Sister Runia Invites Missionaries to See Missions as Their Personal Ministries

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By Scott Taylor, Church News

Speaking to full-time missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center, Sister Tamara W. Runia asked her listeners to think of their mission service as their own personal ministries.

“Have you ever thought of your mission that way?” asked the First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, suggesting the missionaries consider their 18-month to two-year service similar to the Savior’s own three-year personal, mortal ministry.

And then she posed what she said is a question that could both shape those ministries and how the missionaries would look at and interact with others.

The question: “Do I really believe that another person’s soul is as precious as my own?”

That ranges from the driver on the freeway that cuts off other cars to an opponent in a sports competition. “It may not feel like it, but their worth is as great as yours and their soul is just as precious.”

To that list she added the missionaries’ own companions. “What if you asked yourself before every decision you make, ‘Is what I’m about to do going to bless my companion?’ How different would your relationship be?” she asked, adding, “And the reason this is so important is because this is a preliminary experience to your future companion, your eternal companion.”

‘The Perfect Example’

In her message during the Tuesday night, April 9, devotional at the Provo MTC, Sister Runia pointed to the resurrected Savior and his appearance to the Nephites in Third Nephi as an example to follow.

“He set the perfect example of what you can do as missionaries,” she said, listing how Christ perceived the people’s needs and had compassion on them. “If it’s a big deal for us, it’s a big deal for Him,” Sister Runia said. “And shouldn’t we model that for each other?”

She noted that the Savior smiled upon them through His countenance. “I love that He was happy,” Sister Runia said. “As disciples of Christ, if we have received His image in our countenances, we will smile.” She added that she believes the Savior looked directly at each individual as he called them forth to be healed one by one. “We can connect with each person we meet when we look them in the eye.”

And when Christ ministered to the people one by one, He knelt and prayed with them and for them.

‘Our Focus Is Outward’

Sister Runia — who with her husband, Scott, were mission leaders in the Australia Sydney Mission — recalled something a parent once told a departing missionary: “It’s not about you anymore.”

She added that “our focus is outward,” and pointed again to the example of Jesus Christ. “He did the will of the Father always, and to Him, people mattered more than Himself.”

Both Sister Runia and Brother Scott Runia, who spoke before her, put an extension on the title of a well-known missionary hymn. “You’re not just ‘Called to Serve,” she said, “you’re Called to Serve Him.’ He is the reason that we do what we do. So point everyone that you meet to Him. … Point people to Christ.”

In his message, Brother Runia — who played basketball at Brigham Young University and professionally in Europe — recalled his junior basketball season at Salt Lake City’s West High, when his team won its first state championship in 85 years and he was named Utah’s 4A player of the year. He was looking forward to the state honors banquet, where he would receive a golden basketball trophy for his honor.

That night, his bishop called and asked if Brother Runia would perform a baptism at about the same time as the banquet — a convert baptism of an 8-year-old who had attended all of West’s games that season. Although Brother Runia thought he might have time to squeeze in both, he told the bishop he wouldn’t be able to because of his receiving the award.

A week later in the church gym, the young boy walked up to Brother Runia and asked, “Scott, why wouldn’t you baptize me?”

Said Brother Runia: “I sat there. I couldn’t say a word. He was lonely, emotional, and I apologized profusely. I went home, and I cried.”

Pulling out the actual golden-basketball trophy he received decades ago and setting it next to the podium during the Tuesday night devotional, he continued: “I keep this to remind me of that little boy and what I really should have done. I could have done both that evening ... but my priorities and my focus were wrong. And I made a commitment that I would try the rest of my life to never make that mistake again.”

He encouraged the missionaries to avoid similar distractions in their service. “Don’t let pride, don’t let anything get in your way,” he said.

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