Investigators at Church

One of the most difficult tasks missionaries have is to get investigators to come to church. Most of the humble and teachable people the missionaries find do not have cars. Typically they get many people to commit to come each Sunday. They wait expectantly by the front doors with their cell phones to their ears trying to find out why those who said they will come are not there yet. I call it the pacing and calling time for missionaries. In spite of all their best efforts the missionaries are often disappointed. There are exceptions. Unfortunately, it is often a shock to missionaries that have had their hopes dashed so many times.

When investigators really do want to come to Church they will find a way. This is such an account from one of the missionaries:

“Despite not talking to people as much as we should have, this has been a pretty great week with miracles. They mostly deal with an investigator named ______. A little less than a month ago, while waiting for a member to pick us up for a meal appointment I was talking to people that would pass by. Just before the member drove up, ______ came by. We talked and got a return appointment. The member commented to us that he was probably meant to be a little late so we could talk to that person. At the time I was just happy that he saw us talking to him because I felt that it was helping us build member trust. We didn't think much of ______ at that time because we make appointments with many people that don’t keep them. However, after having to reschedule we did meet with ______ and taught him a short Restoration lesson on a Friday afternoon. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, come to church told him the bus route he would need to take on Sunday. To our surprise, he was sitting in the chapel before we arrived. In our next appointment with him we asked him about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he knew it was true. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set a date for his baptism. The next Sunday was Fast Sunday and he came again. I sat next to him and explained about fast and testimony meeting to him. Halfway into the meeting, he asked me if he could go up. When he got up, he said how much he liked this church and he said that he knew that the Book of Mormon was true. "Something told me that it was true," is how he said it. We met with him at the end of the day. We found out that he had walked home from church both Sundays. We estimate that it is about 8-10 miles to where he lives.  When we asked him about it he simply said how much he loves going to our church. From now on we'll make sure he gets a ride home so he won't have to walk.”

Ask more questions



Chef



One of the assistants asked if a "few" of the missionaries close by could use the back lawn of the mission home to play a game of football on p-day. Oh, and could they use the barbeque to cook a "few" hamburgers and hot dogs. When we returned from a speaking assignment in the South of the mission, the home and back yard were full of about 50 missionaries. I believe the scriptural defnition of "few" is eight. (1 Peter 3:20)  It was all in good fun and they cleaned the place up, but I will ask more questions before I consent next time.







Two games at once-8 to a side







Cheerleaders

Prayer

I often get such a lift as well as a smile when I read the letters from my missionaries. I will share this one as it did both. By way of background, this mission has been authorized to use facebook as a tool to find, teach and keep in touch with members and investigators. This letter is from one of my dear sister missionaries.

"I have learned a lot about specific prayers this past transfer. I was unhappy that no one was answering me on facebook so my companion told me to start praying more that I would get an answer. I prayed very hard that one person would answer me and the next day someone had. It was a very rude and inappropriate answer. So I prayed that someone would answer me positively, and the day after I received a message saying how attractive I was and that my future spouse would be very lucky. So I prayed again, this time asking that someone would be interested in hearing about my message. There were three people the next day who were. Since then I have had many responses and have started teaching some of them. Specific prayers will get specific answers. Have the faith to ask specifically. Sometimes all we have to do is ask before a blessing can be granted."

The Inner-city

There are wonderful people in our inner-cities amid the crime and poverty. Many are searching for the truth and a way out. The Spirit of the Lord is strong in these units of the Church as they worship in Sacrament and other meetings. It is like passing into another dimension to step across the threshold of a converted store. The wonderful members of the church and the Spirit greet you even more warmly than the mor affluent congregations.

Our missionaries dressed in their white shirts are respected by the gangs who rule these streets. Sometimes the local police will stop the missionaries and ask them if they know where they are. When the reply is positive, they are counseled to be careful. Of course the missionaries are taught to avoid crowds and any sign of crime and civil unrest. However they often observe drug deals and hear gunshots. I was told of one missionary that started a collection of empty dime bags. I now instruct them not to pick up things off the street. On one occasion I know of, a couple of our missionaries got roughed up by one of the local hoodlums trying to get in with a gang. It was reported that the hoodlum received a severe beating for that and told to leave the “Jesus Boys” alone. Once in a while a returned missionary will take his parents to some of the inner-city places where he served. He quickly learns that without the name tag, the white shirt, and tie the feeling there is much different.

One of our missionaries wrote this poem of his work in Camden, New Jersey.

