Numbers vs People

My nephew was challenged on his mission to have 30 teaching appointments in one week.  This struck me as a daunting task, but my nephew succeeded.  Such an impressive achievement requires a good sized teaching pool, something I never had. When you don't have much of a teaching pool, planning becomes rather simple: what streets are we going to tract, and how long are we going to be out tracting?

One companion and I talked about going an extra hour every day, which would add five hours to our weekly total of hours of teaching and tracting (mostly tracting).  We had been getting the mission standard of 25 hours somewhat easily and decided to stretch ourselves to do more.  After doing that one week, we decided to do it again the next.  Any teaching appointments we had were extra.

No matter what their weekly goals are, missionaries should always be striving to be exactly obedient; they should exercise faith, and remember to be humble, and good things will happen – if it is the Lord's will.  Why wouldn't it be?  Well, sometimes the Lord has something else on the agenda, something to teach lessons that a missionary needs to learn.  Sometimes a refining fire is on the agenda, rather than teaching and baptizing.  Of course, it is possible to have a refining fire and still teach and baptize, depending on the area, the mission, or any number of other factors.

It is good to set and reach goals, but sometimes missionaries give it their all and fall short because of factors beyond their control.  I have written before about the gap between reality and the ideal; how we often fall short because of our personal weaknesses and inadequacies, and how we can humble ourselves and have faith and be lifted by the grace of Christ.  I did not mention that we are not operating in a vacuum, that there are other people around us that also have weaknesses and inadequacies who are making choices that can have an impact on us.  Even when we fall short because of choices made by others, we can still be lifted by grace.

Some missionaries, and I might have been one of them, don't really like the focus on numbers.  Sometimes, it seems, missionaries get so caught up in reaching goals for high numbers that they forget that it’s not about the numbers, it’s about the investigators.  My nephew wrote about six steps to having 30 teaching appointments in a week, including having a large teaching pool, setting daily goals, intense planning, being exactly obedient and so on.  Well, I cringed just a little at the last part of his step 3: “Also, make each appointment and plan for each appointment to be 45 minutes or less.”

Most of the time “45 minutes or less” might make sense -- it is apparently recommended by Preach My Gospel -- but sometimes an investigator might need a little more time to understand the principles being taught in the lesson, and to have any other questions they might have answered.  If our focus is too much on reaching a goal for a high number of appointments, we might not give the investigator the time and attention that they need.  Sometimes we might set a goal and miss it because of the needs of the investigator.

Often during his ministry, Jesus would reach the end of his lesson and start moving on to the next thing, only to find that his listeners needed more.  When he visited the Nephites he taught them a discussion similar to the Sermon on the Mount found in the Gospel of Matthew; when he finished that, and a few other principles, he said it was time for him to go, but that he would return the next day.  But he stopped and looked at the people and saw that they were not ready for him to leave, so he decided to extend his stay
 
Missionaries should always be striving to be in tune with the spirit that they may have his direction.  You might think it is time to move on to the next appointment, or to get out and do some finding, but the spirit might tell you otherwise.  Too much focus on numbers may deny us the flexibility we need to listen to the spirit and give the investigators the time and attention that they need.  People are not numbers, and by taking the time for seemingly small and simple things we might feel we do not have time for, great things can be brought to pass.

On the other hand, some missionaries might extend an appointment longer than is necessary -- hence the 45 minute guideline.  They might do this to pad the number of hours they have teaching in a week, or to avoid tracting, which can often be discouraging.  One more hour teaching is one less hour knocking on doors.  But if missionaries have accomplished everything that is needed in an appointment, and they could be somewhere else, knocking on the door of someone who might be interested in their message, shouldn't they be on that doorstep?  Sure, they will get to that door soon enough, but they might miss the window of opportunity as that person is no longer home when they finally get there.

Too much focus on numbers can lead us to hurry too much the things that we do.  Slowing down can sometimes pay dividends.  In my second area we were out tracting one day and knocked on a door, despite a "no soliciting" sign.  When no one had answered the door after a reasonable period of time we started off for the next house.  My companion hurried off, but I stopped to close the gate to this yard.  Perhaps I could have done that faster, but if I had and had hurried to catch up with my companion, I likely would have not seen that the lady of the house had finally answered the door.

For whatever reason, I did not hurry, and I did see her answer the door.  I looked for my companion who was crossing a cross street and who suddenly realized I was not behind him.  He looked at me and I pointed to the lady who had answered the door, who I had already motioned at to wait.  Long story short, we taught her the first discussion that day, but we also taught her about priesthood blessings and offered to give her one as she had mentioned some health issues she was having.  A week later we called her to set up an appointment and asked her if she had been reading the copy of the Book of Mormon we had given to her; she said that she had and that she knew it was true.  A few weeks later she was baptized.

Now, let me be clear, I am not suggesting that missionaries should not accept the challenges of their mission's leadership.  They are the leaders and missionaries should always follow their counsel.  Missionaries should have faith that their leaders are inspired by the Lord in the counsel that they give.  If they issue a challenge to teach 30 appointments in one week, then the missionaries should indeed set a goal to do so and then give it everything they have to achieve it.  And maybe the week after reaching 30, they should try for 35.  I would simply add the caveat that missionaries should not focus so much on numbers that they forget the people and their needs.