Nothing to Fear

Anne, Margaret and I went out on campus today to talk to women about the Lord. This was the third time that we had gone out, and, while some women had shown marginal interest in talking to us more about getting to know the Lord, we hadn’t had any huge successes.

We met at the student center, as we had the previous two times, but it soon became clear that it wasn’t the best place for us to be. We decided to split up and walk around the Quads and stop individual women to see if they were open to hearing more about the Lord. We decided that Anne and I would team up and Margaret would go it alone.

This being our third excursion, I felt like I was kind of getting the hang of this whole going-out-and-talking-to-strangers bit—the fear that I had had the first day before going up to people and saying, “Hi. The Lord wants me to talk to you” had significantly decreased. I had faith that the Lord would take care of me and loved me even if the women that I talked to thought I was a weirdo—I probably wasn’t going to see them again anyway. However, as I was praying this morning about our missionary expedition, the Lord told me that I didn’t need to be afraid of talking to people that I knew or that I saw on a regular basis. I found the prospect of talking to these women scary—if they thought I was a weirdo, I had to see them and KNOW that they thought I was weird. However, armed with the word of the Lord, Anne and I went out.

We talked to a number of women that we didn’t know, and while making our way back to meet Margaret, we saw a woman that I recognized from one of my classes last year. I recognized her from my class, but throughout this past year had noticed her on campus and was kind of drawn to her. Even though I was drawn to her, I also felt very intimidated by her. However, watching her walk closer and closer, I knew that I needed to talk to her. It turns out that Anne had also had class with her and felt the same apprehension to talking with her. However, strengthened by each other’s presence and the word from the Lord not to fear, we talked with her and it ends up that she was uniquely poised for an invitation from the Lord for a deeper relationship with him. As we talked with her, my fear vanished and I saw that the Lord was right—I had nothing to fear. She was really receptive to what we told her and wants to get together to talk more. Praise the Lord!