The Last California Letter

At the temple

This week we exceeded our goal for lessons taught. The goal for the mission is to have each companionship teach 20 lessons per week. This week we taught 23 lessons! It was a good week because a lot of those were with non-members. We're teaching four investigators in the YSA ward and a young couple in the family ward. It's a lot of fun to teach the restored gospel to people that really want to hear about it. One of our investigators in the YSA ward, Ken*, walks to the church building from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) to meet with us--we can't really meet him on DLI because we're not in the military and we don't have passes, or whatever you need to get on post. Ken is really searching to know for himself, not for his girlfriend or his friends, to know if the church is true. He really wants to have a backbone of his knowledge of the truth. We read 2 Nephi 31 with him which is all about the doctrine of Christ. He told us that is was a great chapter for him to read especially as he is deciding on whether to be baptized and when.

Yesterday I gave my talk in the YSA ward. I talked about one of the most significant things that I've learned being a missionary--the power of the Spirit in conversion. I shared an experience that Sister Mendivelso and I had with two people we showed around on Temple Square. One of them was a member, Brother Hamilton, and Zou Yan was a mother from Mainland China who had come to visit her friend in the US. I talked about how the Spirit spoke to Zou Yan and taught her the President Monson is a prophet of God and that Jesus Christ loves her. She didn't learn anything from Sister Mendivelso and I, but everything memorable happened because of the Spirit--it really changed her countenance (Alma 5:14). I was worried that my talk wasn't going to be long enough, but it turned out that I needed to cut things out of what I had prepared. Being a missionary really helps with preparing talks.

We met with John and Lindsey yesterday too. We wanted to make sure that they really understood the pattern of dispensations (when a prophet is on the earth) and apostasy (when there is no prophet on the earth). Without an understanding of that pattern and that the great apostasy occurred after the death of Christ's apostles, then you can't really understand the need for a restoration. We used a bunch of Bible references to help them see that the pattern was prophesied of by members of the early Christian church. I really think that they get the pattern now. It feels good to be able to explain something to someone and to have them really understand it. They don't have a baptism date yet, but they'll get there if they keep on the path that they're on.

Well, next time I write to you I'll be writing from Temple Square. I have a few more days left in California. One of the most important things that I've learned being here in a proselyting mission is the necessity of member missionary work. Missionary work wouldn't happen otherwise. When members of the church live the gospel and invite others to experience that same joy, that is when hearts are changed and people can really see the fruits of activity in the church.

*I changed their name