As I read through DC 112, the verse that sums up missionary work for me is this:
10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.
11 I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name.
I marvel at the stages of life. When I was a teenager, being taught about going into the world and teaching the gospel, I saw it as a black and white issue: go on a mission and teach. When I was a missionary I was teaching and it was still a black and white issue. That was my calling and my life. My Mission President encouraged us often to talk to the members about missionary work, so we did. It was frustrating at times when families would just not be willing to offer their friends for us to teach. I just didn't understand the sociality of it all. After returning from a mission and living in places with less than 50% LDS people (much less), I understand why we were not given friends to teach on the mission. You just don't want to have that uncomfortableness of a friend offering something and a friend refusing something.
I feel now that the time for inviting friends to church and to talk to the missionaries is something that is led by the Spirit. We of course felt this as missionaries, but I think our expectations were probably unrealistic as far as timing goes. I see now that our job was to encourage people to love their neighbors. To pray for the right time to talk about religion. To soften friends hearts, or just open them a little for the time that may come when they will be ready to hear more.
Doing missionary work for or with any one person is a personalized journey. We hear remarkable stories about people who are "golden," when the timing and people and circumstances are just right. This stories create very high expectations. We also hear stories about people who take years to study, then refuse, then study some more, then get angry, then study some more, then maybe take a chance to smile at the missionaries, then refuse and on and on. These stories about kill your desire to help in anyway.
Which brings me back to verses 11-12. We are to be humble and the Lord will lead us. If we are humble, we will say the right things, to the right people, at the right time. If we pray and love people genuinely, they will respond and their hearts will be soft. And if they do not show the slightest interest in the gospel in this life, perhaps their hearts will be more open in the next because of the friendship and love that you continued to show regardless of differences.
Love conquers all!!!
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One of my friend's dads was baptised a few years back. He is a hairdresser and for 20 years he cut hair for men and women in the stake. For 20 years he listened to people talk about the church while he cut their hair. Both of his kids took the discussions and his son was attending the singles ward regularly(for at least a year) when he decided to take the discussions himself(He called up the stake president and asked for the discussions). He didn't tell his kids because he wanted them to decide for themselves. One day he told his son, "I'm getting baptised on Sunday." A few months later he baptised his son. He was "golden" but it took twenty years of listening to and seeing members live the Gospel. You are right; it is all about love and living the Gospel. The best thing we can do is be prepared to be in the right place at the right time and be courageous enough to open our mouths when inspired to do so.
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