New Zealand Hamilton Mission, February 2015 — Insights, wisdom, and truths learned
Truths and thoughts from February 2015
- February 3, 2015 — District meeting, Hawera, New Zealand
- This week’s challenge — set someone for baptism this week!
- Asking questions:
- Bad questions have more than 1 topic, they are vague, they cause the person to feel awkward, they intimidate, they interrogate.
- Good questions cause someone to think and ponder, they are open-ended, they are soul searching, they lead to commitment.
- Listiening: listen with love
- February 15, 2015 — Area-wide conference for councils
- We need to change the way we do things.
- Be aware of the example you are setting 100% of the time.
- Feed faith, starve doubt. If you want more faith, be more obedient.
- Develop spiritual self reliance.
- Teach the doctrine of the Atonement as found in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.
- Elevate learning of and teaching of the Holy Ghost.
- Enhance the spirituality of our Sacrament meetings.
- Pull together. Study conference talks.
- February 19, 2015 — Zone meeting, New Plymouth, New Zealand
- Be more aware of the Standards of Excellence.
- The war chapters of the Book of Mormon teach us to put more men in our weakest areas. Concentrate on your weaknesses and improve!
- The New Zealand Hamilton Mission receives 800 copies of the Book of Mormon each month.
- Be more aware of creative ways to use the Book of Mormon each week.
- Are we using lesson plans to focus on the investigator?
- If you are utilizing ‘sports nights’, remember to start with a prayer and a lesson, to always look like and act like missionaries, be more of a ‘coach’ and less of a ‘participant’.
- Don’t swap or lend your missionary badges. Do not burn anything at your flats. Do not pick up or hold little children.
- Voice mails should be simple, brief, and dignified. Do not, under any circumstance, participate in pranks.
- Turn in baptism records promptly. Only attend baptismal services if you have investigators there.
- Consider having ‘invitation Sundays’. Baptismal services should include prayer, a message, and the Spirit.
- February 24, 2015 — Lessons from our leaders
- Elder Hawkins: 1) Elder Bednar will only be successful to the degree we allow him to be. 2) Many members of the Church will soon have the privilege of being in the presence of our apostle.
- Sister Robbins: 1) My husband and I served as mission president in Uruguay.
- Elder Robbins: 1) Do you remember the day you received your testimony? 2) Some members don’t receive a testimony all at once. 3) I received my testimony gradually. 4) Is the Book of Mormon true? It testifies that Jesus is the Christ, and I also know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that all of his successors are likewise. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of God here on the earth. 5) The Book of Mormon is a great converting tool. 6) I want to share three wonderful quotes from President Thomas S. Monson: Whom the Lord calls the Lord qualifies. When you are on the Lord’s errand, you will receive His support. A man’s back will be molded to bear the burdens he is asked to carry.
- Sister Bednar:
- Are you afraid to do something? What brings you comfort when you are afraid?
- Our second son received his mission call to Bolivia. He was frightened by this intimidating call. He heard about the many diseases that were prevalent in Bolivia, and he feared the many shots he would have to receive to serve in Bolivia. His prayers and our prayers helped, but he was still fearful. He received his endowments in the Dallas Temple, and he happened to meet a returned missionary from Bolivia. He told our son how much he loved his mission, how much he loved the sweet people there. He invited our son to come to his house for lunch. This missionary was an answer to our son’s prayers.
- Another son was ready to leave for his mission, and he read Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 about angels being round about us. He received a witness that angels would bless and support him in his missionary service.
- I know by the witness of the Spirit that my husband is an ordained witness of Jesus Christ.
- Elder David A. Bednar:
- Guideline #1 — Do not write down what we say, write down what you feel. Write down only the things that the Spirit dictates to you. Writing down only what we say is a foolish tradition in the Church.
- Guideline #2 — Don’t treat people as objects, treat them as agents for good.
- Faith implies assurance, action, and evidence. Joseph Smit did not enter the Grove to find out which church was true, but which church to join! Encourage investigators not to pray to know but to pray to know what to DO! Have an expectation to ACT! One receives a testimony when ACTING, not waiting.
- It is in the bearing of a testimony that you gain a testimony!
- If you focus only on yourself, you will not find what you seek. If you focus on service, you will find yourself and much more.
- Conversion is found in the constancy and persistence of seeking small and simple things.
