April 7, 2014

Hello Everyone! Man this week was incredible! I feel like not even very much happened but it was packed full! We hit Standards of Excellence again this week! We got 3 news, 9 lessons with a Member Present, 3 people with baptism dates and 2 of them came to church! So things are definitely working out well with out investigators! Also our ward is amazing! We had a ward activity this weekend. Lets start with that.

So it was on Friday at 6:30. We came up with 2 names for it: "Who Wants To Be A Missionary" or "Are You Smarter Than A Missionary". So the ward showed up at 6:30 and we had pulled pork sandwiches. At 7:15, they split up into 2 different classrooms. In one classroom was Elder Mora and I as well as Sisters Houston and Yarbarough. In the other room was Elders Ginn and Williamson as well as Sisters Rockwood and Magneson. Me, Mora, Houston and Yarbarough taught what we call the "Commissary Commitment" and the other Elders and Sisters taught the "Willing and Brief". Both of these are ways to invite people to learn about the church. We split it up this way so that each of the classrooms got taught both ways to invite people. The "Willing and Brief" is basically an invitation saying "Would you be willing to listen to a brief message about _________ (use any subject in the church. i.e. Prophets, Jesus Christ, etc.) from some _______ (use adjectives here. i.e. Awesome, Fantastic, etc.) missionaries?" It is really simple to use and helps people be more open to sharing the Gospel with others. The "Commissary Commitment" starts off with 1st Nephi 8:12. This is the Tree of Life vision and in this verse, it is talking about Lehi partaking of the fruit and the joy it brought to his soul and he wanted to share it with other people. He could have been like, "Look at this tree. Isn't it pretty? Come to it." but I feel like it was more like, "Look at this tree! And this fruit! Here, take this and see for yourself and experience this same joy I had!" Therefore, the fruit was his tool in sharing the Gospel. Having a tool makes sharing the Gospel much easier! So we brought up what makes people happy in the Gospel and they said things like "The focus on family, the Priesthood, a Prophet, knowing God has a plan for me" and so on. Amazingly enough, missionaries have pamphlets that cover almost every topic that was stated that brought joy! We also have copies of the Book of Mormon and copies of "The Family: A Proclamation To The World". We demonstrated how you would give a piece of commissary to someone and using it as a tool to help them want to learn more about the church. This coupled with the "Willing and Brief" is an amazingly simple way to invite people to learn about the church! We handed out the pieces of commissary they wanted to hand out with the deal that whatever they took, they had to give out. We then told them a story. A man is in the middle of the ocean and can’t see land in any direction. After just not very long, he will lose hope and just accept defeat. But if he sees an island, he will be much more determined to row! That island is a goal for him. When we have goals in life, it helps us be more determined to reach our potential and gives us a reason to try harder. So we then challenged them to invite someone to learn from the missionaries by April 20th. That is Easter Sunday. They accepted with enthusiasm! Then we combined together and played a game of trivia to help the members see that they know a lot of what the missionaries teach already and that missionary work isn't hard. It was to show them that when they come out with us, they can put in their two cents and hopefully more! To finish the night off, President Killpack and Sister Killpack came and talked with everyone about missionary work too. They explained that people will say no. But that the purpose of a missionary is to INVITE, not force. We are successful as we invite and we leave it up to people to use their agency to accept our invitation. It was perfect! THEN in conference, one of the General Authorities invited EVERYONE to invite 4 people to listen to the missionaries a year. If everyone did so, that would be 60 million people invited EVERY YEAR! That is insane!!! But wouldn't it be absolutely amazing?! So the ward party was a success and everyone loved it! President and Sister Killpack texted us and said that they thought we did really good with it and it was awesome! WOOT!!!

Conference was awesome!!! I wish that I had brought my notes with me though cause then I could share my favorite talks with you! I will be going over them again as soon as I get the ensign for next month! But i absolutely loved it! My Favorite sessions were the very first one and Priesthood session. We unfortunately missed the first talk of the last session on Sunday. We missed Elder Packers talk... I was told that it was amazing though!! One of the members said that it sounded like Elder McConkie’s last testimony. They are worried this could have been his last as well... I sure hope not! Elder Hales looked really sick too... But some of the things that I do remember is when Elder Holland said that he knew that Jesus Christ lived more surely than he knew that he was standing in front of us today. WOW!!!! Then when President Eyring was talking about Heroes, he mentioned that we are all heroes to those around us, especially in our quorums. Boys, you are examples to so many people around you. At school, at church, even at sports there are people watching you who look up to you and watch your every move to be like you. Don't let them down. You have a lot of responsibility! I loved Elder Oaks talk in Priesthood session and I loved Elder Donald L. Hallstrom's talk right after Elder Oaks. Both were amazing!! Apparently, there women protesting not being able to get into the priesthood session. They received a letter from the First Presidency encouraging them to watch it on t.v. or on the internet. When someone talked to one of the main protesters after the session, she said this, "I liked it a lot but there wasn't really anything that applied to me." WELL DUH!!! That is because the Priesthood Session is for MEN to come learn how to be better PRIESTHOOD HOLDERS!!! That is why it is called "Priesthood Session" Not "Late Sunday Night Session for EVERYONE"... That was my little rant for the day :)

We met this guy named Sam this week! We went to go see Amidah but she wasn't home at all this week... so one day as we were walking down the stairs from her apartment, we looked up and saw a picture of Jesus in someone’s window. But not just any picture, one that the church specifically puts out! So we went over and knocked on the door and he had over like 50 pictures of and quotes about Jesus Christ in his front room alone. It is AWESOME!!! So we started to teach him the Restoration and he loved it! Hopefully we get to meet with him again soon. We are scheduled for this Tuesday for 3:00. Wish us luck!

Thank you for the package this week as well! It was exactly what I needed :) I will talk to you guys on skype soon!!!

~Elder Kyle Harris

p.s. this upcoming week is transfers already....!!! So I won't be emailing till Tuesday. :) LOVE YOU!!