Young Missionaries

When I was a young man, we had this awesome activity where we were assigned with another young man to go on a "mission". We went to a family in the ward, a mission based on where the family was from or where they had served a mission, and had dinner with them and then taught the first missionary discussion. I loved it. I loved meeting the families. I loved pretending to be a missionary. I loved the experience of seeing what being a missionary might be like. Growing up in Utah, where we never saw the missionaries and going on splits never happened, this was the closest I had to a mission prep course. I loved the way it made me feel.

When I was called as a young mens president in Denver, I wanted to do the same thing. It didn't work out. I think I went into in too naively. We practiced a few times, but in the end I canceled it because I just felt like it was going to be a bad experience for the youth, and I didn't want that to happen. I did promise myself that if I ever had the chance to be in the young mens again, I would try it once more. Last year, after about a year with the young men we did it with only the Priests. It was a great activity, although we only had 6 boys participate. I thought it went great, and the boys who went seemed to really enjoy it. When I found out that my advisor Brady Knudsen had done this before, we decided to do it again, but with all of the youth. It was amazing. We took the month and taught the boys the first lesson, focused on what to teach and how to teach. It was fun to see them the first few weeks, struggling to share the testimony that they have inside. It was fun to see them as they "got it".

We ended up having about 20 families host two or three youth over two nights. They were all called to missions, the two we got (in the picture above) were called to the Norway mission. We were still juggling hosts and companionship's up to the day of the event. It was so much fun, and it all seemed to come together so beautifully. At out house we had meatballs (Kjøttkaker), boiled potatoes and sour cabbage (surkaall). It was fun for me to make. It smelled like Christmas at home. Kathleen made a wonderful rice pudding (Risengrynsgrot) for dessert.

All of us, kids included, got in on the fun of being investigators. It was fun to ask questions, and watch these wonderful young men answer us with such sincerity. It was wonderful to hear them share Joseph Smith's first vision, to hear their testimonies about the Book of Mormon, to hear their favorite scriptures (1 Nephi 3:7 NOT 3 Nephi 3:7-that one is NOT a missionary scripture:). But above all, it was wonderful to feel the spirit that these two young men brought into our home, and to see our three children look up to them as they shared why they both believe in our Savior Jesus Christ, his atonement, and the restoration of the gospel. It was a great experience. I am glad that we got to be a part of it.