How can an investigator break through his fear of lack of support and friendship?

Question

Gramps,

My daughter is on a mission, teaching a young man who is 20. He is very interested in the church and praying about baptism but he struggles with lack of support from friends and family. All of his friends and coworkers are very unsupportive and unkind about the church. His fear from loosing the friendship and association of most everyone in his life is holding him back. I thought about Matt 10:34-39 but it’s definitely easier said than done. Any suggestions on what she can tell him?

Jan

Answer

Jan,

Whenever the Lord leads us away from what seems good, it’s always to something better, even if we can’t see the better.  Examples:

Lehi and his party were led away from familiar lives, wealth, friends and business associates.  They first went into the wilderness where they had to struggle and sometimes suffer.  They faced danger, the unknown, and the unfamiliar.  Even for Lehi and Nephi it may have been difficult at times to believe in the promised land.  But eventually, they made to a land rich in all that anyone could ask for (food, animals, resources).  As long as they did as the Lord asked, they were blessed and protected by him.

The children of Israel leaving Egypt is a similar story (though more people, so more variability and difficulty).  They may have been “slaves” in Egypt, but apparently it wasn’t so bad because they often longed to go back rather than eat to satiation on manna and quail.  They longed for the familiar and the seeming safety of tyranny.  They doubted the Lord’s promises of protection, guidance, and a promised land of plenty.

It is a hard thing indeed when the risk is losing family, friends, even a good job.  This investigator must choose between the familiar and the promises of the Lord.  My testimony is that even when we have to go through the wilderness first (finding new friends, new work, and/or reworking family relationships), the Lord always leads us to something better – if we trust in him.

Gramps