This last week was pretty cool. We've been working a lot with member families lately. We've been helping some cool less-active folks come back. It's really interesting to see how people will really only remember the parts they still apply after long enough, and the rest of the gospel becomes lost to them. What our mission president is having us do is treat them like someone who isn't a member and start at the beginning of the lessons and teach them everything, inviting them to do those things which bring the spirit into their lives so that they can feel conversion again and rebuild their testimony of the church, the prophets, and most importantly the saviour. It has also been cool because it has helped us to find more part-member families and other people who haven't experienced it yet and help them to live the gospel as well.
Also, Louis finally was able to get work and everything off and will be getting baptized on August third. :) So that's really exciting. I don't get to be there, but I should be able to go when his family gets sealed :)
So with active members we've been teaching them about the value of and how to do role plays to help share the gospel. As misionaries we practice teaching or talking with people every day. One of the ways we do that is with role plays. One of us will pretend to be one of our investigators, or just a random person that fits the profile of someone we may talk to that day, and the other one is the missionary, and we practice. It's great because we come up with new ways to answer questions, and can pause and re-do things so that when the real situation comes it is fluid. Something very special about this practice is that when done in a spirit of prayer, the one who is actin often has impressions come to mind of things to say or do that show the real, hidden concerns and needs of that person, so in this way we are able to discern what the people need. A miracle I see every day is that when we do that well, we will find a similar situation, or will have found the real concerns of an investigator and already know how to answer them. This is one of the ways of "treasuring up the words of life," so that God can "in the very hour, yea in the very moment" give us the words we need. The greatest thing about it is that it applies to members who are not full time missionaries too! As people who have taken upon them the name of Christ, and covenanted to support those around them, we are all entitled to revelation as to how to share the gospel with the people we know. This is probably the easiest way to do it. We help families to think of someone they've wanted to talk to about the gospel and figure out an appropriate invitation for them, such as FHE, church, reading the Book of Mormon, talking with the missionaries, etc. Then we help them to practice extending that invitation. It is a powerful tool to add to the repertoire of even the best member missionaries, and I would suggest trying it for family home evening, and maybe even inviting the missionaries to talk about how the do it a little. One good thing that comes from it is seeing how simple and easy it can be. Many feel it has to be a big, dramatic, earth shaking moment when they invite their friend to church. It is not thus. You can be talking about the ingredients in the sandwiches you're eating, and then just mention that you'd been thinking it would be cool if they'd come to church with you one time, since you enjoy it so much, then, regardless of their answer, you can just get back to the salami. The coolest thing about the role-plays, though is that you will often know beforehand how they'll respond and already be ready to help them overcome any of the problems they might have with it.
Anyways, that's been going well. Also I made some great quiche this week. And something else too, but I don't remember what... It turns out I have retained much of the knowledge I gained at the bakery, so I'm pretty dangerous with a bag of flour haha.
Gotta go now... Love you a ton :)
until next week.
Elder Katzakian
