He's all grown up and off to share the gospel...

I wrote Elder Miller about a friend of his who was having a hard time on his mission in another part of the U.S., and he had this to say:

I figure many missionaries get down when they have few investigators and no baptisms. I analyzed this a while ago and concluded that too many people try to gauge their success and thereby their happiness on baptisms. I would love to see a baptism and I know it would make me happy but baptisms aren't our purpose. We are called to invite people to be baptized and recieve Christ as their savior. The difference is whose choice the happiness [is in the end]. If you rely on baptisms for happiness then you're putting your happiness out of your control and letting it rely on someone else's agency, and that makes no sense. You have to recognize that inviting people to be baptized is your purpose and everytime you talk to someone about Christ you are fullfilling it. It's your happiness and therefore it should be in your hands[...] Recognizing this early on I think has made me much more content in my work despite the rare interest we get from people around here. But [my friend] is just working really hard and experiencing no baptisms and he just has to recognize that talking to people, even if they aren't receptive, is success in a major form.

What a great attitude. I am so (wipes tear) proud of Fletcher.