Serve, then Teach

When Ammon went to preach to the Lamanites, he didn't start off by preaching. He started off by offering to be a servant. It was only after he had proven his great and unique skill at service that he began to preach to anyone, and even then, he let the benefactors of his service lead the conversation. As a result, Ammon had a great deal of success at converting others to the ways of the Lord.

In contrast, Aaron, who went out to preach at the same time Ammon did, started preaching right off the bat, and he wasn't very well-received. In fact, he was cast into prison without any mention of having converted anyone.

Now, the difference between the levels of success between Ammon and Aaron may have been partly because of the states of the hearts of those they were teaching, but I believe that their technique played a vital role as well. And apparently, Aaron agreed, because as soon as Ammon released him from prison, he went right back into the mission field, but this time, he offered service before he started teaching, and this time, he got much better results.

Again, this could have been due to the relative hardness or softness of the hearts of those they were teaching, but I still think it was mostly because of their approach. I've heard it said that "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." I think that that principle applies here. By serving others, or at least offering to, these two missionaries showed that they truly wanted to help those whom they were teaching, and not just by teaching them.

Service is now an integral part of missionary service. In fact, the unofficial anthem of LDS missionaries is "Called to Serve." We are to love and serve our fellow man. Sometimes, that involves doing service for them, and sometimes, that involves teaching them what we know, but if the experiences of Ammon and Aaron are any indication, it may be that others won't be interested in what we know until they know that we're interested in helping them.