When I was 19 I went on a two year mission for my church to
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, paid for entirely by me. I spent two months in Sao Paulo at the CTM
that my church operates there primarily learning to speak Portuguese. On one
day a week we were able to go outside of the CTM and send emails home to
family, and visit anything within about a two block radius of the CTM; which
included a supermarket, a juice stand, and not much else. Our rooms were divided between Brazilians who
stayed for just over two weeks, and primarily Americans. At the end of the two
months I went to the airport, got on a plane, and got to Porto Alegre. There I
was assigned a companion and a geographical area of the city, or surrounding
southern half of the state, which geographical area I would stay in for at
least three months. We lived in apartments in the area in which we were
serving, except for my first companion I served uniformly with Brazilians.
There was one day a week where we had “off” to do our own
laundry, write emails home, go shopping, and occasionally go see a tourist
site, if it was close enough by for us to see it and get back to work in the
evenings.
While we did plenty of service, that wasn’t our primary
responsibility or goal. We were there to bring others to Christ, via baptism
into the LDS church. So we taught people
or tried to find people who were willing to listen to us. Some of those that we
taught did join our church, and some of those did lose family ties, social
support, and have to make drastic changes in their lifestyle because they
choose to and believed and knew that what we were teaching is true. I still have intermittent contact with some of
the people I taught or that were already members in the areas I served, and I
know that my service made lasting impressions on them and for some greatly
improved their lives, despite me not giving them any money, or anything like
that.
The services at my church were essentially the same there as
here as in every other place in the world I have ever attended them, though
obviously the language spoken was different.
I did attend many other churches services while there, if someone
invited us to attend then I would go, because we were constantly inviting
others to attend our church and so I thought that only fair, not the usual
state of affairs as far as I know.
I saw dogs mating in the street, children selling oranges
and other items on the street, had cockroaches in my shower, which the hot
water came via an electric heater attached by us to the shower head and usually
sparked, I was assured by my companions that was a normal state of affairs. The
larger grocery stores and banks had AC, and we never spent much time in those.
There were lots of things that were hard, difficult, or
different and I grew a lot, but I did not go on a mission to grow myself, I
didn’t go so that I could be converted, nor was I forced to go by family or
anyone else. I choose to go and I would have been happy serving anywhere in the
world, I did not choose Brasil but to serve a mission. I choose because I know from my own
experience that the LDS church is true and that the gospel does make people
happier and better, besides allowing them to be forgiven of their sins and
return to live with God again. I can’t say anything about all missionaries from
every sect, but from speaking with other missionaries and people serving in
other churches in Brasil, that is also why they do what they do: because they
know that what they do can change someone life for the better, more than giving
them a meal to eat ever could. Which isn’t to say that charity is not also
good, I participated in plenty of that and donate regularly to charities.
I would love to be able to go back to Brasil, to see all the
sights and visit the places that I never did as a missionary.
I debate religion online because I enjoy it, and if someone
did actually seek to know God via what I write then I would be thrilled. If I
could convince everyone in the world to seek to know God, I would, but I have
no idea if my commenting online has any sort of positive effect on anyone,
other than the enjoyment and knowledge that I gain from doing so. I do not
pretend to have a perfect knowledge of God, nor do I even know or believe that
everything about the LDS church is perfect; since I am a part of the church and
I know that I am not prefect then even in that most limited sense it must not
be perfect, letting alone everything else.
What it does have is additional revelation, and the knowledge that
everyone can seek to have their own revelations as well as the authority to receive
more revelations from God via the prophets and priesthood, and most importantly
certain ordinances which bind on heaven and on earth both ourselves and our
families.
