Too often we, as members, try to jump ahead before we establish relationships. And. while sometimes an approach to a complete stranger yields success, most often it strains a new relationship, rings disingenuous, or creates awkwardness that actually sets back our efforts.
Eager to share what we hold dear, we often race to do so before we’ve established genuine friendship and trust. Instead, we should simply be friends of the highest order: People who step up and help, neighbors who exemplify Christian compassion. We can make huge spiritual strides with temporal service. As we serve, we love our neighbors more and they sense it.
Sometimes it takes years to prepare the soil for a seed to take root and grow. God knows how best to lay the groundwork, and if we follow His promptings we will not find ourselves nervously jumping ahead, or shamefully hanging back.
We take it as an article of faith that “there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12). So it is that we have, or yet will send missionaries to those of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
The message of the Restoration centers in the idea that it is not common ground we seek in sharing the gospel. There is nothing common about our message. The way we answer questions about our faith ought to be by finding the quickest and most direct route to the Sacred Grove.
First, get to know your neighbors. Learn about their families, their work, their views. Get together with them, if they are willing, and do so without being pushy and without any ulterior motives. Friendship should never be offered as a means to an end; it can and should be an end unto itself.