Enduring to the End: Teaching Brooke

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The first half of my mission I was blessed to be able to teach and invite many people to be baptized. However, the second portion of my mission experience was a night and day contrast to my previous success from my first year. A Door slamming in my face was becoming a common melody. Dogs tearing into my pants were a constant threat. Awkward confrontations disrupted the peaceful spirit we so desperately needed.   I was towards the end of my mission and the end of my wits. As I approached the final three months before I went home, I began questioning why I stayed this extra year on my mission only to meet endless trials and sorrows.

There was an unfortunate event that required the quick departure of a recent elder and my obligation as a replacement for him. It was a new area that would involve me learning the ward and investigators swiftly in order to do my part before my demise. Time was not my ally at this point.

We began teaching Brooke the lessons after she called us to come over. She interestingly enough had moved to this area at the exact same time I did. Nothing we taught was anything she hadn’t heard before because she had been attending church and meeting with missionaries for over fourteen years. It was because of her deep analytical way of thinking that made it difficult to wrap her head around many of the principles of the gospel. Regardless, she made it very clear that she felt ready to be baptized. With less than five weeks until I would go back home, Brooke wanted to be baptized within the next two weeks. My companion and I were ecstatic about this, but it was short lived.

I sat quietly on her couch, disheartened as she admitted that, “I don’t understand where Christ fits in”. All the members in the room erupted in attempts to explain the atonement, but it failed to register in the least with Brooke. I simply sat forward and finally spoke softly, “Your about to join a church with his name in it. It is the church of Jesus Christ”. She nodded in response to this, but then confessed “I’m not ready to be baptized”. I rested back quietly in my seat feeling my heart sink into the same feeling of sorrow that had plagued my life for the last year. Everyone in the room went on trying to explain it as clearly as they could, but to not effect.

The morning that followed felt pointless. My companion spoke little to me and I just wanted to engulf myself into the scriptures to bypass the grief. The phone suddenly rang, which I answered abruptly. Brooke’s voice spoke gently into my ear, “Something was said last night that really made me understand the role of Christ”. My throat instantly dried up, I could not speak or breathe. After no response from me she quickly continued, “I want to be baptized and I would like you to do it”. My companion practically had to catch me as I fainted.

It was perhaps one of the longest years of my life, filled with countless hours of knocking doors and teaching endless lessons that never seemed to go anywhere. I wondered why I had stayed this extra year to suffer so much, but it was because I needed to be there to teach Brooke at the end. The Lord knew that if I would endure to the end that I could help change one more life before I left. It was a powerful lesson, not a fun one, but an effective lesson. No matter how hard it gets, don’t stop! There is always light at the end of the tunnel.