From the Mission Field
Finding God’s Purpose in My Mission Reassignment
I thought my mission was pointless, until I changed my perspective.
In February 2020, I received a mission call to serve in Ukraine. Admittedly, I had really wanted to serve a foreign mission and was excited about the challenge of teaching in a foreign language in a country with not too many members of the Church and the opportunity to share the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I immediately felt love for the people of Ukraine from the moment I read my mission call.
However, my excitement soon turned to disappointment.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the world under quarantine about a month before my start date. I soon found myself in the same uncertain and unprecedented situation as tens of thousands of other missionaries. I wondered how my mission would differ from the missions of my family, friends, and even my younger sister, who got to continue serving her mission in France.
On the first day of my mission, April 22, my family joked that I wasn’t “going” on a mission because I remained at home to train for my mission online. Months later, there was still no word about me being sent to Ukraine, so I left for my reassignment—the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission.
Honestly, I was disappointed about that reassignment. Despite our best efforts, my companion and I didn’t find a single person to teach in our area until we were halfway through my second transfer. Even then, we still didn’t have as many teaching opportunities as I imagined we would. Sometimes the lack of tangible “results” was difficult to accept.
I couldn’t see any obvious reason why I was in Utah and not in Ukraine.
These thoughts of how pointless my reassignment was were particularly troubling me when, on one preparation day, the missionaries in my district went on a hike. At the trailhead, we met a nice woman not of our faith. She looked at our sizable group and exclaimed, “Why are you all in Utah? Everyone here has heard about the Church already. You should be somewhere like France!”
Up until this point, I had been thinking the same thing. But, while searching for the words to reply to this well-meaning woman, I felt the Holy Ghost testify to me that my mission did have a purpose. To my surprise, I realized that, even if I didn’t understand why I had been reassigned, God would bless my efforts to share the gospel.
I told her that no matter where we serve, we are all building the kingdom of God and inviting people to come closer to Christ. While she didn’t take a pamphlet when I offered her one, I was reminded that regardless of where we serve, missionary work is the same.
We all have the same goal and purpose in serving and gathering Israel.
After some thought, I realized that, although I couldn’t fully understand the reasons for my reassignment to Utah, Heavenly Father must have had a reason for the recent changes in missionary work as a whole. I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted to, but I was still choosing to serve Him and could see the result of being part of a greater work—His work—that was seeing success.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles extended the following invitation: “‘Cheerfully do all things that lie in [your] power; and then may [you] stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed’ [Doctrine and Covenants 123:17]. And I promise that the Lord will cause unimaginable things to come from your righteous labors.”1
Of course, thinking about the big picture does not magically change my situation. We live in a fallen world and cannot completely avoid feeling pain and hardship by simply adjusting our perspective. I am almost finished with my mission, and my heart still yearns to serve the people of Ukraine. But thinking about how Heavenly Father will consecrate my efforts to serve His children makes serving in my reassignment worth it. I also keep trying to be the best disciple of Christ that I can be and continue to have hope and faith in Him. Doing so has given me strength and purpose, and it will also help me in whatever other unexpected changes happen in my life.