          Broken Glass

By Nicholas Kenneth Reese

Graffitti’d walls and broken glass

Church bells ring for vespers mass

            The contents of a sidewalk’s edge

            Tell the tales of weekends past

With smoked butts and stray malts

And scattered, broken glass.

Half-Smoked Newports, whisky Flasks

Last night’s “40’s” paper bags

            From over pass to Pigeoned parks

            Inner-City streets are packed

With strange finds, and gang signs

And scattered, broken glass.

Rubber bands and latex

Corona bottles on the steps

            A cop displays the Doppler Effect

            Through streets filled up with car wrecks

And Zig-Zags and Dime bags

And scattered, broken glass.

Ghetto birds and narc cops

The constant smell of brewed hops

            The history of a lifetime here

            Is told with tattoo’d teardrops

And bad Jokes and blunt smoke

And scattered, broken glass.

Shattered glass of all kinds

Gives the street a strange shine

            Beneath a sky devoid of stars

            And Jordan’s hang on power lines

And streets lights and cheap fights –

Just scattered, broken glass

Bolted doors and drawn blinds –

Perhaps a home where we can find

            Amidst the pits of poverty

            And anything but welcome signs

A humble heart, a chance to start

From broken, scattered glass.

--Nicholas Kenneth Reese (2011)

The Gift of Tongues

It is remarkable how quickly our Spanish speaking missionaries are able to pick up the language. Imigrant Spanish speakers from the same country gather together in cities and towns throughout our mission. Our Spanish missionaries will be working with one Latin American culture and then get transferred and have to learn new idioms and accents from a different culture. I recently received this from one of my Spanish speaking missionaries who comes from Idaho:

This last week, we were walking to an appointment that we didn't need to be there for about another 30 minutes for, because of an unexpected change in travel plans, etc, and just trying to talk to everyone. We passed a younger man who was smoking, said hi, and continued on. He stopped us with, "Hey, can I ask you guys a question?" Of course we were more than happy to talk to him.

His question was about what we really do, and what church we go to. He has a neighbor that just left to do a mission like what we are doing, and he wasn't sure what it was all about. So, we explained to him that we are missionaries for 2 years, all the fun other little details, and I mentioned that we both speak Spanish.

"Oh really?" he says. Then, in Spanish, "Y como tu hablas el espanol?" (Basically, "How well do you speak Spanish?")

I replied in Spanish with something like, more or less, and said a few other things.

His jaw seemed to drop and he said, "Have you ever lived in a Spanish country?"

I told him no.

"Eso es mentira!" he said. ("That's a lie!") "Where are you from?"

I told him Idaho.

"Yeah, but where are you from, like what country."

I told him the United States. "No. That's a lie," he continued.

At this point I couldn't help but laugh. I pulled out my driver's license; he still didn't believe me.

"It's impossible for you to speak like that. How have you only been learning Spanish for a year, and you don't have an accent? It's impossible. You're lying."

Anyways, eventually I think he either believed us, or just accepted that we weren't going to change our story. We went on to explain more about our church and the Book of Mormon. He seemed really interested in everything we had to say, and asked us for a Book of Mormon. We dropped one off at his mom's store, like he asked us to, and we plan on getting in touch with him this week to see if we can start working with him more.

The Unexpected

As a missionary you must be ready for the unexpected. This is from the same companionship on the same day.

“So, the other day my companion and I were waiting for the bus when a Honduran lady got off and started to talk to us. She was surprised that we spoke Spanish, so we explained to her why, and had a short conversation. Out of the blue, she says, "Can you guys get married?" We were a little taken back at that, but we replied yes, we can get married but we have to wait till after the mission. "And how much longer do you have?" she proceeded to ask. My companion told her that he's got 15 months left and I've got a year. "Ok. Well, the thing is that I need someone to marry my sister, so that she can get her papers. We would be willing to pay you." We were shocked, and I had to hold back a startled laugh. She was asking us to marry her sister!! hahaha. She exchanged phone numbers with us, and said to call her. We're going to see if we can try to teach her instead of marrying her sister. hahaha.

“One day too, we were on the bus headed to an appointment and were standing next to a guy in a wheelchair. We were talking quietly and then stopped. My companion started to whistle quietly one of the hymns, and hadn't been whistling for more than 5 seconds when the man in the wheelchair exploded. He used every swear word in the book, I think; telling my companion that he can talk to me, but he can't whistle. "There's no dogs here! Take that back to the hills, or wherever you're from!" Those are some examples of the things he said, but of course the edited version. My companion was the better man and tried to kindly explain to the man that he should just ask and not get so angry. Nothing happened after that; we arrived to our destination safely and had a good evening.”