September 22, 2011

Today was not scheduled as tightly. I had some missionary interviews in the morning, a baptismal interview in the afternoon, and a District Council Training meeting at 7pm. Elder Syphus picked me up at 9:15 and we drove to the Church for the missionary interviews. I had some time beforehand to get caught up some on e-mail items and I worked on some ideas I had for presentation to the District Counsel. The missionary interviews went well. After Elder Syphus brought me back to the hotel for lunch, I spent more time responding to e-mails and getting some requests out to the assistants. I had received a voicemail from Elder Hamula (our Area President) asking for documentation on two callings. I found that documentation and sent it to him. He had also mentioned that he was leaving to go to Salt Lake City for General Conference tomorrow at noon. I decided I had better follow up also on a request I had submitted for two additional trucks. I felt like I was almost nagging the Executive Secretary on this request but I also knew that if the Area Presidency was going to be gone for conference there would be little approved in their absence. I succeeded in getting their attention and even an assurance from Elder Hamula that he would follow up in SLC on the requests . I also did some research in the Church Handbook to prepare for a situation I was expecting to come up sometime this weekend. Elder Syphus picked me up mid-afternoon to take me across town for a baptismal interview. We met Elder Stilson and Elder Ulivaka near their apartment. They took us to their investigator where we began with a song and a prayer. They then excused themselves while I met with their investigator. The interview went very well. She asked me some good questions and seemed satisfied with my responses. I asked her the baptismal questions and was very impressed with her preparation and testimony. Everyone was very pleased as we finished up with a closing song and prayer. Elder Syphus took me by the mission office on the way back to the hotel in order for me to finally get a missionary handbook in French. I got back and took some time to prepare for the meeting at 7pm this evening. Elder and Sister Syphus picked us up at 6:15. I learned that Elder Tarati of the Seventy was staying at our same hotel and he and President Moutham had just left to go to the meeting. I had prepared about 10 minutes of spiritual thought and 10 minutes of review of missionary work efforts since the beginning of the year. We had prepared some graphs for the missionaries at zone conference that showed such items and number of baptisms by week throughout 2011, number of investigators with a baptismal date (by week), number of investigators attending sacrament meeting each week throughout the year, average number of lessons taught with a member present, average number of total lessons taught each week, and finally the number of new investigators found each week. My point in showing them these charts (including a table with the name of each convert and the branch they attend) was to help the members of the District Council feel good about the level of missionary work being done in the District is substantial and we are seeing very good success this year. I told them that we had twice as many baptisms this year to the 22nd of September as we had last year at the same date. I told them that the missionaries have a goal to get enough baptisms throughout the remainder of the year to achieve twice as many baptisms for the whole year as the number achieved last year.

I also shared a spiritual thought first focusing on D&C 50:13-22 and how important it is for both the teacher and the student to be prepared and have the spirit when a lesson is taught. I then reviewed portions of 3 Nephi 11. We read verses 3-7 and how the description of the Father’s voice was similar to that of the Holy Ghost. We read verses 29-30 as I taught them how important it was not to have contention in our relationship with others. My point was that the first principle taught by the Savior when he came to the American Continent was that contention is not of Him but is of the devil. I tried to tie this to the importance of having the Spirit with you when you teach and when you come to learn. This need for the Spirit underlines our need to avoid contention in order to always have His Spirit to be with us.
Elder Tarati gave a wonderful message about his testimony of the First Vision and its profound meaning. He told of his conversion at age 18. He told of his experience in many Church callings and the importance of being engaged in the missionary effort. He suggested that when Heavenly Father came down to visit Joseph Smith we were all there and cheered as he did that. He suggested that we all promised that we would go down and help bring the message of the restoration of the world. He also shared the following analysis of D&C 4:2:
Heart Love, charity, compassion, relationships
Might Power, priesthood, spirituality, influence
Mind Intellect, knowledge, training,
Strength Physical, health, wisdom, Hygiene

He explained that when we serve Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength represents 4 ways we can be an influence on our fellowman. He suggested that we need to have a balance in all 4 areas of effort but that the heart comes first. If we don’t show our fellowman that we love them, we will seldom be allowed to help them further.
We got home by around 9:15 and felt we had a good solid day but not one that was quite so jammed full of things to be done.