Chapter 34

A Good Landing Place

James' preparation makes him specially qualified for his mission call—The building of Zion
requires lots of time––Converts to the Church need a good landing place—What is the true calling of a
missionary?—The mission of perfecting the saints in the Church must overflow its traditional boundaries.

James entered the mission field having already received significant on-the-job training,
and with an appetite for the things of God unlike other boys his age. Serving a mission, being
ordained an elder, and attending the temple for the first time, all of these things were for most
young men like eating a plate of nutritious vegetables, something they partook of to maintain
good spiritual health, to be obedient to that which was asked, and to prepare themselves for
life—a pattern for the youth of the Church that has been very successful.

James, however, experienced all of these things differently. Being more spiritually
prepared, he partook of them as if they were the main course of a delicious gourmet meal
followed by a sweet and tasty dessert. Filled with fire by the Holy Ghost, he feasted upon them
with desire, savoring every morsel as it came along. He looked forward to spending all day,
every day, doing the work of the Lord, the work of building Zion, which the mission call offered
to him. The only drawback was that he would be transplanted to some other location to do this
work and not be able to do it at home. Furthermore, he would be focused primarily on the
mission of preaching the gospel more directly and not on the mission of perfecting the saints.
Nonetheless, it was very close to the work he had already set out to do.

In early December, James arrived at the St. Louis International Airport. From there, he
was assigned to his first area––the city of St. Charles. The office elders dropped him off at the
apartment of his new companion, he got settled in, and then the two of them went out that same
evening to work together for the first time. James would learn a lot from his first companion,
Elder Peter Ramsey of Woods Cross, Utah. Peter, too, had a great love for the work in which
they were engaged. It was here in St. Charles where James first experienced the excitement of
finding investigators, teaching them, baptizing them, and seeing them grow in the Church. They
had two convert baptisms in the short two-month period he was there before he was transferred
to a new area.

The sudden transfer, however, came as a shock to James. He was happy to serve
wherever he was called, but two or four months seemed like an awfully short period of time to
accomplish anything serious in the gospel. He bemoaned already having to leave behind the
work he was doing in St Charles.

If the Lord was specific enough to call me to the St. Louis mission from among all others,
why not then simply call me for the full two years right here to St Charles?

Why all of this switching around? It doesn’t provide enough time for me to get anything
done.

If mission rules had allowed, James would have preferred to be assigned to just one place
the entire period of his mission. His natural instinct was to try to build up and continually perfect
one parcel of grass at a time to the five-dollar lawn level. Having the opportunity to build
momentum over time in a single area, he could then as a missionary bring around all the
investigators he could find to see and experience something very special in the gospel. Without
this, the wards and stakes in his area might struggle to provide the fertile ground necessary to
receive new converts and keep energized all of the prior ones. Without a good landing place, it's
possible that these new converts would fall off into unknown paths, losing the significant
investment of time and effort of the Spirit that helped prepare them to receive the restored gospel
in the first place.

Zion is not built in a day, nor in a two- or four-month window. Two years for a
missionary in one area of a mission is still a short period of time, but it at least allows for a
couple of seasons for crops to be planted, for the tender plants to be watered and nurtured as they
grow, and to provide continuity and a stable environment to develop strong roots.

Time is key to the building of Zion in our wards and stakes, both at home and abroad.
Missionaries that come off the plane with a vision of Zion in their hearts will always desire more
time––time to build up and perfect a single spot of ground; time to work with the members there;
time to get to know well as many nonmember, inactive member, and mixed-member families as
they can; and lots of time to work with the converts they bring in to help them grow strong in
their wards. How wonderful it would be if missionaries were no longer counting the months and
days until they return home but, instead, were feeling rushed to complete all of their exciting
Zion-like goals in a specific mission area before they "have to leave and go home." This is the
ideal of missionary work that we are seeking in the Church.

And when the two years have ended, a new missionary would then, presumably, come in
to replace him or her in that same spot of ground for the next two years. The missionary who is
leaving could be slowly phased out with a long transition period, like a driver in a car doing a
slow and safe lane change––signaling first, checking the rearview mirror, and covering many
lines while the car moves slowly into the next lane. This longer transition time is much better
than a quick, abrupt lane change where we cut in front of another car and risk causing an
accident. Building up, stabilizing, perfecting, and adding new converts to wards and branches
over time in the mission field would then become the focus rather than trying to reenergize
mission areas through regular companionship changes.

An excellent model we might look to for the missionary program can be seen with
Ammon in the Book of Mormon and how beloved he was of the people of Anti-Lehi-Nephi. The
relationship between one who brings the gospel and one who is converted is very special, even

sacred, and these beautiful relationships can last a lifetime. Momentum in the gospel often
springs forth from these relationships, creating a teamwork of missionary and convert together
that brings energy, excitement, and possibly many more converts into the Church. We do need
“explorer-type” missionaries like the apostle Paul, who go into new areas and help start branches
of the Church. But more today than ever, we need to stabilize and protect the gains we have
already made, and provide lasting support for both the weak and the strong converts that come to
join with us every day in the Church.

To make our wards good landing places, the mission of perfecting the saints must
overflow its traditional boundaries and become the foundation for preaching the gospel. A strong
and vibrant ward is one of the most powerful missionary tools we have in the Church.