HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week was a fun but interesting week. President Hutchings family went home last Monday, so he's back in full force. However Elder Hansen's grandma died on Tuesday and it was really hard on him. He was having a really rough time and he just wanted to be preoccupied with investigators and other people to work with, so he asked to go on an exchange for the rest of the week. President let him, so I was companions with President Hutchings for a few days. It was a lot harder because there were times when I needed to do some things in the office and he needed to be elsewhere or on a private phone call or what have you and I still needed to be with someone, so it was a little trying, but it was all in all a good experience.
We started this round of interviews. We have all the local missionaries congregate to a central church and President interviews them one by one, and while he does that I present a training to the group. I really like this training I'm doing. It's about getting stronger commitments out of our investigators by using the language of faith. I focus on two types of faith that investigators need to have to keep commitments faith in the principle, and faith that they can do what they've been asked of Heavenly Father to do. Then I taught about hte creation and how in Hebrews it says that the worlds were framed by faith, and in Moses it talks about how God created the worlds by the power of his word. Using the example of "Let there be light." Then to quote Joseph Smith, "God spoke, chaos heard, and by reason of the faith he had, matter was organized." Then I make the connection that the words that we use in our commitments make a big difference when we use the language of faith. For example "When you come to know that these things are true you will have a desire to change things in your life to bring them in harmony with our Heavenly Fathers plan and be baptized by His priesthood authority." As opposed to, "If you come to know these things are true, you may want to be baptized." Something along those lines.
As for crucial conversations I remember almost a year ago (it's really weird to say that) I read over the crucial conversations packet and then read Preach My Gospel and they teach almost the same concepts, just with the gospel spin on it. The numbers are coming in now so I got to run. Love you and Happy Birthday Mom!!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Jan. 11, 2010
As for things to cover for President, he assigned us to do some baptismal interviews for people who have had problems with question 4, if anyone has an issue with question 4 they need to be interviewed by the President or someone he assigns. People who had issues with abortion, homosexuality, and serious crimes. It was interesting but a neat experience to see the atonement work with people. He told me something interesting that I hadn't realized before. When you're doing a worthiness interview your role is not to play FBI and figure out exactly whats been going on in their life but your job is to witness that this person has declared themselves worthy and that they understand what covenant their making with our Heavenly Father. Of course you need to follow the promptings of the Spirit and if you feel something is amiss ask more questions but a lot of its really in the hands of the person being interviewed.
Other then that this week has been pretty slow, we had some zone conferences, we're finishing them up this week. We're training on the doctrine of sacrifice, I may have already told you about it, but we had the idea of doing another visual aid so we build out of some goodwill supplies a sacrificial altar and spray painted it gold. At the beginning of the conference we pass out little square pieces of paper that have a clip art lamb on them and ask everyone to write down the things that they want to sacrifice this year in order to help them fulfill their calling. Then we teach about sacrifice and at the end of the conference we bring in this altar and have everyone lay their sacrifices on the altar. At the end of the round of zone conferences we're going to burn all the papers in the back of the mission home.
Well, number reports are now in so I've gotta run, but I love everyone and have a great week!!
Other then that this week has been pretty slow, we had some zone conferences, we're finishing them up this week. We're training on the doctrine of sacrifice, I may have already told you about it, but we had the idea of doing another visual aid so we build out of some goodwill supplies a sacrificial altar and spray painted it gold. At the beginning of the conference we pass out little square pieces of paper that have a clip art lamb on them and ask everyone to write down the things that they want to sacrifice this year in order to help them fulfill their calling. Then we teach about sacrifice and at the end of the conference we bring in this altar and have everyone lay their sacrifices on the altar. At the end of the round of zone conferences we're going to burn all the papers in the back of the mission home.
Well, number reports are now in so I've gotta run, but I love everyone and have a great week!!
Jan. 5, 2010
Hey, sorry I'm getting this in later then usual, with the new year we had to reformat all of our spreadsheets and what not for the weekly call in summary report, so our morning was packed with tedious computer work that I never ever want to do ever again.
