Five Minutes Was Plenty of Time

Written by Elder Farnsworth

I can remember a day, back when I was still pretty new at being a missionary.  My companion and I were out knocking on doors around an appointment because we had come about twenty minutes early to an appointment we had with some members nearby.  I can remember it was really hot and muggy weather, and no one would listen to our message and I was starting to get really discouraged.

My companion and I talked about giving up and just going on to the next appointment, but my companion felt that five minutes was plenty of time to knock on several more doors.  As I knocked on that last door I remember hearing a big deep voice yelling from inside.  As I heard the voice coming closer and closer to the door, I was preparing myself to receive the biggest kekko (rejection) of my short mission life. 

When the door opened there was an older man standing there with a huge friendly smile.  I was surprised, and said the only Japanese I knew at the time.  I introduced us as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The next thing I knew we were inside his house and sharing a short message about the restoration.  He kindly accepted our invitation to hear our message on the following day, since we had an appointment at that time.  So we said we would come back the next day.

The next time we went, again we had about ten minutes to knock on a few more doors.  I thought there was no way we could get two investigators from the same apartment complex.  My companion, however, was undeterred.  We started on the same floor that we ended on before.  Only this time from the opposite side and worked our way back.

When we got to the last door before our investigator’s door, we knocked.  The man came out and talked to us as if he had been expecting us.  “Hey, the missionaries, come in.”  I double checked the door number to make sure it wasn’t the same person.  For sure, these two next door neighbors became investigators one day after the other, and both were eventually baptized.

I will never forget that day and the lesson I learned from my companion about humbly following the spirit.  Miracles follow faith.