Hello, I'm Elder Chapman

I've been trying very hard to avoid this, but I finally ran out of excuses and had to go on exchanges (splits) with the missionaries tonight. It really wasn't bad, the inertia against going was high, but once I got over that it was ok.

Since I didn't have any luck setting up an appointment on my own, Elder Georgell and I spent the night tracking down the MIA's of the ward. I guess that we had some success. We discovered that two people on the list had moved out. A third man was home and we had a nice conversation with him at his doorstep. He was friendly, but not interested in having Home Teachers or coming to church.

The memories flooded over me from my own mission experiences of both knocking on doors and working with inactive members. During the night Elder Georgell asked me about my mission and I think he was a little shocked by my response. More than a decade after returning home from my 2 year stint as a missionary in Brazil, I am still torn about what I think of being a missionary. While I value many of the people I met, and I value many lessons I learned, I wouldn't do a mission again. There is wisdom in the church having 19 year olds go. While I have a stronger testimony now then I did then, life circumstances change. I also have the knowledge of what it is like to be a missionary. Perhaps when Michelle and I are older we will serve as a couple missionary. Who knows? I can say with assurity though that I have absolutely no desire to be shadowed 24/7 by a companion not of my choosing and I like being able to stay up past 10:30 if I choose or sleep in past 6:30 if I choose.

To sum it all up, I have to agree with J. Golden Kimball, "The church must be true, if it wasn't, the missionaries would have ruined long ago!"