My heart is so full today as I
read your letters and got to hear about all the wonderful things that
have happened this last week. Jacob, I am so proud of you! I wish I
could have been there to experience that all with you. But how grateful I
am to be here and have a family that is so willing to support so many
missionaries and so many willing to serve. I love you all so much.
I have had three days of pretty much feeling the
Spirit of Steroids every single day. It has been so amazing and I have
literally seen this scripture ( "Behold, I will hasten my work in its
time." D&C 88:73) begin to unfold. That time is now, and the Lord
is starting to move his work forward very very quickly.
On Friday we had a Mega-Zone conference. It started
out as a Mission Conference but I guess they split it so that we would
have enough one on one attention and its really good they did. We have a
big mission and trying to process the things they taught us in bigger
groups would be very difficult.
We had two members of the Missionary Committee come
and give us some special training and O Man! I can't remember if they
told us that this isn't a church wide program yet or if we're
the guinea pigs but either way this is the start of something new and
powerful.
I will just focus on one part of all the things we learned, everything else is in Preach My Gospel already its just under-used.
We
were talking about finding people. Every missionary knows that this is
the absolute hardest and most dreaded part of missionary work. No one
likes Knocking doors, and we get rejected soooo much! I think the stats
go something like this. When knocking doors maybe 1 out of 100 people
will get baptized. When Fearlessing (talking to people on the street)
maybe 1 in 1000. Not very effective... this new way is supposed to way
way up those numbers, they don't know about baptisms yet but these ways
have really helped missionaries get into homes and then helped them
retain investigators.
Okay, enough intro. Ready for the big secrets from
headquarters? Haha. The first they they told us was to throw away the
script! Now We already kinda did that when Preach My Gospel was released
but you'd be amazed about how much has survived... most missionaries
have about 2 or 3 "door approaches" or "greetings" that they will use
over and over and over again. We were told to get rid of them. In fact
we were told that the words "Hello, I am a missionary..." or "Hi! My
name is Sister...." and no longer allowed to come out of our mouths. Not
at all. In Preach My Gospel it says to Talk With Everyone...
Missionaries have been Talking To Everyone. Big Difference. So Jacob...
don't ever let those phrases become a part of your mission repertoire.
Instead we are encouraged to just talk with people.
Talk about their shoes, their families, their works, where they are
going, what they are doing, anything and everything. Just talk with
them. In fact, the best thing you can do is get someone to laugh. If you
can get them to laugh you know that you are okay. It makes a lot of
sense if you think about it. As soon as some one says "We have a message
to share..." people immediately shut down! We have to be friendly and
most importantly REAL. Then people will start to talk to us.
Secondly, there is a mission that has been using
this "approach" (<-- used only for lack of a better word) and when
they talk to people they will get into 6 out of the 10 houses and return
appointments. How? The Mission President decided that everyone deserved
the blessing of the gospel so that is what they have been doing, they
have literally been blessing the homes of everyone in their mission
boundaries. Most people believe in prayer in one way or another so
everyone is more than willing to let representatives of Christ into
their homes to bless them and their families (Sometimes with the
priesthood). What ends up happening is amazing spiritual experiences
that then these people invite the missionaries back to share their
message. Pretty cool huh? And it works.
Finally, one of the biggest problems missionaries
face is retaining their investigators. People will listen once and then
never let you back in. They were finding that this was happening even
after people had these awesome spiritual experience of having the
missionaries bless their homes. So... they have asked us to better use
the missionary pamphlets. In the mission described above when
Missionaries taught with the Pamphlets their drop out rate decreased
dramatically. Why? Well what they are asking us to do is teach 15-20
minute lessons max using these pamphlets meaning that we read with the
investigators from them and actually flip through it with them. When
missionaries did this the investigator was so much more likely to pick
it up and look through it between appointments and therefore Satan had
less time to convince them to stop investigating. And since lessons are
so short people can meet with the missionaries more often throughout the
week.
Okay I kinda sound like a sales person, I am sorry.
