March 18, 2013

Things with our investigators are going well, but we had a slow week this week with only 3 lessons. We did meet again with J and M! I love them! We are going to see them today. We taught them more about the Book of Mormon and then they started asking us so many questions about what do we believe about heaven and hell. Their questions are leading right into the next lesson! The Plan of Salvation! It is amazing how the spirit works. Sister Kraemer and I have been working on the "How to begin teaching" method from PMG. At the beginning of the first lesson with someone, the following are some ideas to use of what to say:

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  Because God is our Heavenly Father, we are all brothers and sisters. We would like to refer to you as brothers and sisters.
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  Each person we teach has personal challenges and concerns. No matter what your needs or concerns might be, the Savior and His teachings—the gospel—will help you.
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  Our message will enable you to improve the quality of your lives. It will help you deal with the problems and challenges that we all face in life.
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  Our message, which is centered in Jesus Christ, is of great value and importance.
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  We all make mistakes in life, and these mistakes create feelings of guilt and shame. These feelings cannot be relieved without repentance and forgiveness. They can be fully healed through the Atonement of Christ.
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  Our message cannot be learned all at once. Understanding will come over time through prayer, study, experience, and keeping God’s commandments.
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  We have weaknesses, as everyone does. We may not speak the language very well or be able to answer every question you have. But we have been called by a prophet of God to share what we know. We know that our message is true.
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  We will be guides so that you can learn the truth of our message for yourselves. It is your choice to accept and act on the message. Therefore, you should feel free to ask questions.
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  As you sincerely seek to understand our message, you may face challenges, but God will help you.
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  As you accept our message, you will learn how to make covenants, or promises, with God. You will learn how to make changes to bring your lives in closer harmony with His teachings. You will want to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be baptized by proper authority

We are also trying to practice switching off teaching every 30 seconds. That is how to keep the investigator involved. Teach, testify and ask questions. That is a great method of teaching.

We have not met with the investigator who dropped us last week. She is so great. We are going to wait until one of her good family friends comes to visit her husband. This friend has a lot of influence on her husband, so the friend may help open his eyes to learning more. I'll probably be gone by then. It makes me so sad! I don't want to leave this mission! It is so hard to leave people you love. 

By the way, we as missionaries can now email our friends, not just our family. Pretty cool huh?

President Riggs is the most amazing man I've ever met. He is so loving and so bold and so full of the Spirit. He came to our District Meeting. A district only has a few missionary companionships within it, so it is not a common occurrence for the President to show up! We were so excited. And my district leader, who is so awesome and very humble, asked me on the spot to share my testimony! ha. Good thing we missionaries are always prepared....:) Anyway, to President we are like his family, so he loves spending time with the missionaries. We are his investigators. He shared a story. The other day he was going out to lunch with some missionaries and he beat a man to a parking spot just before him. When he got out, he went up to the man who had to park elsewhere and said in a joking tone, putting his hand on his shoulder, "If you had been living more righteously, you would've had that parking spot!" What?! Wow! Haha! It was so great. They continued to talk and he offered to pay for the man's lunch. This was just a great example of missionary work today. It is sometimes spontaneous. It is natural. It is applying things to the current situation. It is bold. It is loving. It is the Savior's way.

Here is something I have been thinking about this week that I think can help anyone.

Take your frustrations and deep concerns--even if the concerns are not your own, but become your own--to the Lord. Christ says in Matthew 11:28-29, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." It has taken me a long time to understand this scripture, and I still have not grasped the full concept, but here is what I have learned. 

I was confused as to HOW Christ's burden would be light and His yoke easy. He bore all of the sorrows and sins of each person...how could His burden be light!? What?! But I know that it is because as we take upon us His yoke, we are doing hard things together. A yoke distributes the weight equally between the two pulling and pushing. It is like the saying, "Many hands make light work". The Savior will compensate for what we cannot do, and give us the strength we need.

Teach people that repentance is a beautiful blessing. Not a condemning consequence. There is a song that I have loved as I've heard it out on my mission. Some of the lyrics say, "You can fly. Wrap your mistakes in a cocoon and emerge a butterfly."

Alma. Yes. He did not feel exquisite joy until he remembered that his dad had told him about a Savior, even Jesus Christ. Pretty amazing huh? Now the question is, how do we apply the Atonement?

I think by loving others as Christ loves us and doing our best to live like He lived. Learn about Him, pray, read scriptures, renew our covenants during the Sacrament. Very simple but important things. 

I've got to go!