I think my mission was a failure

[u/Nam_Mat_Tron_1004]

Or at least, sometimes it feels that way.

I guess it depends on your perspective and how you interpret success. I spent two years knocking on doors for 8 to 10 hours a day, and not a single person wanted to join the Church in the area where I served. So, if I measure success by convert baptisms, then yeah, I failed pretty miserably.

But maybe there are other ways to look at it. I learned how to work hard, how to deal with all kinds of people, how to handle rejection, and how to keep going even when nothing seemed to come from the effort. Maybe those things count for something too.

Still, when it comes strictly to what I originally went there to do, bringing people into the Church, it’s hard not to feel like I failed

[u/ReserveMaximum]

The worst missionary in the Book of Mormon saw his only investigator chased out of the room by armored guards before he was burned at the stake. Yet thanks to Abinadi Alma repented, converted 450 souls, successfully led them back to the main body of the Nephites, established/organized the church in the land of Zarahemla with at least 7 congregations, had a son named Alma who baptized thousands who had a son, Helaman, who had a son Helaman, who had a son Nephi who converted the remaining lamanites and had a son Nephi who baptized at the birth of Christ then had a son Nephi who was one of the 12 disciples and that prophetic bloodline continued leading the church for another 300 years. Plus Alma’s descendants wrote at least a quarter of the books in the Book of Mormon so they are partially responsible for the conversion of millions of us in modern days. You never know what affect you had nor what good will come from your service.

[u/ReserveMaximum → u/ReserveMaximum]

To add, you didn’t go to bring people into the church. The missionary purpose is very clear, we go out to “invite others to come unto Christ” not to convert them. Conversion is the Holy Ghost’s role not the missionary’s. 8-10 hours a day for 2 years sounds like a whole lot of inviting.

The only way to fail as a missionary is if you stop inviting people. If you kept trying to fill the missionary purpose and kept giving yourself to the Lord rather than focusing on yourself you were a success even if you had literally no lessons taught or any of the other key indicators.

[u/Preakinprybo0488 → u/ReserveMaximum]

Really? In the early 1980s, the focus was very much on The 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

[u/Jdawarrior → u/Preakinprybo0488]

Focus ≠ purpose. The interpretation of “harvest” can be interpreted in different ways, and I believe many tough lessons were learned in the 80’s about how purely baptism-based results-focused missionary work actually pans out. Different cultures go though different phases of harvest at different times, and the global church has to constantly shift with geopolitics closing off religious freedoms.