As “greeny”, or “golden” missionaries as we were supposed to call the new people, Elder Shwane was given the opportunity to say a few words. He related the council his father had given him as he went in to the MTC.
“Son,” he quoted. “I’d rather you come back in a body bag than have regrets about your mission.”
That council didn’t sit well with Elder Davis. He fidgeted around uncomfortably every time he played the comment back in his mind. When the floor opened up to the audience Davis got up and basically spat on Shwane's (the Dad’s) council.
“I’d be hard pressed to learn of a missionary who assumes in his own shower that there was nothing that he could have done better on his or her mission. If it is true that this missionary performed every word with exactness as did the Army of Helaman; that this missionary followed every mission rule, and he feels perfectly comfortable with his service, the missionary is either delusional or the greatest missionary every.
“I have only been out a few months, and I have many regrets. Not that I have done anything “off the plan” as we call it. The missionary guide expressly states that our job is to bring people to Christ through the waters of baptism. The Mission President retains the right to specify which activities fall under that prime directive, if you will.
“I feel I have wasted valuable time hanging out with members and “Eternal Investigator’s” although I believe I have established good friendships, I strongly believe I could have been out doing something more pertinent.
“I pray I’ll never be called to be a Zone Leader or a District Leader. I am not here to baby-sit other missionaries. I am not here to “Perfect the Saints”. I am here under that directive mentioned earlier, and that is all I want to do. Granted, I might regret that decision later as well.
“Maybe it is urban legend, but I have heard that a missionary that dies on his mission obtains automatic exaltation. As of yet, I have no desire to return home to a family that expects me to be the same person who I was before I left. I do not wish to leave, but if I must I hope it is in a body bag.”
I thought the both of them were pretty messed up, but they had some interesting points.
Posted by Michael at March 21, 2004 09:17 AMI think most missionaries are pretty messed up to some degree. They are young and they don't have a lot of life experience and they are in an environment where there think they have to live up to an ideal that is impossible. It is very difficult to not feel some guilt when in a situation like that.
Missionaries who claim they would rather come home in a body bag than have regrets are just showing that they don’t have enough real world experience to come up with realistic priorities.
I think that is a problem with a lot of people who are members of our church. They hear all of this talk about how God wants them to be and see lots of examples of people who seem to be doing better than they are at living up to these ideals and they start to get depressed. Utah has a higher percentage of its population on anti-depressant drugs than any other state in the country. There is a reason for that! Mormons try too hard to make themselves perfect.
I say you haven’t lived life unless you have regrets. Regrets are the whole point of us being here in the first place. How else would you learn right from wrong if you didn’t make any mistakes? If you make mistakes but don’t regret them then you have learned nothing and the whole experience was pointless. If you make mistakes, regret them, then repent you are showing that you actually do have faith in Christ’s atonement…and you are forgiven.
People who let themselves get into a state of depression over regrets they have for their past failures show that they don’t have faith in Christ’s atonement. If they did have faith they would repent and keep trying to do better. Of course they would continue to make mistakes but again…that’s the whole point of our existence…we exist to learn from the mistakes we make in mortality. Christ lived and died so we could have the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them. Mormons who beat themselves up mentally because they can’t make themselves perfect need to get over themselves and start relying on Christ more.
Sorry…I didn’t mean to turn this comment into a sermon. The teacher in the Priest’s Quorum I am the advisor over did a faith-works lesson yesterday and I’m still processing it.
Posted by: Jeremy at March 22, 2004 09:20 AM