Question
Dear Gramps,
I am serving a full time mission in England and have been working hard out here. Sadly I haven’t had a baptism out here and I am starting to feel like I am a failure.. Other missionaries are seeing things happen and I have friends in other missions getting baptisms every week. I know it is not all about the numbers but am I a failure if I dont baptize anyone on my mission? And what do I tell people who ask me ”Oh! How many people did you baptize?!”
Elder
Answer
Elder,
Your desire to bring people to the Lord through baptism is commendable and good. Therefore your frustration at what you see as your ‘failure’ to do so is understandable. But let’s take a moment to examine some other missionaries who might have considered themselves to be failures.
Let’s start with one I have mentioned before, Abinadi. The Book of Mormon only records one convert for Abinadi, and Abinadi never knew it. Yet we don’t consider Abinadi to be a failure. Then there is Noah. According to the Old Testament, Noah failed to convert anyone besides his own family, but we don’t think of him as a failure either.
Then there are many stories of missionaries who suffered a lot, which suffering could have easily given them the same kind of doubts that you are having before they had success. They had to push through their doubts and endure the suffering before the Lord blessed them.
The Lord may have called you to serve more like those brave and honorable men than the brave and honorable men who brought hundreds to the Church through baptism. If so then embrace it, and all will be well with you.
If you serve your mission to the best of your ability and faithfulness then the Lord will work miracles through you. You might not ever see or know what the Lord did with your efforts in this lifetime, but you can trust that he will. And once you know that the Lord has approved and accepted your efforts then you can answer questions about numbers however you like, because you will know you did well.
Gramps
