This is my little sister Maddie.
She was called to serve a mission in Yekaterinburg, Russia 7 years ago.
When I was studying about Paul wanting so badly to return to the saints in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 2:18, but not being allowed to because of a ban by local leaders, I immediately thought of her modern-day parallel.
In July 2016, while my sister was in the MTC, Russia passed a law that banned anyone from preaching their religion in the country.
No missionaries allowed in Russia.
I asked Maddie to write a bit about her experience becoming a “volunteer” in Russia:
“I was studying in the MTC about how to be a missionary in Russia when I first heard the news that a new law was passed banning missionaries in Russia. I felt uncertain to say the least.
Even when I flew into the country 10 days after the law went into effect, it felt like no one had answers.
My trainer had never been a ‘volunteer’.
My mission president had been there only a month longer than I had.
Even the local church lawyers didn’t really have answers.
It felt like a giant step backwards.
Certainly Satan was in this law, not God.
But, as missionaries do, we went to work anyway.
Over time we adapted, tried new things, made new habits.
We made goals to meet with members and make friends with people on buses and planned SO many game nights.
We just kept going and praying and working.
Instead of focusing on all the things we couldn’t do, we focused on the things we COULD do.
And guess what?
We actually found a lot of success!
We developed close relationships with members and learned how to legally find new investigators.
And I know baptisms aren’t a measure of missionary work, but the baptisms in our mission the year after the law passed were actually higher than the year before when they could proselyte!
You would never think a law banning missionary work would help missionary efforts.
But it did.
My mission taught me that even things that seem like they could never be part of God’s plan can be used to further His cause.” – Maddie Hanson Johnson
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
4 Responses
I loved this. Thank you so much for sharing with us.
<3
This is the same time that my son was in the MTC and Russia, except he went to the Vladivostok mission. Even though it wasn’t a traditional proselyting mission and there some nerve-wracking moments, I know our “volunteers made a difference in many people’s lives. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Oh how cool! They absolutely made a difference! <3