My Mission Story (Abridged)

(Note: This is the abridged version of my mission and my testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. If you have a problem with that then I'll just state an overwhelming "Screw You" right here. Ha Ha. But this is done somewhat by special request, so here is the story and also note that this isn't the best way to be a missionary or to go on a mission, but I did it and I'm glad I did. Oh yeah, and even though this is abridged it's also long, so if you want to skip it go ahead. Oh, and EYA has probably heard all of this before, so sorry.)

This all starts freshman year of college. I was an average college student, you know, the one who lounges around and who doesn't have a testimony of the church he was raised in. The average kind. Yes, I went to church, but I didn't mentally go to church, I went mostly for the fact of going meant people would get off my back, if I didn't go then there'd be something wrong. Then I turned 19. I went to Gerogia that year for Christmas, my grandma being the woman that she is bless her soul, made a comment to me when we were alone.

G: Are you going on a mission?
Me: I'm sure I'll go, it's just not the time yet.
G: Well if you don't go, you're out of the will.
Me: Grandma, it's not about the will, I just can't go when it's not the right time.

That's how my grandma works, she has a jaded view of how the gospel works and if the church were the way she thought is was, then I wouldn't be in it. That was one of my major hang ups, and sort of still is. The different interpretations of the Church that different people give it. I've recently learned for myself that I really need to have my own foundation and keep that foundation otherwise I'll be pushed out very fast because I'm definatly not the model member.

So winter semester came around and everyone around me was getting mission calls, and I realized I'd better do it soon too. Because well, it was just sort of expected of me to do it. So I sent in my mission papers and got my call to go to the New Hampshire Manchester Mission. So when people ask, "why did you go on a mission?" If I answer truthfully I can say, "Too please others and frankly to get it over with." Most people seem to say because they had a testimony or they knew it was for them, nope, not me.

So then there was the temple, and let me say, if you don't have a testimony, do not go to the temple. That almost stopped me from going. Once you have a testimony then I say it's applicable to go and it's a good place to learn. But definatly don't go if you don't have a testimony.

Then I went into the MTC. The MTC was nice because I had a disfunctional group of weirdos. Plus I injured myself, which was nice too. Basically all my memories from the MTC are of pranks and fun things we did such as riding mattresses down the stairs.

Then my first area of my mission, I was such a greenie, I had no idea what to expect. It probably didn't help that my trainer had no tact whatsoever. Those three months were very rough, I didn't want to be there, I had dreams every night that i was back at home talking to friends saying, yeah I'm back, I'm so glad to be home. I would also wish I would get hit by a car so I could go home honorably.

When the three months were up I went to Vermont with my second companion which was a very refreshing moment. It was nice because he was incredibly knowledgeable, he taught me a lot, and he was fun. Oh yeah, and he had a broken knee. He got me aquainted with the area which was the most psychotic area of my mission when it came to crazy shit that can happen in an area. It was the highest rate of inactivity in our mission. 100 active out of 530 people. I was with him for three weeks and then he went home to get surgery done on his knee. I then got my third companion. Now imagine this, here I am, out for three and a half months, still with no testimony and my companion comes in and I have to take charge. But see I thought it wouldn't be too bad, what i didn't know was who I was getting as a companion. This guy had 9 weeks left and he wouldn't talk to anyone. When he would get mad at me he wouldn't say anything to me literally for 5 days. 3 weeks into this companionship I suddenly came to the realization. This was me at the end of my mission if I stayed the way I was. So I made a decision. It was either shape up or ship out.

So I decided to find out if the Book of Mormon really was true, and after that I would decide whether to stay on my mission or go home. So in a matter of about 2-3 weeks I read the whole book of mormon. It's actually quite easy when your companion really wants to sit home and do nothing. So I finished it one night around 1 am, and then I went to pray about it. I prayed for a long while and then when I was done I said amen and I waited for an answer. And wouldn't you know it. I got nothing. I had a pretty strong belief in God at this point that i figured he would be at least kind enough to tell me yes or no, but to sit there and not say anything? So I tried again, sure enough, nothing. So I looked at the scripture Moroni 10:3-5. And when I saw the words real intent I suddenly realized what i had to do. So in my prayer I told God that if this were true and he would tell me so I would definatly know, then I would be faithful the rest of my life and wouldn't falter, but if he said no, I would stop this right now and go home. When I had real intent, that's when I recieved an clear and definate answer of Yes. I can't tell you how it felt because I can't recreate it, but I can tell you, it wasn't a warm fuzzy or anything like that. It was God saying "It's true" to me. Then I knew what i had to do, I had to be faithful the rest of my life, even though I knew there would be a lot of opposition especially among members of the church who wouldn't want me around, which has happened quite a bit.

