9-30-13 Howdy! 72 hour work week! 40 Day Ward Fast! Miracles and Valuable Lessons Learned! PREACH MY GOSPEL and Ward Members Are Key to Missionary Work! Three-Step Program!

Howdy!

 

Well another beautiful week has gone by here in the wonderful Texas Dallas Mission and we are exhausted. The Zone Leaders threw us a challenge to work a 72 hour work week. Typically due to studies and meetings, we missionaries will be out proselyting for about 50 hours a week so we turned it up a notch! We did our studies outside in parks, ate lunch on the road, stayed out late, and either ate dinner with nonmembers or brought investigators to dinner with us. We ended our week having worked a total of 75 hours and 50 minutes! And to add to our increased efforts we started a 40 day fast in the ward where 40 families each fast for one day each, 40 days in a row and this was our first week and boy did the Lord bless us in so many ways. We doubled the number of lessons we taught, found 8 new investigators (2 families and an individual), and were strengthened daily by the Lord. As Elder Andersen of the 12 would say, "It's a miracle!" 

We are incredibly excited and we want to keep working harder to bring the restored gospel to the good people of Allen. One of the families who became formal investigators was the one I talked about last week, Kala and Val and their children. The ones that call us Batman and Robin. We showed them a short film on the Joseph Smith story and testified of the truthfulness of it to them and they said they would come to church to check it out and read the Book of Mormon. They are a wonderful family, might as well be Mormon! ON Saturday they texted us saying they might not come to church because the family was at spiritual warfare with themselves and we haven't heard from them since but we are praying constantly that the Spirit will testify of the truth to them and give them peace of mind about joining the church. I will keep you updated on the warfare. 

We also taught a less active mother and her nonmember children the restoration and the  youngest son, about 11, asked where we came from, a perfect lead into the Plan of Salvation which we will teach next week. The Lord truly blessed us with many miracles this week and I learned a valuable lesson about working diligently towards worthy goals and waiting for the Lord's timing.

 

In answer to Dad's question about how we do missionary work, we use all tactics that he mentioned in his email to find but something we are really pushing in the ward is getting the members more actively involved in finding. Preach My Gospel tells us that the members are our best source for finding new investigators and it is true. 

We have come up with a three-step program for our ward where:

1. The members get to know their neighbors, 
2. Then learn how to invite them over for Family night (i.e. games and a treat), 
3. Then they prayerfully set a date when they will have someone over to hear the missionary lessons. 

We are kicking it off this week but we feel very confident about it and we know that the members really are our best source. We need them. If all the members were actively finding, we would have about 200 people searching for the elect instead of two 19 year old missionaries. Sounds like a good plan to me!

 

Other than that it sounds like all is going well on the home front! I am proud of Chase for being a stud at basketball and football but probably more so for his diligence in reading the Book of Mormon. Keep up the good work bud! How tall are you now, 6' 2"? It sounds like y'all are having so much fun, I'm glad to hear it and can't wait to join in on the fun when I get home! I love you all so much!

 

Until next week,

Elder Williams