{not a delay in getting information from Elder Stevenson- a
crazy busy week for mom in not getting the blog updated.}
Pretty normal weeks.
P-days we did some service and went on a hike in the area for one. We had interviews last week with President
Jordan. Some teaching in the neighboring
towns and working with less actives. District meetings and splits in the
neighboring town and so a lot of travel on those days. We aren’t having a lot of success with our
investigators or finding new people to teach, but we are continuing to work at
it. We participated in a market day to
try to share the gospel with folks who were in the town center for that
activity. The market day is like
sidewalk sales in the United States.
Except here the sellers travel all over the place all week. They normally sell clothes, accessories, gardening
stuff, produce, meat, cards, whatever they have. So we set up a table in it with Book of
Mormons, pamphlets, and pass along cards.
The mission has gotten some banners.
And a pop up rectangular prism billboards, about 6- 6 ½ feet tall, which
is really fun to use. We were in the
middle of doing it and a lady from the local council (which is like a city
officer) came up and asked to see our permit.
We had no idea we needed a permit to do what we do 6 days a week. We talked to her and explained that it was
all for free. Nothing was being
sold. She said it was okay for us to be
there, as long as we didn’t approach or hassle anyone about stuff. This made it a little more difficult than if
we could have approached the people. But
we handed out 2 Book of Mormons and some pass along cards. We thought that was pretty successful for the
2 hours we were there.
We also started a new way of introducing the gospel to
people in the area. We have started
carrying sidewalk chalk with us. We will
write questions on the sidewalks. How
can God help me and my family? Can I
live with my loved ones after I die?
What is the purpose of life?
Questions that really get people thinking, and as “Preach My Gospel “ calls
them- questions of the soul. We write them
on the pavement and write mormon.org.uk by them so people can go to the website
and find the questions.
One day we were 10 minutes early for an appointment, so we
pulled out the chalk and just write anything on the sidewalk we are near. As we were doing it people kept looking at
it. Over the whole week we have see a
lot of people look at them. One elderly
gentleman came up to us and wanted to know what we were doing. Worried about kids just causing havoc and
spray painting everything. I explained
we were missionaries from our church and this was sidewalk chalk and it would
wash away. He realized we were trying
to do go and went on his way.
On Saturday last week we decided to find a place to do the
whole Plan of Salvation in chalk. We
selected a local skate park. We headed
out that morning and spent two hours drawing and writing. It looked pretty good
when we finished. We had writing all
over the place with questions, statements, quotes, mormon.org.uk, and the whole
plan of salvation. To begin with a kid
came up to us and wanted to know who had done it. We said we had and he thought it was cool, we
talked with him for awhile.
President Jordan gave a training about how missionary work
is like farming. There are phases in a
mission. When you will have a bag and
you are sowing seeds. When you are
carrying a watering pot to help nourish the seed. When the time is right, you
are with a sickle ready to harvest. No
matter what you are doing it is all important to the final product.
I thought the farming/ missionary work was really neat. It was like farming totally. You can’t just be out there with the
harvester when you haven’t planted and waited for the crops to mature. You need
to do all the steps in the right order.
Sometimes you continue to replant and move pipe and spray and fix pivots
and pick rock and disk the ground and put on fertilizer. But we do all that for the final product. Which we cannot do in a swift single
movement.
There has to be patience involved
with it all. A great comfort to me. Even
if I am never personally there when someone that I taught got baptized, I did
the portion I was supposed to do. I
haven’t failed if I have done what I was asked to do. Serve the Lord with all my heart, might,
mind and strength.
As I have been studying I came up with some things that I
think would help wards with missionary work.
1. Prepare:
President Eyring stated, "God will put prepared people in the way of His
prepared servants." We as members need to be feasting on the words of
Christ each day so we are prepared to share the gospel. Also carrying
pass-along cards with you or a Book of Mormon to hand out. Simply be prepared
to share the gospel.
2. Pray:
Elder Ballard said, "We should exercise our faith and pray individually
and as families, asking for help in finding ways to share the restored gospel
of Jesus Christ." President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “It will be a
great day when our people not only pray for the missionaries throughout the
world, but ask the Lord to help them to assist the missionaries who are
laboring in their own ward.” Prayer is an act of faith, in which when we
faithfully pray for an opportunity to share the gospel, the opportunities will
come.
3. Perform:
President Hinckley stated, "Get on your knees and pray, then get on your
feet and work." Once we are prepared and have prayed for
those opportunities, look for them in your everyday life and
take advantage of the opportunities that come to share the
gospel.
Finally in closing Elder Ballard said, "Brothers and
sisters, fear will be replaced with faith and confidence when members and the
full-time missionaries kneel in prayer and ask the Lord to bless them with
missionary opportunities. Then, we must demonstrate our faith and watch for
opportunities to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to our Heavenly Father’s children,
and surely those opportunities will come. These opportunities will never
require a forced or a contrived response. They will flow as a natural result of
our love for our brothers and sisters. Just be positive, and those whom you
speak with will feel your love. They will never forget that feeling, though the
timing may not be right for them to embrace the gospel. That too may change in
the future when their circumstances change."
Elder Tad R Callister gave a great talk on Consecrated
Missionaries in 2008. We got a copy of
that talk.
(He sent the whole talk, but I found it on the web and so
have included a link to that blog instead of posting the whole talk again.)
President Uchtdorf also has a great talk to read.
Thanks for all of the emails, letters and prayers. I love
hearing from everyone! Love, Elder
Stevenson
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