Just a Teenager

by Ann Jacobs

You’re just a kid. What kind of missionary work can you do? You’d be surprised. There are opportunities all around.

All my life, missionary work has been stressed. But I thought, “I’m just a teenager. What can I do?”

I learned what I could do while on a visit to Temple Square with my sister. I wanted to leave and watch my favorite television show, but my sister wanted to stay a little longer. Then a feeling came over me that told me we should stay. While we were sitting on a bench, a young man came over and sat down beside us. The feeling came to me again urging me to talk to him.

What was I supposed to talk about? I looked over and saw that he had a pamphlet on genealogy. I asked him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

At first he said yes, then changed his mind. I explained a little about genealogy and started talking about eternal families. He talked about his family in England and started asking questions. He seemed genuinely interested in the answers I gave.

We walked into one of the visitors’ centers. I shared many of my own experiences, and he told me some of his. As we talked, the principles that I had been taught all my life in church suddenly began to have new meaning.

Toward the end of our visit, he asked me if I felt what he felt there on Temple Square. I asked him what he meant, and he said it was the same kind of feeling he had when he went to Jerusalem. He said it was the feeling he had felt that encouraged him to come to Salt Lake City. I told him that I did know what he was feeling.

This experience reminded me of a verse from the Doctrine and Covenants I had learned in seminary. “And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!” (D&C 18:16).

I felt ready to burst with love and happiness that I could share the message of the gospel. I know that it doesn’t matter how old you are if you want to share the gospel. Opportunities for missionary work are all around, even if you are “just a teenager.”

Illustrated by Greg Newbold