In The Great Wide Somewhere: 05/16/16

Soak'n up the last few days with Sister C before she heads home!

My zone (the Pensacola Florida Zone) had a zone training this week.

A zone training is where all of the missionaries in our zone gather to a designated meeting place and we have a really awesome training/spiritual renewal.

One of the most interesting things we talked about was quality versus quantity investigators.

The numbers and logistics of this mission show that whether it be 100 okay ish investigators or 50 quality investigators the retention either way in the gospel is 50 percent.

So what is a quality investigator? Someone progressing and keeping commitments and rapidly excelling towards Christ.

What is an okay ish investigator? Someone that is just as capable of coming unto Christ, but because our own natural judgement, and doubts of their probable success in the gospel, we debate on whether or not it's worth it.

So what we learn from those numbers is that WE ARE NOT THE JUDGE

Heavenly Father wants ALL His children to come unto Him as soon as possible.

I find myself in that category of writing people off because in my mind they are "not ready" or there is someone out there that is "so prepared for the gospel."

Maybe just maybe, my job as a missionary is not just to whip out a bunch of baptisms contrary to popular belief.

Maybe my job is to believe in the "hopeless" prepare the "unprepared" and ultimately build the kingdom of my Father above.

It is not up to me to judge, it is up to me to have faith because no matter how okay ish versus quality of an investigator, the retention is half. 50 our of 100 retain the gospel in the quantity department. 25 of the 50 retain in the quality department. So I'm going to go for the 100 because in Gods eyes, everyone of those quantity people are His and He knows them better than me.

Which means a couple of things, I need to share the gospel with EVERYONE. Open my mouth. Be bold. Quality AND Quantity are both important to my Father in Heaven because in His eyes, all of the quantity have extreme quality.

Something else I was able to put together from this experience was the relation these numbers have to the parable of the ten virgins.

Why are they called virgins? Sometimes I wonder about things like that...

Five of them were prepared five were not.

As a kid, I always wondered if that meant that half of all God's children would not be prepared at the day of Christ's return.

I put something together that I have never before, all ten of those virgins knew that the bridegroom was coming. They had all been told previously and they all slept.

When the messenger came to wake them up, only half were ready.

But in the beginning, each of them had an opportunity to be ready, and only half were.

So how does this relate?

Perhaps the fact that half of the people we teach do not continue to progress in the gospel is the fulfilling of this prophesy.

But those numbers are not all of the people on the Earth, but all of the people that have had the opportunity to hear of the good message we (as Latter-day Saints not just missionaries) bring, that Christ has established His church here on the Earth again, and that if we follow His teachings and make and keep covenants to align our will with God our Eternal Father, we will be prepared at the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we will live with our families and our Heavenly Father once again.

So the question we must ask ourselves is which side of the 50% do we want to be on?
We have been taught.. so now it's our choice to accept AND ACT.

accept and act

It is by grace that we are saved after all we can DO.

"Neither do I condemn thee. Now GO and sin no more."

action

"FEED my sheep."

Jesus has been inviting people to act on their beliefs since He walked the Earth and even way before then.

Don't let yourself become a victim of what I like to call the
"Checklist Mormon"

went to church

check

family prayer

check

Young Womens/Young Mens

check

take the sacrament

check

Now take of the eck in check and replace it with ange

Go to church~partake of the sacrament~repent daily go to youth activities~fulfill your callings to the best of your abilities~home teach/visit teach~have family prayer~have family home evening, have scripture study,

and then:

Not Check

Change

from the dang good people you are to even better ones

hey I have an idea, I'll do that too ;)

because just like I say all the time to the people we teach, we are not perfect missionaries or people, but our message which is centered on Jesus Christ and His atonement is perfect.

As we do these things and change instead of check them off our list

we will gain a relationship with our Father in Heaven

He will trust us with more knowledge, power, understanding, enlightenment, and an increased measure of the spirit to help us attain those things.

"wherefore men are free according to the flesh and all things are given them which are expedient unto them for they are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediator of all men or to choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of the devil for he seeketh that all man might be miserable like unto himself"

We are free to choose

We are free to change

My prayer is that ALL those that have heard this great message will continue

to act

instead of being acted upon

that we may increase our conviction

that we may increase our conversion

that we may increase our confidence

before that great and terrible day

"Behold. the Bridegroom cometh."

We were able to have a really neat experience with Hannah this week.

--talk about a family that has been hit with the storms of life.

The week after Hannah and Jeremy were baptized, Hannah lost her job. A month ish later, their house flooded. Then it flooded again.

Then it flooded again.

There have been even more things like this hitting this family, and it's because they are at a critical time.

This week we were able to have a lesson with Hannah about temples, and how the work done in the temples around the world is helping to build God's army on both sides of the veil.

It's a literal fight people. Hannah bore her testimony to us about the knowledge she has of a living Christ. Even Jesus Christ.

She spoke of her friends that are posting things and worried about the Isis attacks. How people are getting killed if they answer "yes" to the question... "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?"

It is scary. That's how Satan works. Fear.

But Hannah shared with us her reaction to these news stories and the ever pressing situations of the world as we know it.

"When I see that stuff, when I hear about how our country is attacking the freedom of religion, and how terrorists are attacking those who believe in Christ, I feel like a fire is lit in my soul. It makes me feel stronger because I know that I know it. I will defend it, and I could never deny Jesus Christ."

She then shared a very special experience with us

"I had a dream, even before all of this crazy Isis stuff was happening. I was trying to hide my kids, we were in a field somewhere I'm not sure where. I finally got them all hidden, but I got caught. A soldier pushed me hard up against a barbed wire fence. He asked me if I believe in Christ.

I knew what my answer was, and I knew he was going to make me suffer for it, but before I got the words out, everything was gone and all I saw was Jesus Christ."

She then told us

gun to her head

she will never deny Christ.

It's sad that we even have to think about that.

I think of those that are being killed because they believe in Him

dying because they believe in Jesus Christ

it goes both ways

He died for us because He believes in us. He believes we can do it!

We can make it!

When all is said and done,

He lives

though He died and we will too.

I had such an amazing experience teaching Sister P. the plan of salvation. Growing up, she sincerely believed that making it to the Celestial Kingdom was dang near impossible.

I think we all have times where we have had those types of thoughts.

But I don't think God would create a plan for us to make it back to Him without the highest possible chance of us actually making it.

All we must do to achieve the highest of our potential is simply have faith, repent, make and keep covenants, stay worthy of and follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost, and endure well.

I heard of a quote that says something along the lines of: Someday when all is said and done and we are received into Gods presence, we will be so amazed as to what we have that we will hardly believe that what was required of us here on Earth is truly all we had to do to receive such an abundance of God's love and glory.

Sister P. soaked up the plan of salvation, she with tearful eyes expressed her happiness because she now knows that she can be together with her family and her Father in Heaven for eternity.

The Spirit was so strong. My heart was full.

How does she know? Because she felt the truth of it and she is willing to act on it.

How can you know that it's true?

Pray with the intent to act on what you receive, only then will you receive not necessarily what you are looking for and how you are looking for it, but you will receive what you need, how you need it to come unto Christ, and be whole.

I love this gospel, I love you, and I love being a "miss missionary"

Make it a great week

and pray for me.

because two reasons

1.It's time for my companion to go home to Fresno California this week