One of my most interesting mission experiences was at a district conference (they technically didn't even have a district organized there yet, let alone a stake, but it was called district conference). A new member from my greenie area came up and asked if I recognized him. I honestly did not, and said so. He said that I tried to talk to him on the street once about the church, and he just brushed me off and walked on. Later he started wondering what I had wanted to talk to him about, so he found the missionaries that were currently serving there (I had been transferred out) and talked to them and got baptized. I probably talked to thousands of people on my mission who just walked away. Unless this guy had found me and told his story, I would have had no way of knowing that what seemed like wasted effort actually brought someone into the church.

great question.

Here's a thought that probably would've gone :

No matter how capable, patient, smart, obedient, pure, humble, virtuous, zealous, deserving, kind, noble, talented, eloquent or privileged you may think you are as a missionary, trust in God--doing God's work--should probably involve God.


--Ray

Read The Book of Mormon in German every day.

You'll not only learn the language, you'll never lose it if you continute the practice.

Jason, didn't your generation also call it Missionarisch as mine did?

And sometimes it was almost as funny as when a four year old held by his mother calls out the window to you as you're leaving their home at the top of his voice "Ich lieb dich Narr!" because he can't pronounce the word "Missionar" yet.

For those not familiar with German, Narr is a word for fool. Narr is pronounced exactly the same as the last three letters in Missio-nar.

It was so appropriate and funny. This little guy absolutely adored me, and we had taught his older sister the lessons (she hadn't joined the church the same time her parents and brother had) and she had just joined before Christmas and this was the last time I'd seem them before being transferred. This was my first area, so I had had some real good bloopers of Missionarisch with this family (like when they offered something to drink, trying to be polite I thought I had asked for tap water -- instead of bottled mineral water -- but mixed words up and asked for body water...). Anyway, they were sad to see me transferred and the little guy hopped up in my lap and gave me a big four-year-old slobbery, runny nose kiss before we left.

Um... yeah... the only difference is the placement of two vowels. The word/verb with "ie" is to shoot. The word/verb with "ei" is to s***.



What he probably meant to say was "Ich schiesse gerne!"

The other word, the missionaries typically hear several times a day from people who don't want to be bothered and want them to go away... Can and cannot be combined with other equally colorful explicatives. It is sad when part of the language you remember the most besides some gospel terms are the swear words... but then again, some of them are so colorfully funny that they still can bring a grin to my face... See, many Germans swear in connection to their complaining often times. Weather is rotten? Well, they have specific ways of talking about it... Hit your thumb with a hammer? Same thing can be said, but in just so slightly different intonation that it is totally different... Miss the train / bus... yeah, you guessed it. Mormon missionaries (too often mistaken for Jehovah's Witnesses) show up at your door or try to talk to you on the street... yeah, not only do you get the phraseology full kilter, but you get the German version of speak to the hand cuz no body is listenin'.