The thing is this is so amazing because it works! People all over long
island have started listening. Missionaries have gotten into homes that
we never would have otherwise. The Lord is Hastening his work and this
is how he is doing it. We practiced using the pamphlets while teaching a
Family Home Evening Lesson in a Members home the other night and it was
amazing. Everyone was involved and they wanted to keep the pamphlets to
look through them. I can't wait to use them with our Investigators.
I am so so grateful for the chance that I had to go
to the temple on Saturday. The whole time I was there I just kept
thinking about you Jacob and how happy I was to know that all the way
back in Utah my Brother was going through the temple for the first time.
I love that place so much. Utah, New York... It doesn't matter where.
The temple feels like home.
The trip into the temple was probably just as much
fun as being there. Me and my Companion and the two Elders in our area
that were coming too decided to carpool to the mission office and then
take the subway into Manhattan. Not going to lie... I was pretty excited
to take the subway for the first time. :D On our way there though it
was pretty early and empty and honestly... I wasn't very impressed... On
the way out though... I fell in love with the city and the subway. The
city is huge! and full of so many people but it definitely has its own
charm. I hope that I get to serve in a City area someday. I fell in love
with the subway though because of the street performers! They are
everywhere! As soon as the music from one fades away you begin to hear
the strains of the next one up ahead. 5 Gallon
buckets, didgeridoo, Indian
The Temple itself is so cool. It pops up out of no
where but its just like they say it is... You walk through the doors and
the city noise fades out behind you. And Its beautiful. Its small and
kinda squished but its beautiful. I can't wait until I get to go back...
Which will hopefully be pretty soon if our recent convert decides to go
to Baptisms for the Dead.
After the temple the members took us out to eat at a
delicious Colombian Restaurant. SOOOO Good! Haha. We ate so much but we
needed to, we left so early we didn't get breakfast. I was actually
feeling pretty sick by the time we got to the restaurant but as soon as I
ate I was okay.
Then yesterday Elder L. Tom Perry came and talked to
us in a stake conference. He is such an awesome Man of God! and so
Tall! I knew that he was but still. And Spry! He jumped up on the stand
and then jumped out of his seat when it was his turn to talk. So the
church that we met in is called the Plainview Stake Center and many many
years ago there was a Worlds Fair here in New York and the Church had a
Pavillion there. When they built it though they built it in such a way
that it could be taken a part at the end and reconstructed into a Stake
Center when the Fair was over which they did and that is now the
Plainview Stake Center. Elder Perry helped oversee that project when he
was a Stake Mission Leader (?) when he lived on Long Island. I guess he
gets to make the assignments for the 12 and so when he saw that this
conference was to be held he said "I get to go there!" Haha. He has a
lot of love for the people of Long Island.
This week has been so amazing. The spirit has been
so strong and we have seen so many miracles. I love the people here, I
love the members and I love how enthusiastic they are about missionary
work. They go out and find friends and then are kind enough to let us
teach them. Its a great great place.
Family. This church is true. Why else would we worry
so much about spreading it to the four corners of the earth? Its true
and I want everyone in the world to be able to feel the freedom and love
and peace and joy that it can bring into their lives. I know I have a
long way to go to be an instrument that the Lord can use to bring his
Children into his fold but I am working each day to become that
instrument. I want to spend these next 16 months doing exactly what the
Lord would have me do, talking to exactly who he wants me to talk to and
say exactly the right thing to help them come to a knowledge of the
truth. I just want to do this work his way because its the only way to
have success out here.
I love you all. Have fun in Disneyland and be safe and bring me home a souvenir. Haha.
Jacob.
Make sure you write your sisters while you are in the mission field. I
miss talking to you. And if I could give you any advice it would be to
make sure you write something in your journal everyday. Its only been 2
months and already I am more than halfway through my journal, but those
pages are so precious to me. There is no way you can remember everything
that happens and especially how you feel about it for a whole life
time. I can't even remember from day to day! Write in your journal. I
promise you that this record will become one of your most sacred and
prized possessions.
All My Love,
Hna Maren Hale
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