- The true teacher in this process is the Holy Ghost, not us. Inspired questions invite the presence of the Holy Spirit. Although we are not the teacher, we have a role to play, and that is to be a conduit for the spirit to enter the heart of the investigator.
- Just try to be fractionally better today than you were yesterday. That is progress.
- Open your mouth and it will be filled.
- Did Moroni tell Joseph Smith the same thing 4 times in a row? No, each visitation was different. 80% of the information was the same, but 20% was different. Pay attention to the 20%.
- Invite a person to dig deeper, allowing the Spirit to make a difference in their life.
- Questions — 1) Don’t ask ‘curiosity’ questions. 2) Don’t ask us to do your work for you. 3) Inspired questions are inspired by the Spirit.
- We came seeking individuality, but what would you say to us? That you don’t need to ask an apostle a question to receive a revelatory answer.
- Before you open your mouth, open your eyes and ears.
- Follow the pattern found in Doctrine and Covenants 88 — “let a teacher be appointed…”
- Ten virgins — five wise and five unwise, ‘ye never knew me’.
- Abraham is the father of the faithful. How are the families of all the earth blessed through Abraham? Through missionary work. Those of you who hold the priesthood, please know that you were foreordained to bless lives through your priesthood.
- Abraham symbolized Elohim and Isaac symbolized Christ. Isaac willingly put himself on the altar.
- Women ordained to the priesthood? Sisters, you don’t need the priesthood! The priesthood is not ‘male’ or ‘female’. The priesthood is an umbrella under which all church members find shelter and safety.
- Is it possible to feel a ‘spiritual high’ all of the time? You won’t and you can’t. We must simple ‘press forward with steadfastness’. The Lord can be blessing you in the ordinary events of your daily life.
- How can we trust in the Lord without ‘beating ourselves up’? Press forward, be steadfast, have a perfect brightness of hope, have a love of God and of all men. Remember Doctrine and Covenants 97:8 — “…all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice — they are accepted of me.”
- Most of us are not very good at knowing how we are doing. Do you have the courage to ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, how you are really doing, and to have it revealed to you by the power of the Spirit? Don’t ask if you don’t want to know! Both assurance and rebuke come to all who ask.
- What will the day of judgement be like? It will primarily be a self-judgement — when you walk in you will know where you are, you will be prepared to hear, you will be instructed to edify, and you will be invited to act.
- The Book of Mormon is a book of ANSWERS! We have to discover the QUESTIONS by pondering.
- Invite investigators to learn by themselves, not by just talking and telling. Invite them to ACT! Don’t just tell them things — prepare them to act.
- Regarding general conference talks — read each talk with a desire to ACT! What is being taught, what are the blessing that will come by obedience to what is taught, what do I need to ACT on!
- Don’t make your investigators (or your future children) dependent on you! Teach them to ACT on their own, to do things!
- You have been SET APART from the world, you are not ‘of the world’. Be a light! You can’t represent the Savior is your view is dimmed!
- By percentage, some of you will be inactive in the future. I promise you, however, that it will not happen to you if you read and study the Book of Mormon every day of your life, yes, every day!
- Elder Bednar shared the following story from the life of Elder M. Russell Ballard — Elder Ballard was contacted by a returned missionary who stated that he was really struggling with his testimony since he had returned from his mission, and he asked if Elder Ballard would meet with him. He apparently had a long list of questions that he was struggling with. After a few minutes of conversation with this missionary over the phone, Elder Ballard told the missionary that he (the missionary) wasn’t prepared to meet, and Elder Ballard told him that he needed to study the Book of Mormon for 2 weeks and then call again. As could be predicted, the missionary called in 2 weeks and told Elder Ballard that he no longer felt the need to meet. He stated that he had ‘remembered’ the things that he needed to do to answer his own questions.
- Elder Bednar made the following promise to the missionaries: “As an apostle of the Lord, I promise and I prophesy that if you will read and study the Book of Mormon every day of your life from this point on, YOU WILL NEVER STRAY FROM THE CHURCH!”
- There is a sweet spirit here today. The Lord is writing His gospel in your hearts every day that you serve your mission.
- As an apostle, I delight in bearing witness of the Lord and His gospel. He bore his testimony of God the Father, Jesus Christ as our Savior, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the reality of the First Vision.
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