Being faithful to ordinary tasks as a missionary in Arizona

By: Brayant Lopez

These first days of our mission trip we have been living in an apartment complex very similar to the one that I live at back home. It is a two-bedroom apartment composed of a kitchen, living room, bathroom and even a TV. The only difference is that I do not have as many distractions as I would in my apartment back home.

Another similarity that we have (and many of us have) is our neighbors–those people which we see every morning and sometimes throughout the day. However, there are some slight differences with these neighbors. For example, they tend to dress in very vivid colors with different kind of fabrics. Also, they have very strong accents which means certain times we have a third guest that translates for us, which is something that does not happen very often back home.

We came here with the mindset of a “missionary,” which for us is defined as that experience in which you prepare beforehand with more prayer, reading the Word, having more accountability, and proceed turn on your “missionary switch.” In other words, your life changes drastically, you can endure harder stuff, you greet the people that you see daily, you try new things and new costumes, you are in harmony while serving with your teammates and you are obedient when working with your supervisors.

Don’t get me wrong, these are things that we can (and should) do if we are in Christ and his word abide in us. However, being a missionary and attempting to reach people made us realize that there is no such thing as a switch that you can turn on and off. The things that we do in our daily life and the intentions behind are going to define if we are abiding in the words of Christ and His commandments. We don’t have to do something extraordinary to have a missionary mindset, but simply be faithful where we are living and glorifying God in our daily lives.

Brayant Lopez, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso, is serving as a Go Now Missionary in Phoenix, Arizona.