“How can I get along better with my missionary companion?” New Era, May 1985, 19

“How can I get along better with my missionary companion?”

Getting along well with your missionary companions is without doubt one of the most important achievements you need to accomplish in your mission. Here are some suggestions that can help you improve your relationship with your companion:

Commit yourself to serve your companion. One of the surest ways to develop love for someone else is to serve in very personal ways. Two companions who had had some difficulties in getting along discovered this principle when one of them became ill and had to be in bed for a day. Elder Blake did everything he could to help care for his sick companion. Elder Waite was especially surprised when he woke up and found that during the time that he was running a fever and sleeping, Elder Blake had cleaned and shined his shoes and also made sure that everything was in order in their apartment. “I began to realize,” said Elder Waite, “that I needed to do more to be of service to my companion. Appreciation for each other and a real friendship began to develop from that day on.”
Study and pray together each day. There is great strength in the message of the gospel. If companions are daily studying the scriptures and the great principles of the gospel in an attitude of prayer, it is much easier to overcome any differences that may exist. When you pray individually, and especially with your companion, remember to thank your Heavenly Father for the great privilege you feel it is to have the opportunity of serving with a person with as many fine qualities as your companion possesses. Pray that you may overcome differences and get along well.
Learn to communicate about differences in a positive way. Remember that we all have shortcomings and some personal peculiarities that may make it difficult for others to adjust to us. There has only been one perfect person who ever lived in this world, and that of course is the Savior. All the rest of us are imperfect. We should recognize from the beginning that there will be some differences and that we will need to be ready to work diligently to overcome them. Missionary companions are counseled to have “companion inventories” regularly in which they are encouraged in a very positive and open way to communicate and to discuss ways in which they can improve their relationships. “What can I do to be a better companion to you?” is a very good question that you should regularly ask your companion.
Commit yourself to live up to all that is expected of a missionary. If you are living the correct principles, then there is never an excuse for your companion to be negative toward you because you are not following the missionary rules. Real strain is placed on a companion who is assigned to another who is not positively committed to the work. One missionary wrote home and said, “Things are not going very well out here these days because I can’t get my companion to get out of bed in the morning and really work.” Make sure your companions can never say anything like that about you and you will strengthen your relationships.

Missionaries who learn to get along well with their companions develop skill in coping with a wide variety of different personalities. This experience not only helps them to be successful missionaries, but long after their mission the same skills will help them to be successful in their work, in Church service, and especially in their own marriages and families.

Everyone is blessed when missionaries learn to get along well with each other. Remember that the Spirit will not continue to be present in an atmosphere of contention and dissension and, without the Spirit, missionaries will not be successful.