Tracking -

Many times what we want isn’t what’s supposed to be, other times the Lord helps us to put things in proper perspective. As missionaries in order to have a little fun while working we would play little games to pass the time. Approaching a door one of us would say a word just before it opened and the other missionary was suppose to use that word in the door approach. There were a couple of rules – the word had to be one everybody knew what it meant, and you needed to keep down the laughter when they tried to use it – otherwise its hard to accomplish what you really were there for. There were a number of other things we would do while going door-to-door looking for someone to teach. Ultimately the goal was to teach the gospel to anyone that would listen. One afternoon we were tracking and trying to have a little fun, we wasn't having much success. Being a nineteen-year-old male also meant we weren’t always as mature as we should have been. Knocking on one door a beautiful your lady about our age answered, she had a big smile and was quite pleasant. I think that the first thing I thought was WOW. The next thing was something like - “I’m going to baptize my wife!” I don’t have a lot of it, but I turned on all the charm I could muster. It didn’t take long before I had her laughing and I was on the path to teaching something about eternal marriage. I knew there was a connection and she was enjoying our conversation, then she dropped the lead balloon. Can lesbians be baptized in your church? It felt like a cold bucket of water had been poured over my head – of course not, well then I can’t join your church. I don’t know if she said that to get rid of us or if it was really true. We thanked her for her time and went on our way. Most people were a little more direct if they weren’t interested or wanted us to leave. This was most obvious at the first door I ever knocked on. My companion was a great guy and tried to do what ever he could to make me feel comfortable. As we approached our first door together he told me to go ahead and act as voice. I had practiced a few times in the MTC and in my mind – but there’s nothing like the real thing. As the door opened I started to say what I thought would work – but I only got a couple of words out when he went into a rage and started to using words I can’t repeat and to access us of all kinds of things. This was followed with a slamming of the door in our faces. My companion was extremely concern that I was OK after such a response. I think I took him back a little as I started to laugh – he asked if I was all right and I said, “oh-yes, you don’t understand I get to use this story for the rest of my life.” He started to laugh and said I would be OK. Tracking isn’t normally a confidence building experience – you just need to not take it personal. These people don’t know you personally and don’t really understand what you believe or are trying to teach them. Who knows you might have caught them on a bad day. I spent a lot of hours looking for someone to teach and some time later I married another beautiful woman that had been baptized many years before – who didn’t try to get rid of me the first time we met.