Monday, March 17, 2014

Four-Leaf, Four Questions

This week we had Fellowship of the Jedi Conference (where all the leaders come together from all corners of the country to learn how to be better missionaries for a day). It was AWESOME. We're doing this questionnaire now. It has four questions:

1 Do you think there are serious problems in the world today? 

2 Do you think it'd be a good idea to have the help of God today? 

3 Do you think it'd be a good idea if God talked today through prophets like he used to do? 

4 If God talked to us today, would you want to know what He said? 

President and the assistants presented it to everyone, then we all went out and practiced it for two hours! Oh my gosh it was wonderful. Imagine 35 missionaries all with this new tool that their President who they love just told them is what we're going to throw our whole hearts into for contacting. We were on fire. One missionary (Elder Dean, who is crazy.) got on the five-oclock rushhour-packed metro, stretched his arms out, and yells, "Hello everybody! Don't be afraid!!! We are the Mormon missionaries and we have some questions for you!" And then the group of 15 missionaries just went around from person to person ministering and loving and finding people ready to be taught. (Hahaha, they did say though that people were really afraid at first. Men reached over to protect their wives, etc. Never know what's gonna happen on the metros :) We're having fun with it. I don't know what it is but something about the questionnaire opens people up to actually talking about their feelings instead of feeling defensive right away.


So Sister Luthi and I are using only the questionnaire from now on in contacting and it's changing everything. We talk to way less people everyday, but the people we talk to actually want to see us again. They invite us over to talk to them about religion. One guy this week said he didn't believe in God at all and hated talking about religion, but because i had this questionnaire and because he was a nice guy he said he'd anwer the questions. With no effort on my part, he opened up about his family and how hard it is to raise children in this world and so forth. And when we got off the bus, he said, "I live right over there. Would you ilke to come over sometime to talk to me about religion and God?" And then on the busride back from there, I talked with a teenager who was atheist, but one question led to another, and I felt like I should ask him if there was a God who was all powerful and could do anything for him because He loved him, what he would ask God to do. He laughed and said, "To have blue eyes instead of brown." And then he got serious and paused for a long time, then turned to me and said, "To be able to see people again who have died. My mom's brother committed suicide when I was a child. I only have a few memories of him. I'd really like to see him again because I think he has things he could teach me." We're teaching him tonight.

An update on our delightful Catholic Buddhist ami: she came to church on Sunday and about died she was so delighted by everything. I have never seen anyone, member or nonmember, enjoy church so much. She was "ravi" by everything--the songs, the children, how much everyone smiled. And she was so concerned about doing things the right way. When I was taking her to meet the bishop, she said, "What do I call him?! Mon frere? Mon pere?! (like in the Catholic church) Monsieur??" Hahaha, "Nope, just by his name." And then she got to talk to President Roney for a little bit because he's in our ward and she loved that, oh my word. I guess the whole way home she was telling the member she went with how much she liked it. 

She is the epitome of sunshine. She fed us lunch this week and just bopped around serving us and talking to us about the adventures she's had in her life.

That's all I have time for. I love you so much! Read Ether 12: 4. The gospel is simple. Believe in Christ, then go be happy and do good.



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