So suddenly with renewed faith and a willingness to go forward I thought, here we go, I can now be a missionary and the Lord will send me someone who can help me become that. But what I didn't account for was that the Lord works in much different ways. See, now, he was going to test to see if I'd actually do what I said. What came next was the 6 months of Hell. I got a new companion, he was from Canada and he was in my MTC district and I had thought, I really don't want to be his companion. But I got him, he was severly obsessive compulsive and a germaphobe taboot and he had a definate testimony of deep doctrine and not of basic doctrine. He had never prayed but felt he didn't ever need to because he had never felt doubt of the truthfulness of our message. He had little to no social skills, and I was asked by my mission president to see if I could help him in any way possible. So for 6 weeks I tried while everyone in the ward complained to me of his behavior and complained to my mission president of his behavior. So after 6 weeks we split up and I went to Maine and he went to Mass.

Well I got with a "cool" companion. Someone who I thought I wasn't really all that cool, so he decided we shouldn't really do anything, which we did. But he continually smeared my reputation and did everything he could to get me out of there. Well it worked and after 6 weeks I was transfered to somewhere else in Maine. In this area I had a companion who was going home in 6 weeks and really didn't want to do anything. This was the 6 week period that I felt the most insane in. Still to this day I can find a reason why I was in every area of my mission except the 6 weeks in this area. I can't name a single reason why I was there. At the end of the six weeks I thought I would stay there since my companion was going home. But my mission president called me up and had a special question for me. He was wondering if I could go to Mass and serve with the Canadian again, because apparently I was the only person in the mission who could tolerate him. At this point I really didn't care so I said sure and I went to Mass.

In this area was the second time I seriously comtemplated going home. I had done little to nothing up to this point and I was almost a year in, I had many other missionaries besmerch my name and people from around the mission were calling me up to see if it what they heard from so and so was true such as, "Did you really have sex with someone?" or "Did you really go on a drunken rampage?" Also having all the missionaries around me continually saying how bad a missionary I was and that I should just go home because I obviously wasn't accomplishing anything. At the same time my Canadian companion was also going through the exact same abuse and he was sick of it all too. So for 6 weeks we worked together and I tried to help him with his social skills. We just tried to not think about what other people thought and just do what we could. Well after these 6 weeks I met with my mission president and he said, "Well I asked a favor of you and you did it, now you can ask a favor of me, where in the mission do you want to go?" I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I wanted to go to Machias Maine. Machias was known as outer darkness in our mission, the place where you'd never be heard from again because it was so far away. Exactly what I wanted.

So he granted me my wish. I went to Machias. The biggest reason was to get away from other missionaries, because then I could be a real missionary and not have to deal with missionaries who were all concerned about putting other missionaries down so they could get ahead. The 6 months I spent in Machias were the best of my life. When people say "My mission was the best two years of my life," I can say, "Machias Maine was the best 6 months of my life." The Lord finally knew I was ready to go and me and my companion turned on fire. With no other missionaries around besides our district leader 60 miles away the only thing we could think about was the gospel. I was with that guy for 4 and a half months. Together we accomplished so much for the people there and so much for ourselves. After he left I got another guy for 6 weeks who was also very good and we tore it up. In the two years I was on a mission I had 6 baptisms, 5 of which were in Machias. No where else did I understand more fully Love for the people then I did there. As i write this I have such a feeling that I love that city and the area surrounding it and such a need to go back and live there at some point. At the end of that I felt so accomplished and so happy that I could burst.

When those 6 months were over a mix up occured, I was supposed to go to Portland Maine but due to two seperate accidents I ended up going to Dover-Foxcroft Maine with the one guy in the mission that I knew I would never get along with in any situation. In those six weeks he would not leave the apartment unless we went to eat or go buy GQ magazine. He talked to his girlfriend in the branch every night on the phone and would talk to his friends at home ver regularly. I was told to just wait 6 weeks and do what i could, so I used those 6 weeks to study the scriptures and learn anything and everything I could. Which was a good idea, because my next companion was a spitting image of me at the beginning of my mission. We spent 3 months together and had some amazing times and I was able to give him the wisdom I had gained.

I then ended my mission with 6 weeks in my final area with a decent fellow whom I got along with but we didn't do much, he had a laptop and many other distractions and he really didn't want to do anything, so I read my scriptures and played the game Chrono Trigger on his emulator. There were definatly some reasons for me being with him in that area and they were accomplished, but we'll get into those another time. Then I came home.

That is the story of my mission. Probably about twice a week I think, "The mission was really great, but I'm so glad it's over and I definatly don't want to do it again." Among uber Return Missionaries, I don't fit in because I don't have the RM aura, but you know, I'm glad of what my mission did for me and I accomplished some very good things. I'm proud of myself for doing it. So when such things as people calling me a sinner or people generally saying something rude to me in church, it doesn't affect me as much, because I know the church is true and we're all sinners even though we don't like to show it. And anyone who thinks that they're greater then anyone else is just fooling themselves. They don't understand the true meaning. I don't claim to know everything, and I don't agree with everything either, but I know what I know. And for me, that's enough, and someone telling me I'm not welcome isn't going to stop me, in fact it almost makes me want to keep going just so i can smile as they squirm, as they don't understand that they too are just like me.

Anyways, there's my little tirade. I hope you enjoyed entrance into my psyche. Good day and Good luck.