The holiest service you perform, the kind of service Jesus asks of those who would be his disciples, will not be rewarded with success, respect, or even a lot of happy feelings. That was never part of the bargain, and you should be aware of that in advance.
For at least several decades, the world’s advanced economies have been very good at directing people’s labor towards productive ends so that they can provide for themselves, if not to live in luxury, then at least to get by most of the time, while offering various forms of support to get people through their hard times. It’s far from a perfect system, but most people can figure out a way to make it work unless something has gone badly wrong.
As it turns out, there are more than a few people for whom things have gone badly wrong: severe disability, mental illness, a history of drug use and/or incarceration, and more. Varying combinations of bad luck and poor choices, justice when they needed mercy, and neglect when they needed care.
You probably can’t give them everything they need, because stable housing and professional treatment are beyond your capacity to give. In some cases, they wouldn’t accept these things even if they were available. Often the best you can do is lend a sympathetic ear and be part of a stable social network.
The least of these do not, in my experience, need a sophisticated interpretation of the Book of Mormon. They are unlikely to reward your care with deep and enlightening wisdom. Sometimes they can be warm and funny on the good days, while you struggle to decipher their texts on other days. You can do what you can for a while, and then they drift away to some other place, possibly showing up again years later.
This is not to say that it’s all futile. If a ward has enough human resources to throw at the task, it can create an environment that is exactly what some families need. I’ve seen it happen, and it’s truly miraculous. But even in those cases, success typically looks like the kids graduating from high school and finding stable employment, rather than serving missions or graduating college or being called as Elders Quorum president. That certainly isn’t impossible, but don’t count on it.
If all are truly welcome in your congregation the way Jesus meant, there will be costs and tradeoffs. If you truly minister to the despised, not every activity will be well organized, not every testimony will be uplifting, not every prayer will follow the prescribed pattern, not every question asked in Sunday School will be relevant, and not everyone will be able to stay in their seats for the whole hour.
People will talk. As much as people say they love to help the needy, the truth is that most of us want to be around people like ourselves or people we aspire to be like. Some people will move in, sit through a few meetings, and then re-assess their Sunday schedule. Or families scouting out the area will get hints about the wards that have strong youth programs. It’s a lot more fun to focus on building community connections, vibrant intellectual life, or exciting youth activities. It smells less of tobacco, alcohol, or unwashed bodies.
If you serve the needy in the Savior’s way, there is no guarantee that your efforts will be positively received, let alone noticed, by your children, other members of your ward and stake, community members, investigators, or even by the people you were trying to help. You could literally cure them of their chronic illness, and 90% of them would wander off without acknowledging it.
Most importantly, feeding the hungry and serving those in need is no guarantee that anyone will feed you when you are hungry. All you can do, while you still have food to share, is make the world a place where the hungry are .0002% more likely to be fed.
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