Anyways the magnets thing worked out so well. They we're in teams of 3 one person with the compass, one with the directions, and another one who counts the paces, the only person allowed to speak was the directions person. Three of the teams had a magnet and it totally confused them, they had no idea what was going on. The Spanish missionary whose from Brazil Elder Martins had a magnet in his pocket and he was so mad at us, he was sure that we had written the directions wrong or had totally deceived him with the course somehow (and we did). After they all made it back we had them stand up and check their pockets and then we taught the principles about the Liahona. Elder Martins had a great insight he said something to the effect of, "When the compass was pointing the wrong direction my initial reaction was to aggressively blame my leaders who set me out on the task, when really the problem was with me the entire time." It was so cool to see him really grasp that principle on his own, often times when things aren't going well especially in the gospel we blame our leaders, it's the bishop's fault, or that's terrible advice why would I bathe in the river Jordan 7 times to heal my leprosy. It worked out perfectly.
Then today we started zone conferences. We taught about the law of sacrifice based on the talk given by Elder Ballard in the 1998 October Ensign. We built out of cardboard some 2x4s a goodwill picture frame and a can of gold spray paint an alter. At the beginning of the conference we gave out little paper squares with lambs on them that they were supposed to write down the things that they felt they needed to be sacrificed in order for us to progress. Then at the end we carried in the altar and had them place their sacrifices on the altar. After we do all of the zone conferences we'll take the sacrifices out behind the mission home and we'll burn them and collect the ashes and use them as a visual reminder that they've sacrificed the things that are holding them back. It was really fun today.
Tomorrow President Hutchings' family is coming into town, all of his kids and their spouses are coming so he's going to be tied up for the next week or so and we cover for all the things that he can't, so we'll be busy too. That's about it. I love you and we'll talk next week.
Anyways the magnets thing worked out so well. They we're in teams of 3 one person with the compass, one with the directions, and another one who counts the paces, the only person allowed to speak was the directions person. Three of the teams had a magnet and it totally confused them, they had no idea what was going on. The Spanish missionary whose from Brazil Elder Martins had a magnet in his pocket and he was so mad at us, he was sure that we had written the directions wrong or had totally deceived him with the course somehow (and we did). After they all made it back we had them stand up and check their pockets and then we taught the principles about the Liahona. Elder Martins had a great insight he said something to the effect of, "When the compass was pointing the wrong direction my initial reaction was to aggressively blame my leaders who set me out on the task, when really the problem was with me the entire time." It was so cool to see him really grasp that principle on his own, often times when things aren't going well especially in the gospel we blame our leaders, it's the bishop's fault, or that's terrible advice why would I bathe in the river Jordan 7 times to heal my leprosy. It worked out perfectly.
Then today we started zone conferences. We taught about the law of sacrifice based on the talk given by Elder Ballard in the 1998 October Ensign. We built out of cardboard some 2x4s a goodwill picture frame and a can of gold spray paint an alter. At the beginning of the conference we gave out little paper squares with lambs on them that they were supposed to write down the things that they felt they needed to be sacrificed in order for us to progress. Then at the end we carried in the altar and had them place their sacrifices on the altar. After we do all of the zone conferences we'll take the sacrifices out behind the mission home and we'll burn them and collect the ashes and use them as a visual reminder that they've sacrificed the things that are holding them back. It was really fun today.
Tomorrow President Hutchings' family is coming into town, all of his kids and their spouses are coming so he's going to be tied up for the next week or so and we cover for all the things that he can't, so we'll be busy too. That's about it. I love you and we'll talk next week.
Dec. 27, 2009
I don't really have a whole lot to talk about either. Not much has happened since Christmas. We had a few planning meetings with President Hutchings and I'm really excited for a few things that we're going to be doing in January for ZLC and Zone Conference. For the ZLC we're setting up an orienteering course for after lunch, during lunch we all take off our suit jackets and leave them downstairs, so during lunch we're going to slip some magnets into the pockets of their suit coats to mess with the compass and then afterward we're going to teach a lesson on the Liahona and how it worked according to their faith, heed, and diligence. For Zone conference we're going to be making an alter and teach about sacrifice. Throughout the conference we'll have everyone write down on paper some things that they feel they need to sacrifice in order to be more at-one with Heavenly Father and then at then end they come up and place these things on the alter. Then after the round of zone conferences we'll take it back to the mission home and burn the alter and send pictures of it to everyone along with a vial of the ashes. It should be fun and a memorable teaching moment. Anywho that's about it. Love ya and we'll talk later!
Parent's note: We had a great talk with Bryan on Christmas for about 75 minutes. He sounds great and is happy. One year down; one more to go!
Parent's note: We had a great talk with Bryan on Christmas for about 75 minutes. He sounds great and is happy. One year down; one more to go!
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