Humility and Boldness, Part I

While out with a member of the ward last night, he said something to my companion and I that really struck me. He said, "Be bold in your teaching, and be humble about how you teach it. I still have some trouble seeing boldness and humility occupy the same space, but looking back on the month and a half I've been out in the field, I'm slowly starting to understand, and this quote has prompted me to reflect on this quite often in the space of less than 24 hours.

Let's start with being bold in what we teach. To be bold, we must have the courage to speak up and proclaim the truth, which can be very scary sometimes and is something that I really need to work on as a missionary, at least on the initial contact. Even when talking to somebody who seems busy or disinterested, we must remember that His sheep will know His voice. That if they are true followers of Christ, and we have the courage to speak up and the boldness to speak simply and strongly of the Restoration of His church, His sheep will follow. And once we have made contact and continue to go back and teach, we can't be afraid to speak plainly to them, or to say something that might be hard. We must build our investigators up on the foundation of faith in Christ, and we must test that faith by asking them to keep commitments and obey the Word of Wisdom, the law of Tithing, etc.

The important thing to remember is something one of my teachers in the MTC said: "Boldness is motivated by love, overbearance is motivated by frustration." If we are teaching without love, the Spirit can't be there and our investigators will not develop that faith that is necessary for their conversion, and they won't read the Book of Mormon, which means they won't gain a testimony of it and everything else that testimony entails, which means they won't enter the waters of baptism and become a disciple of Christ.

If anyone has any comments or stories they'd like to share, or suggestions for how I can improve myself as a missionary, please comment! And remember that I am not saying these things because I am perfect, and that I have a lot of things to work on. I just hope that something that I say will influence someone or inspire someone. or get somebody to comment with a suggestion. Hope y'all have a great day!