Sometimes I wonder what people expect me to do with their hand when they put it out for a handshake and then act like they've forgotten it's there. FISH HANDSHAKES. They are a real problem in this world. It's like, "ah this seemed like such a good idea at first but now I'm not sure if this is appropriate missionary contact.... Are we just holding hands? Is their hand broken?" You shake a lot of hands as a missionary.... I'm sure I'm not the only one that psychoanalyzes them.
This week was, as always, full of miracles! I went on exchanges with Elder Duncan, one of our zone leaders. It's always a good opportunity to go learn from someone else, even though we had a pretty unproductive day. Elder Galke and Elder season, on the other hand, were tearing it up. They ticked off a lot of people from our potentials and less active lists, got a new family of investigators, and preached to a yodeler in the projects! Perfect day, by my estimation. Something that we've been working on a lot lately is getting members to set goals regarding their own missionary work. We visited la familia Simbron, and were able to get a referral - la familia Reyes. That referral was the family Elders Galke and Seaton visited. Elder Galke said he's never had a lesson quite like it before. He said they welcomed them in and started interviewing them about the church. Are there commandments? Do you have to pay? We've already been baptized, can we get re-baptized? How long does that take? What makes your church different (you know, funny you should ask - we actually wanted to talk about just that)? Anyway. Bottom line is that they are looking like about an eleven on the 'prepared by God to hear the missionaries' scale.
We also have a couple promising potentials from this week. One of them, Isabel, we found while looking someone else up (happens a lot). Nobody answered the door, and we just decided to knock their neighbors door. Isabel opened and we had a good conversation and said we could set up an appointment. It's always comforting when you are able to see the fruits of following the Spirit. We never knock random doors because there are 8 million people in our mission and so finding the right people is definitely more of a skilled tracking endeavor rather than net fishing. Thankfully, the blood trail for the game we track is nothing more or less than the Spirit. There are little flecks of red (sometimes big, but normally little) everywhere, but they are easy to miss if you aren't walking with an eye totally single to finding them. We had good success in finding this week, more than I could relate here but "it sufficeth me to say" that the hand of the Lord is in the work. It never ceases to amaze me that people actually listen to us. Every part of the missionary work is a miracle. The amazing thing about la familia Reyes is that the Simbron's really didn't think it would work. They gave us their names as a referral but it was clear they didn't really think that anything would come of it. But thanks to that a whole family is going to receive the gospel. We have high hopes for them.
I invite everyone to make goals about missionary work. We are giving members a sheet with three categories - baptism, sacrament attendance, and temple attendance, and asking them to put solid numbers in every category as goals for the next year, with specific names to back them up. I invite every member who is reading this to do the same. Pray about the goals. Find out what numbers and names your Heavenly Father wants you to put, and have the faith to follow even the slightest promptings. "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor" D&C 88:81. If you have any concerns, tell them to the missionaries. They will help you overcome doubts about missionary work. When we are afraid of boldly inviting people to come unto Christ, it is because we are forgetting what our message is. We are inviting owes to take of the most precious fruit. What greater love and friendship could we show? These things I say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Ps: transfers are tomorrow and our whole district is staying. Kind of unusual.
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