I can't believe it has already been another week! Time here is funny because the days feel long, but the weeks go by so fast. I've learned a lot this week about how I can be better at inviting people to come to Christ.
We had a mission meeting this past Friday that started at 7:00am, which is quite early. We didn't know what it was for and Sister Guanzon suspected it was going to be about General Conference. It turns out that we got to be the first people to see the new "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" movie in the Legacy Theater (in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building). It's really similar to the old one, but they've made some changes so that it's more missionary oriented and easier to follow. I'm so grateful that we got to watch that. It reminded me of the urgency of this message that we are sharing. I know that through the prophet Joseph Smith, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored Christ's original church on this earth. Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon is physical evidence of that. This restored gospel has the power to change lives and bring lasting happiness.
We get to teach people over the phones before the missionaries come and visit them, and even while the missionaries are talking with them. This week we've talked a lot about how we can help people come unto Christ and one of the ways that we do that is by helping them make and keep commitments. The really important commitments for them to keep are prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and going to church. Through doing these things we can recieve revelation for ourselves and come to know what Heavenly Father wants for us. Dave is one of the people that we are teaching over the phones. He requested a Book of Mormon but didn't want to have the missionaries over before he'd finished reading it. He is working on reading Mosiah right now and he says that he highlights verses as he goes. It makes me so happy when I hear that people are reading the Book of Mormon with an open heart and really seeking to know if it's true. We've tried inviting him to church, but he has been out of town for the past three weeks, but we're going to do our best to help him understand why it's important so hopefully he'll go next week. I really hope and pray that he can see the value of what he is reading.
One of the things that I'm working on is talking with members of the church. You'd think that they would be easy to talk to, but they're not. They know that we're going to ask them for referrals so they get really defensive. Sometimes when we ask them a question--it doesn't matter what question we ask--they will respond "I'm a member". For example: "What do you like about Temple Square?" Response: "I"m a member." That's great! But you didn't answer our question! We do our best to give every visitor the chance to either share the gospel or accept an opportunity to learn more about the gospel. One of the ways that we try to help members share the gospel is by asking them to take out their cell phones and look through their contact lists to see if there is anyone that they might not be able to think of off the top of their heads. Even general authorities ask us to do that. Sister Guanzon and I have been working on asking members to do that because it's difficult to be so bold, but no member we've talked to has actually done it yet. My favorite experiance with it was when we invited a son and his mother to take out their cell phones. They're response was "we don't have them with us". Then thirty seconds later the mother's phone rang in her perse. I just had to smile. I know it was Heavenly Father telling her that she should take out her phone. She didn't look through the contact list, though.
This message that I'm doing my best to share is SO important. I wish I could help members understand that more. The reason we ask for referrals is not just so that we have people to teach and reach our number goals. It's because Heavenly Father loves them and each soul is of great worth to Him.
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