It feels like ages since I've had P-day, but I made it anyway. That is not to say that this has been a bad week, it has been great. We had General Conference last weekend and it was amazing. We set a goal to get 7,041 member referrals over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That is a pretty high goal. last General Conference we got 6,455 member referrals. On Saturday Sister Imazeki and I started out pretty slow. We were spending too much time with members and we weren't getting very much out of it in terms of member referrals--not to say that they were bad contacts, just not productive in terms of our goal. Sister Imazeki and I got four member referrals, which is pretty abysmal for a General Conference day. Sunday morning they announced that we had a mission meeting and it was because we were way behind on meeting our goal. We only had 2,800 member referrals. President Holmes called us to repentance and then sent us out to find people that we could share the restored gospel with. Sister Imazeki and I were determined to do better than we did the day before so we went upstairs and with much enthusiasm talked with as many members as we could and invited everyone to share the gospel with their friends. The results were much better; we collected 36 member referrals that Sunday. Isn't repentance wonderful?
That evening we had a high-five meeting in the Tabernacle with everyone in the mission. They announced that we collected 9,222 member referrals. That is AMAZING! In one day we collected over 6,000 member referrals! The people that came here for General Conference were incredible and the weather held up so that there were more people on Temple Square than I've ever seen before. It was a wonderful testimony to me that if we work as hard as we can towards a difficult but reachable goal and rely on heaven's help, then we can reach our goal.
Yesterday we were covering at the Humanitarian Center and when we got there in the morning, guess who we got to meet? Elder Hinckley! (I'm not sure what the correct title is for someone that is an Emeritus General Authority) He was there because he is now doing church hosting, so he takes around the big dignitaries through the Humanitarian Center, Welfare Square, and other places. It was pretty neat to shake his hand.
Welfare Square is pretty much amazing. I've learned so much about the welfare and humanitarian efforts of the church in these last two transfers. We had our Welfare Square training on Tuesday morning with Brother Goodrich who is the manager there. He told us how the welfare program started as a result of the Great Depression and how the program worked back then. Harold B Lee was definitely an inspired Stake President. What I love about it is how resourceful the church is and just how far its outreach is. I didn't really know where my fast offerings went or to how much good it goes to and now I'm sold on the idea of fast offerings. Jesus Christ isn't on the earth anymore to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but His church is and to be a part of this incredible program is such an honor and a blessing. It inspires me to be a much more giving person. I'm learning about what it means to be a true Christian. It isn't just going to church and reading your scriptures, it's charity--lifting others' burdens. I like what Jesus Christ said about this when he visited the Americas: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do" (3Nephi 27:21). The word "do" is mentioned FIVE times! I hope to be much better at that after my mission.
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