Do these five missionaries look foolish to you? If you are thinking to yourself, "why yes they do!" That is a correct answer, these five missionaries, myself included, are "Foolish" and I am so grateful to be called such.
This past week in one of my studies I was reading from 1 Corinthians 1:27 in which the apostle paul says "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" As I read this I was thinking, "why would God choose foolish people?" It became immedietely clear to me that he was reffereing to missionaries as those foolish things of the world.
As a missionary, I am a living witness of this. I am not that smart as to the things of this world, I do not know that much by the worlds terms, I am still in the process of learning these things. There are a couple of things that I do know though; I know that my Father in Heaven lives and loves me, I know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, and I do know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I may not know much more, but luckily, I don't need too. As a missionary I have talked to so many people with a higher IQ than myself and many that have much more knowledge, and yet I have been able to teach them and bring a joy into their life that they have never had before, and in turn they have thanked me for the blessings in they have recieved because of the gospel in their life. This is direct fulfillment of that scripture.
Many people have asked me before, why do they send out missionaries when they are 19 years old? Wouldn't it be better if they sent out missionaries when they were like 50 so they know more? As I read and pondered this scripture I realized. It isn't about how much we know. It isn't our sophistication or our knowledge that gives us power to teach the gospel. What gives us power is our faith and our humility, these are the great qualifiers.
I know that by "Small and simple things, great things are brought to pass." (Alma 37:6-7) As we are willing to serve the lord, no matter how "Foolish" we may be. The lord will take who we are and use us for his divine purposes.
