Lord blessed us with unusual success.  Many of the people whom we had previously attempted to contact were available, and many people that we met on the street were receptive to our message.  I believe that the Lord blessed us with these people because we had prepared ourselves to serve them. 

One of the sacred experiences that I had with Elder Poteet came as we street contacted a disinterested and somewhat intimidating man.  As the man bluntly rejected us, a young boy around the age of 8 passed by us on his scooter.  When he observed his neighbor’s response, he approached us and innocently said, “you can talk to my parents about Jesus!”  I suspected that his parents would not appreciate him bringing us over to talk with them, however, I was touched by the smile on his bright young face and by the sweetness of the words that had just proceeded from his mouth.  So I put aside my expectation of the uncomfortable nature of the situation that I would soon find myself in, and we asked the boy to lead us to his parents.  He led us a few houses down and then went inside to get them.  A brief moment later, an unhappy man came out to talk to us (he greatly resembled the last man we spoke with-covered in tattoos and piercings, shirtless, and he had a lot of facial hair).  We offered to say a prayer for him and his family and he told us that he was unreligious and shoed us away.  Before we left we handed him a picture of Jesus and asked him to give it to his son.  There was no baptisms or discussions that resulted from this experience, yet it was precious to me because it reminded me why I am a missionary.  There is sorrow in my heart as I consider the line from a familiar hymn “searching in darkness nations have wept” (264) and associate it with this young boy’s face, however, there is a hope in my heart that one day this boy will come to know Christ as His Savior, as I know Him.  In this moment I found a renewed determination to serve the Lord more faithfully by going out of my way to share my testimony of Christ with others.  I desire to proclaim that the truth has be restored, the dawn has come, and we are with the rising sun. Christ has risen, He lives, and He will come again.

~Elder Kyle Jensen~