It seems like our mission here would be "missionary guides" for those who come to these historic places. Where is the proselyting as missionaries? Even though we don't go out as do the young Elders and Sisters, we have opportunities to teach those who come to visit.
We had an occasion such as that when a couple came to visit. He was baptized in 1995 but didn't progress in knowledge or commitment to the church doctrine. She is LDS with limited activity but was trying to activate him. They went to Kirtland and on a mistaken assumption that the visitor's center by the Temple was our visitor's center, they thought they had toured Kirtland. (This actually belongs to The Community of Christ church). After taking the tour there and going through the temple tour, they had a brochure mentioning the Johnson Farm and so they came here thinking that they had visited every place pertaining to church history in the area.
There was a lot of confusion in relating what was being said at the Johnson Home versus what they had heard at the Temple. Elder B had opportunity to answer their questions and help them understand basic doctrine, for example, she was deeply concerned about the vision Joseph had seeing Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom. She had assumed Alvin had preference because he was a Smith, so we had to talk about basic doctrine. Many other questions arose and each was answered to help clarify to both of them our church beliefs.
Our mission here is two fold:to fortify and strengthen church members who visit these historic sites; answer their questions and teach them of the doctrine, history and heritage of the church and to obtain from these members some referrals so the young missionaries can have these to work with; secondly, we have the opportunity to help the nonmembers to gain an appreciation for and an interest in the church and invite the fulltime proselyting missionaries to visit them It is a wonderful and unique opportunity and truely a blessing.
