Farewell talk.. Member Missionary Work
I would like to start with the story of a convert. In 1996, this lady had first met the missionaries with her ex-husband and had taken some of the discussions for a bit and later had been further exposed to the gospel by her brother and sister who were both converts. She had been to plenty events but didn't want to be pressured into joining the church. Later in june 2003, she started to date a LDS gentleman who would answer a lot of questions she had about the church. At some point she had felt the spirit very strongly and had asked to go to stake conference with him, and later ended up going to church with him every sunday. They were married on january 31 of 2004 and she asked to start taking the discussions again. She also was talking with a friend from relief society who had taken over a year to convert. Finally, while reading the scriptures, she had gotten a very strong impression from the spirit that she needed to be baptized. On August 5 of 2004 Nedra Fae Zambrana (but my sisters and I call her grandma) was baptized into the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.
Even though she had seen the missionaries before, it was the love and patience of her family and friends that helped her to become interested in learning more about the gospel. In fact most people who want to learn about the gospel have some sort of connection to the members. These people see the happiness and peace that the church brings us and want to know how to get it for themselves.
In the scriptures, god commands us to preach to his children. For example; in (D&C 4:1–2.) it says, “Now behold a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.” god also compelled our prophet to remind us of the importance of reaching out to others. President Thomas S. Monson has said: “Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together … [and] labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work.”1 Being a representative of jesus christ does not just involve setting a good example, it also means that we need to encourage and invite others to take part in the gospel.
In his October 2016 general conference talk, Dallin H. Oaks gave three steps to help with sharing the gospel. The first being to pray with a real desire to help in the work of salvation. Pray for your missionaries and the people around you.
The second step is to keep the commandments. Not only do we need to set a good example for the gospel. Those who keep the commandments will have the spirit with them. The spirit is essential for missionary work. The spirit is what testifies of the truth and helps people gain testimonies. People who are living the gospel are more open to receiving personal revelation.
The third and final step he gave was to pray for inspiration on what we can do personally to bring the gospel to others. Elder dallin H. Oaks also recommended that we pray with a commitment to act on any revelation or impressions we receive.
I would add one more step; to speak with real love. In my opinion, the biggest part of member missionary work is to be a friend to everyone around you. In the scriptures, when Jesus was healing, teaching and serving; he wasn't trying to reach a daily quota. (it wasn't like he healed five guys a day and then turned in his work to the heavenly office, haha) He was doing it out of love for his brothers and sisters. A good missionary works for the same reason. Almost half of all the talks i've ever listened to, involve a person who no one really knew until someone decided to make friend, then it turns out that they are a wonderful person. Even just talking to someone new while at church if a form of missionary work. After all one of jesus’s biggest commandments is to love one another; and it was the love that the sister missionaries had for their investigators that cemented my decision to go on a mission.
Around the end of my senior year of high school, I had started to seriously think about what to do with my life. I was mostly looking at the people i looked up to as for what I should do next. A lot of them were preparing for missions and i had always thought about going on one in high school. I had wanted to know if it was a good choice for me to go. Even as I was working on my papers, i didn't have a clear answer until i started going out with the sister missionaries to meet with investigators. As I watched them teach these people and help answer their questions, little by little i felt like i needed to go and serve a mission. It took me a bit, but eventually the spirit got it through my thick skull that i needed to go out and serve as a missionary.
The one thing i noticed, during the lessons with the sisters, was that the spirit always seemed to come when the investigators had a question. I know that these missionaries were blessed to be able to answer these peoples questions; that the holy ghost was helping them remember what they had learned about the gospel. God has promised that those who diligently study his word and follow his commandments can be made stronger by him. “If men come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27.)
TESTIMONY
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