Dear Dad,
This week has been pretty awesome! Something I’ve learned is that it is super important to teach people from your heart. Not just follow a plan that you made before you get there but to follow what the spirit says to you. Last night we were in a lesson and it was a division so it was just me and a kid who´s getting ready to serve a mission and we were teaching this couple and the wife was very interested in religion but the husband didn’t go to any church and didn’t think he needed to go to a church to be saved. So it got to the end of the lesson and I just bore my testimony that I knew that what we had to share would bless their lives and a bunch of other stuff, but I did it with real love and I think they could sense it or something so after I finished the husband started asking me where our church was and saying he wants to do a visit there!
So any way what me and my companions have been doing is applying those scriptures that say “mine elect hear my voice and don’t harden their hearts” and “mine elect hear my voice and follow”. So basically what we do is the first time we enter the house to share a lesson we just teach about the baptism of Christ and invite them to be baptized in the same way that Christ was baptized. So basically the invite is just to see how they react. we say, “ so if God demonstrated to you in your heart that these things were true would you follow this prompting/answer from god?” Usually they don’t understand so you have to explain that only if god shows them this is true will they be baptized. And then after that you say “were having a baptismal meeting on the (chose a date), if you receive and answer between today and this date will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized on this day?” And depending how they react to these questions you can tell if they have a real desire to follow these things or not. Also you will have people who are just nice and willing to talk but don’t really want to follow so that’s where the scripture “mine elect hear mine voice and follow” if they really are elect and ready then they will immediately begin to do what you ask them. The key to this whole process is that you do it with love. You should not be pressuring the people at all to make the commitment; you are only inviting them to make a commitment. So if they don’t want to make a commitment then don’t spend your time working with them but if they are will to make a commitment then work with them. This is our system. Just teach about baptism straight up and invite them and just see how they react and if they don’t harden their hearts (which means they argue with you and don’t want to even try to believe) and if they follow then they are elect. So you can tell after only the first visit if they will really be baptized or not. Sometimes it’s hard because you will find a nice person who is interested in learning about it but doesn’t want to do anything about it, and this system will help you to know whether or not to use your time teaching them or not. And ever since we've been using this system the lord has blessed us with a bunch of really good people! The system might be a little bit different for how to do it in America cause of the culture difference, but the principle is the same.
Thank you for the music! And I got it all so if you can figure out a way to put more on you could just take that stuff off and put more on. It’s cool you liked that song by Whitley because that’s actually one of the ones I like most and am looking forward to getting! I think I have Whitely on my iTunes on the comp at home so you could just get on there and take it so you don’t have to buy it again.
I think big things are gonna happen here in this mission soon. Because there was a leadership meeting and the president was talking about how we have stewardship over the whole city where we live and how we should just baptize the whole city. And he talked about a lot of examples from scriptures and from modern day missionaries who baptized like hundreds of people in cities in a short amount of time and that is what he wants us to be doing. And he was dead serious when he was talking about it. So me and my comp made a goal to try to baptize everyone who we talk to. And I think it’s working pretty well cause we have lots of people who are going to be getting baptized this month and were finding lots of other people. The key is you just have to change the way you think and not limit yourself to a number, just make it everyone.
Hope the advice I gave can help your Sisters in your ward. Does Maddi go out with the sisters? 'cause she totally should! Having a member there for lessons makes a huge difference! Also I think it’s a great idea that you’re going to visit families and get them thinking about missionary work ‘cause the best investigator is always the ones that are references from members. Keep up the good work!
Love you guys and I’ll be praying for you all and hope you have a good week.
Love,
Elder Raleigh