Learning to Walk with Him: From Reluctant Missionary to Devoted Disciple - Lessons of Faith, Focus, and the Savior's Love

He didn't want to go.

He didn't have a burning testimony. He wasn't chasing a spiritual calling. He went because his mom would be heartbroken if he didn't. Because all his friends were going. Because saying no felt impossible.

Sound familiar?

Ken Smith left for Japan in 1991 with a suitcase, a fake smile, and zero confidence that any of it would matter. What he didn't know was that those two years would change everything — not because he was a great missionary, but because he wasn't. And he had to learn the hard way what actually mattered.

Years later, those lessons became a letter. The letter became a book.

This is that book.

Learning to Walk with Him is not a motivational pep talk. It's not a "how to baptize more people" manual. It's an honest, sometimes funny, deeply personal account of what missionary work is actually about — and the five things most missionaries don't figure out until it's too late.

The Five Lessons:

1. You never know who you'll touch
2. You are sent where you are sent for a reason
3. Keep the Savior's life and ministry as the focus
4. Don't underestimate the power of prayer and the Lord's love for you
5. Baptisms aren't the goal — the Spirit is

Each lesson is drawn from real experiences in the Fukuoka Japan Mission — including a woman who was baptized three years after a single door knock, a companion who taught him more about prayer than any lesson manual, and the slow, humbling discovery that the Savior was far more interested in who Ken was becoming than in his weekly numbers.

This book is for the missionary who's struggling and wondering if any of it matters. It's for the one who's about to leave and doesn't feel ready. It's for the returned missionary who served faithfully and still went home with unanswered questions. And it's for the parent or bishop who wants to put something meaningful in a missionary's hands before they walk out the door.

The writing is honest. The stories are real. The fish jokes are undefeated.

If you want a missionary to feel seen, understood, and pointed toward the Savior — this is the book.

Ken Smith served as a missionary in the Japan Fukuoka Mission from 1991 to 1993. He left uncertain. He came home changed. He has spent the years since pursuing the Savior he found in Japan and hoping to help young people find their Savior as their friend. Learning to Walk with Him is his first book.