23 June 2014

"Other lessons taught?"

"We had three this week."

"Progressing Investigators?"

"One."

"How about referrals from members?"

"Five."

"WHAT!? Geez, how are you doing that!?"

That priceless reaction from my District Leader felt really good during Weekly Reports yesterday. Visiting active members doesn't contribute directly to numbers in missionary work, but despite this, our efforts are paying off. As it says in Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service states that we should "ask everyone for referrals!". However, as we've focused instead on each member's personal conversion, they've given us the names of their friends and family without any prompt from us. This tells me that when members start to trust the missionaries, the work will hasten automatically. Miracles will happen. These are some of the most referrals I've ever received on my mission. The last few weeks have been spectacular on this front.

One other major success we've had is in helping members do their responsibility to do Home Teaching. Taiwanese church members do not seem to have a thorough understanding of the purpose of Home Teaching. Most members think it is a monthly visit to another member where you read an article from a church magazine. When all the people they visit are less-active, you can see how an assignment like this can be a little daunting.

So, this week we set up a family and invited their Home Teachers to come along with us to get to know them. We asked him to share with the family what the purpose of Home Teaching was. He talked about the usual procedure of Home Teaching, and we expanded on it by talking about how Home Teaching is a Priesthood duty, or a way to help the members of the ward grow closer together and be strengthened.

Well, I guess he liked what was shared, because he went out on his own and visited all the rest of his less-active members that he was assigned to visit, and even brought one of them to church with him. He later shared in Elders Quorum that despite that he is in the Elders Quorum Presidency, last week was his first time Home Teaching. He also said that through that first visit he came to understand that Home Teaching was about making friends with the other members and administering to their needs. "I love Home Teaching!" This was very exciting to see for us, and we are working on helping the rest of the Home Teaching companionships get to know their assigned families.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

-Elder Jorgensen