“Park Bench Promptings,” For the Strength of Youth, Feb. 2021, 20–21.
Park Bench Promptings
The woman sitting on the bench didn’t know it yet, but she needed to talk to us.
Illustration by Bethany Stancliffe
It was another cold and rainy day for my companion and me as we walked the streets of the small seaside town of Los Vilos, Chile. It had been a difficult few weeks for us—we didn’t have anyone to teach and were struggling to find anyone who wanted to listen to our message. I was pretty discouraged, and I felt like we weren’t having much success because we weren’t teaching many lessons.
My companion and I were walking along that night, and I looked over and saw a woman on a park bench crying. I just knew we needed to speak to her. I looked at my companion and motioned toward the woman. As we walked up to her, I kept feeling like she really needed to hear something from us, but I couldn’t think of what. I just knew it was important that we speak with her.
The instant she saw us, she said, “Go away. I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
I tried telling her who we were and that we just wanted to help, but she wouldn’t listen. She asked us again to leave. I tried to think of what we could say but came up blank. We walked away.
We were only about four steps away when I got another feeling that we needed to talk to her. I turned to my companion and said, “We have to go back.”
We went back, and the exact same thing happened, but this time she was more upset. “I need to be alone. Go away.”
Again, I couldn’t think of anything important to say to her. I could tell she was having a really hard day, but I didn’t know what she needed to hear. So I sighed, and once more, we walked away.
We were a bit farther away when I got the feeling again: Go talk to her.
“I hate to say this, Hermana,” I said, “but we really have to go back and talk to that lady.”
My companion suggested that we not do it, since the woman was clearly not very happy with us.
Honestly, I agreed with her and felt a bit worried about going back again and annoying the woman, who was clearly in distress. But instead I said, “Nope, I really feel like we need to. She doesn’t know it yet, but she needs to talk to us.”
We cautiously made our way back to the woman on the bench, who was still crying. Before we got to her, I said a small prayer. “Heavenly Father,” I thought, “please just help me know what this woman needs to hear.”
As soon as we got to her, I said, “I’m sorry to bother you again, but I just want to tell you that you are a child of God. He really needs you to know that He loves you. Because He does. And we’re happy to talk to you more, but if you really don’t want us to, it’s OK. I just needed you to know that.”
She looked up at us with a much calmer expression. She said, “I guess you can come sit down.”
Her name was Veronica. She opened up and told us about what was going on in her life. She was having a lot of family trouble and had gotten some bad news about her job. She had been feeling very lost and alone.
We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon with her and asked if she wanted to hear more about the gospel. She politely declined but thanked us for our message and for being so insistent about talking to her. Before leaving, we prayed with her on that small park bench, and we asked that she and her family would be blessed and guided.
We never saw Veronica again, but that experience taught me that even though we might not see someone get baptized, just expressing love to someone is an important act of missionary work. Even the smallest actions can have a great impact, so when we receive a prompting—even if it seems a bit scary or we don’t know why—it’s important that we follow it. Because Heavenly Father knows what His children need. Even if the best we can do is to simply share the love of God with someone, that is still a success.