How Members Can Be Better Missionaries

The photo Christmas tree that we sent to him with pictures of many family members and friends.  Elder Shirley said "This is probably one of the best things I have gotten on my mission!"

Working hard......

A couple pics of the Czech countryside - things still seem pretty green for December

December 12, 2016

Hi!

We had another exchange this week. I was with Elder Stacey, who is from Idaho Falls, ID. We were in the MTC together so we are pretty close. It was fun to be with him and to serve with him for a day. We taught our guy that we have on baptismal date. We taught the Word of Wisdom and it went really well. He said that he has tried to quit smoking in the past but couldn't. Maybe faith can help this time! He said from our lesson on, that he wouldn't smoke. We'll see how it went! 

We did a lot of teaching and street contacting at the start of the week. We tried to fit a bunch of lessons in Wednesday and Thursday. A lot just ended up not coming or cancelling. So we were mostly just on the streets. But it was good to have a few good hours to contact both days. We had MLC (missionary leadership conference) this past weekend. It was in a little hotel kind of a thing outside of Prague. It is owned by a member here and we had the whole place to ourselves. We planned for a good solid 8 hours about what we can do in the upcoming year and in the upcoming trainings. It was pretty long but needed to be done.

We stayed the night there on Friday and then on Saturday, we had a great training on how we can better work with members and how members can be better missionaries. The ward mission leaders from wards and branches were invited and it was really cool. There were some really good insights as well. Specifically we talked about 3 things that members can do better: 1) Members can more often use religious words and phrases in everyday life. That can spark interest when we talk to our friends. 2) When our friends ask "You believe in God?” we can respond, "Yes I do! It is great. Why do you ask?" 3) When we invite people to learn more about our church, let them know before you ask them that you still want to be friends no matter if they say no or yes. That way if your friend feels uncomfortable about religion, they know that even if they say no, you can still be friends. I know that member missionary work is the most effective way! Everyone has friends that are prepared to receive the gospel! 

Yesterday we also had a cool experience. Bishop invited us over for dinner and we went caroling with their family for an hour or two. It was really fun and reminded me of my family! Overall, a great week!

I got all of the packages and the one from Thanksgiving! Thank you! That Christmas tree of all the pictures was probably one of the best things I have gotten on my mission :) 

Love you! 

Elder Shirley