Tales from the Mission Journal, Part 3

While serving in the mission office, we played host to a missionary from the Singapore mission, who was serving in Malaysia.  Missionaries there have to leave the country every thirty days to reapply for their visa, and so he was staying with us for a day before heading back.  Normally, missionaries go to a closer country than Taiwan when they have to leave the country, but this was a special circumstance--this elder was accompanying a native missionary from Taiwan who was essentially being sent home early.

Missionary work in Malaysia, as in a number of 'unconventional' missions around the world, is a very different experience from Taiwan and most regular missions.  Open proselyting is forbidden, and missionaries don't wear suits or nametags.  (This elder was in a T-shirt and jeans--normal wear for his daily work.)  When talking to someone, the contacted person has to open the door for a conversation about religion themselves--no direct questions from the missionaries.  Conversations about religion can take place after they've asked...but only after you've found out their occupation and religion (checking for government officials and extremist Muslims...)  This elder, a sober and mature fellow, admitted all they were doing was planting seeds and that it was tough to be patient.

The elder who was being sent home was for essentially being too bold in his missionary efforts--being too direct and not discrimatory enough about who he talked to.  While it may seem odd for a missionary to be sent home for doing 'too much' missionary work, the rules for proselyting in Malaysia are there for a purpose--being too direct and too indiscriminatory in who you talk to can literally be a matter of life and death if you talk to the wrong set of people.

The brief time talking with this elder brought to mind how situations and rules change depending on time and place.  What's legal (and expected) for missionaries in one mission may be forbidden in another--the Church needs to (and does) adjust for different environments, and part of being a missionary is respecting the missionary guidelines of the situation you're in, even if it's different than other missions you know about (or from what you hoped your mission would be...)

Some policies and principles will change because of time, place, or other personal circumstances.  Others will not.  While many complain about how things in the Church now are different here than there, or now versus the past, I wonder:  what makes that a negative?  Shouldn't we be happy to be in a living Church that adapts to new situations without trying to put "new wine in old bottles"?  Likewise, other people complain the Church doesn't change or adapt enough...you can't satisfy everyone, can you?  There are times to adjust and there are times to be firm...and wisdom is knowing the difference between the two.