Invite Him to Church?

By Kate Strongin

I had been working at the movie theater for less than a month by the time my co-workers discovered I was a member of the Church. Several co-workers asked me questions about the Church and I answered them, but I never invited anyone to learn more. One co-worker, Garrett, had been assigned to work many of the same shifts that I had been, and we quickly became friends.

One night we were both assigned to clean theaters between showings. Garrett started asking me questions about the gospel. I answered his questions and then felt a distinct prompting to invite him to church. My heart raced. I had never invited anyone to learn more about the gospel. Missionary work terrified me. I was afraid that if I shared the gospel and Garrett wasn’t interested, things would be awkward between us. But the prompting was so strong I knew I had to follow it.

“You should come to church with me sometime,” I said, trying to control the tremor in my voice.

“No way!” Garrett exclaimed.

I was stunned. I was grateful we were in a dark theater so he couldn’t see how embarrassed I was. As we finished cleaning the theater in silence, I wondered why I had been prompted to invite Garrett to church. Did Heavenly Father just want to humble me? I didn’t know, but I was sure that things would never be the same between Garrett and me. We went out into the hall, and Garrett broke the silence. Soon, we were laughing and joking. There was no awkwardness.

Then the realization hit me. I had finally attempted to share the gospel, and though my invitation had been rejected, I was still standing. I had nothing to fear. Since then I have been able to share the gospel several times and have had some positive experiences. I’m grateful for this experience, which helped me overcome my fear of missionary work.

[illustration] Illustration by Sam Lawlor