Chris and companion at Zone Conference
This was one of those weeks when the Texan weather just blew my mind! It's barely March and all the trees and stuff are already blossoming. I've never seen even a hint of spring this time of year. Anyway, that's your weather update for the week.
Sounds
like ya'll have seen the zone conference pictures on Facebook. They
always make the week a little better. We started out just going over
tons of rules for a while (probably to prepare for the new mission
president) then moved into learning to teach more effectively. I found
out that I can only attend the temple once a quarter and that to do even
that we have to live about an hour away, have to be taken by a member,
and it can't be in the evenings or on weekends. Hopefully Elder Wade and
I can work something out soon because I really want to go! I should be
able to take some recent converts for baptisms soon though. That'll be
exciting!
After discussing all the rules we talked about how to fulfill Elder Christofferson's Apostolic blessing to our mission "that in our teaching we can be more persuasive, more powerful and that our testimony will be accompanied by the Holy Ghost, as well as our teaching, that our teaching will reach people more than ever before. They have the right to choose how they will respond to our teaching and testimony but our witness can be strong enough that they cannot disbelieve it, whatever they choose to do about it." Basically, it came down to being obedient, becoming converted ourselves, and having honest conversations with people.
For me personally, I feel that means that I have to believe in myself more. I pondered a little during the role-play portion about how I always leave these meetings with a determination and ability to teach more effectively but my teaching hardly ever changes because of it. I felt that it's really just me holding myself back and telling myself I can't actually teach in the way I want to. I'm determined not to let that happen again. I've improved my teaching a ton in the last six months and I just need to remind myself of that. There's nothing more fulfilling to me as a missionary than asking an inspired question or sharing a scripture that just makes something click in people's minds.
I learned a lot more than what I wrote so I'll just send some of my notes in a separate email. Other than that, this week we taught one of our investigators, Chris, all the commandments and got him interviewed for baptism. He's getting baptized this Saturday so I'll send pictures next week. Take care!
After discussing all the rules we talked about how to fulfill Elder Christofferson's Apostolic blessing to our mission "that in our teaching we can be more persuasive, more powerful and that our testimony will be accompanied by the Holy Ghost, as well as our teaching, that our teaching will reach people more than ever before. They have the right to choose how they will respond to our teaching and testimony but our witness can be strong enough that they cannot disbelieve it, whatever they choose to do about it." Basically, it came down to being obedient, becoming converted ourselves, and having honest conversations with people.
For me personally, I feel that means that I have to believe in myself more. I pondered a little during the role-play portion about how I always leave these meetings with a determination and ability to teach more effectively but my teaching hardly ever changes because of it. I felt that it's really just me holding myself back and telling myself I can't actually teach in the way I want to. I'm determined not to let that happen again. I've improved my teaching a ton in the last six months and I just need to remind myself of that. There's nothing more fulfilling to me as a missionary than asking an inspired question or sharing a scripture that just makes something click in people's minds.
I learned a lot more than what I wrote so I'll just send some of my notes in a separate email. Other than that, this week we taught one of our investigators, Chris, all the commandments and got him interviewed for baptism. He's getting baptized this Saturday so I'll send pictures next week. Take care!
Love,
Elder O'Brien (the younger)
No comments:
Post a Comment