HEY HEY HEY!
How's everything been? Things here are super good for me on the
Canadian front! We are starting to see some wonderful things and are
picking up the pace with the Work! The Lord has placed some super
prepared people in our paths and we are seeing the fruits
of it for sure! Its been super awesome! This one day we were just so
sick of not having investigators haha I mean, every single one we found
would bail on us and it would just turn super sour and not work out at
all... so from there we just went and tracted
some apartments.. there we found some decent people nothing special and
found this lady who wasn't interested but told us to go upstairs to her
friend.. so we go up there and met Sarah. She is like the most solid
person in the world! She is looking for a church
for her son, and is really trying to understand Gods purpose with
everything... I mean.. incredible person! Its been really great to teach
her and to get people in there to meet her, but we are really looking
forward to what the future has in store for her
and her son Christopher! As well we went down a couple floors and found
this guy named Chris.. He is just looking for a peace of mind and
conscience and everything! It was like a testimony in itself that the
Lord is really preparing people to receive the Truth
of this Gospel. Its been super fun just running around and working our
hardest but at the same time really focusing on what the Zone needs and
trying to get them to feel the blessings of working hard. The Zone has
taken a HUGE step forward and has maintained
the Growth that has been established since E' Bramwell and I arrived.
Its great to see the zone average 50 new investigators a week and have
plenty of them progressing towards baptism. I love to see what the Lord
is doing and how He works!
Zone training meeting this week was great. For the opening portion
of the meeting, Elder Bramwell and I instructed on how to set expectations
with investigators of coming to church three times before they can be
baptized, prior to picking a specific baptismal
date. In order to demonstrate this to the zone, Elder Bramwell and I
bought a bag of candy and held it up at the beginning of the
demonstration. We asked Elder Hewitt (one of our District Leaders from
England) to come up. Once he was up, we asked if he wanted
the bag of candy, in which he responded Yes. We told him that he would
have to run around the pews in the chapel a few times and we would give
it to him. Being Elder Hewitt, he said never mind and sat down :P. So we
asked for a volunteer and Elder Williams,
who has only been in the mission field for two weeks, threw his hand up
with greenie fire. As he came up, we gave the same instructions. Elder
Williams ran around the pews twice and then stopped with expectations of
receiving the candy. I turned to Elder Bramwell
confused and asked him if we forgot anything. Elder Bramwell quickly
remembered that we meant for him to do it three times. So off Elder
Williams went, running around the pews three times. When he returned, we
forgot one more thing. On the second round, he
was suppose to do it backwards.We repeated this process, two or three
more times. Hoping on one leg, counterclockwise, and crawling. In some
ways good, some ways bad...Elder Williams did anything we asked for the
bag of candy, however it was frustrating that
we kept changing the requirements.This demonstration represents how
missionaries often set baptismal dates. Often times, the investigator
will have no clue that they need to come to church three times before
they can be baptized. Investigators will select a
specific date for baptism, and then are disappointed in the weeks to
come to find out that because of scheduling conflicts or previous
arrangements they cannot make it to church and then are disappointed at
the fact that they cant be baptized. Then the date
needs to be reset and will most likely be soft. It was good because
Elder Williams kept going and was "elect" in the sense that whatever
changed in the equation, he was willing to comply so he could receive
the incentive. However, it was bad because it did not
truly represent how normal investigators would act. If we as
missionaries kept changing the expectations, they would give up and quit
just as Elder Hewitt did, because in their mind, the reward is not
worth the effort. We should instead, let the investigator
know of the church attendance requirement, and then pick a baptismal
date that works with them.The zone loved it and brought some good energy
to start off the meeting! The rest of it turned out really well and
it helped set the tone for the rest of it. My favorite
part about all of those meetings is when I get the chance to bear
my testimony at the end. I really know that what we share has changed my
life.
I really love being a missionary its the greatest thing ever. I
hope you all are well.. I'm sorry if my letters suck, I'll be honest my
desire to write them is pretty low hahah I love you still I promise!
Forever and Always,
Elder B. Beyer
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