Wow, it's hard to believe time is flying by so fast... I felt like the summer was so short, and here we are, already coming up on Christmas! It has been a pretty eventful week for us, lots going on. We've had all kinds of training meetings and baptismal interviews and basically not incredible amounts of time to hit the pavement and proselyte. It was funny - in a baptism we went to on Thursday, the missionary baptizing left his phone in his pocket so he "baptized" his phone. They said that it was confirmed and that it is now the missionary meal coordinator of that ward... Thankfully the phone still works, but it was entertaining to watch him realize that it was still in his pocket. We had a Zone Leader Conference on Thursday and mainly just talked about the need to work better with the members and being more powerful teachers. We've been noticing that missionaries are kind of struggling in teaching with confidence, power, and authority. We talked about taking it back to the basics - what exactly does the Restoration mean, and why is it important? What really is our unique message to the world? After we teach people that first lesson about the Restoration, do they understand it and have sincere desires to find out if it's true? Did they understand it?
It was cool thinking about these questions, and thinking about people in the past that I have taught. If I'm able to teach it simply and powerfully, they're going to be able to understand it, regardless of whether or not they want to accept it. We're not here to mess with their agency, but we're sure here to find those prepared by our Heavenly Father - if they are ever going to accept it, we're going to give them the tools they need to find out if (that) it's true.
So I've really been going through everything and simplifying it, looking up definitions in Preach My Gospel and True to the Faith so that I can have a deeper personal testimony of it and be able to teach it in the way that I personally know it's true. The better we know these things, the more simply we will be able to teach and explain it. Revelation is one of the coolest things to really research and find out about. It's simply communication from our Heavenly Father to His children. It's how the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are revealed to prophets and how it is confirmed to us that that revelation is true and real. We've been really focusing on that lately, and how it's so necessary for our investigators to receive that revelation and be able to understand and recognize it.
At Zone Conference the next day (Friday) we focused on similar things and were able to do a whole lot of role-playing and practicing teaching. It was cool to help people out and see what they're doing in their teaching appointments so that we can make it a lot more powerful. Our message is unique and people really do have to understand why/how and how it applies to them personally. No matter what our circumstances and situations might be, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way we are going to be able to overcome those trials and find true happiness.
I've been realizing the importance of being super transparent and helping people realize why we're there, as missionaries. We're teachers, and we are here to teach them about their Heavenly Father, His plan for them, and how they can find the happiness that they're searching for. We tell them right off the bat why we're there and where we're going with our message - we're not there to simply share a message and leave. This is the most important thing they could possibly do in their entire life and we're going to help them understand why. I went on exchanges with Elder Johnson and we learned a lot - about being super enthusiastic, smiling, and being sincere and simple. We don't need to use fancy words or worry about how exactly we word things. We need to simply talk to them and let them know who we are and why we're here. It's crazy thinking this is the only time in your life you're able to just meet random people on the street and just teach them. It's pretty cool, and it's sad to think it's going by so fast.
One thing that's also been awesome to learn is how much offering help can really go. We've been going by auxiliary leaders and simply asking, "What can we do to help you?" We want to be a blessing, not a burden to them, and we know they have all kinds of responsibilities and things stressing them out. So we've been getting assignments and lists of people to visit, and we're seeing that it is already helping and improving the spirituality of the ward! Building a relationship of trust is way crucial for missionaries, and we're starting to see why. A family we visited on Saturday that's inactive came to church yesterday and it was awesome! We all felt the spirit super strong in their house, and are working on helping them to be missionaries and share the gospel with their friends.
We had a solid mission fast this Sunday, fasting for a "White Christmas" and we're pretty excited. The mission's getting pumped up and we see big things happening this month. People are just nicer and people around here love the Christmas lights at the temple! We've also gotten a couple referrals from that, which is way exciting. We got to see some of the Christmas Devotional yesterday, and that's always one of my favorite things ever - I particularly enjoyed Pres. Monson's talk about the Christmas stories. It really does put it into perspective and helps us know the importance of giving and sacrifice (sacrifice being greater than the reward - me gusta) like
Life is good though, and the Christmas season is here! It's the best time to do missionary work :)
Love you! Hasta pronto See you soon
~ Elder Carlson
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