This week was amazing! We were in Oklahoma City till Friday night!
Each day this week while we were in our LTM (Leadership Training Meeting) in the City we talked about two of the following topics and it was amazing!
1. Doctrine of Christ
2. Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion
3. Revelation through The Book of Mormon
4. Revelation through Church Attendance
5. Revelation through Prayer
6. Teach People, Not Lessons
7. How to begin Teaching
8. We Invite, They Commit, We Follow up
I learned that I need to always seek learning from the Holy Ghost. President Taylor told us to split our papers in half and on the right to put things that the Spirit was teaching and on the left any other notes that we wanted to take. After I left the LTM (Leadership Training Meeting) and looked back on my notes I realized how much more significant the notes on the right were to me. I learned a lot of things that I needed in order to be a better missionary, things that I needed to do to better help the people in Woodward, and I also learned doctrinal things that were important for me to understand.
The Spirit taught me a lot this week. I have been wondering for a long time why it seemed that people who committed serious sins seemed to have a deeper connection with the Savior and a stronger testimony of the Atonement. So I had always half wondered about how that could be, and how that pertains to someone like me who hasn't committed serious sin. When President Taylor was speaking about the Doctrine of Christ I learned/realized that pain doesn't exalt us. Suffering for sin doesn't exalt us. The telestial kingdom is for those that suffer for their own sins. Also independence doesn't exalt us. It's only asking for the Saviors help and "doing all we can" which is having faith, repenting, being baptized, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That's what it means when it says "after all we can do."
I also finally have a sense of what a "broken heart & contrite spirit" means. A broken heart means a willing heart--just like after a horse is broken it can help with the work. When our hearts are broken, we are able to help with the Lord's work because we are willing to be directed. A contrite spirit is being willing to ask for help, and knowing that we need to rely on the Lord.
A new method that is being used in missionary work is something my mission president calls "Real Play." We pray and then one of the missionaries takes on the role of an investigator, really trying to empathize and understand the feelings and concerns of the person we are teaching, all hopefully through inspiration. The other missionary asks inspired questions, listens in love, discerns in the Spirit, and teaches the doctrine that is applicable to whatever the concerns of the person are. Anyway, while we were doing this we were teaching about prayer. I said several things about prayer that I had never thought about--that prayer is a gift for us to be able to feel close to our Heavenly Father, because He is always there for us; prayer allows us to feel that closeness. After I saw that that didn't really click with our investigator's concerns, the Spirit told me "that was for you." I am so grateful to be able to teach the gospel because as I am teaching I learn so much that I need, not just what the investigator needs. I love being taught by the Spirit!
Saturday we had checked on people and then went tracting. We talked with a couple for a while teaching about prophets and the restoration. As soon as we mentioned Joseph Smith, the husband flipped out, and turned from a calm accepting person to yelling at us pointing his finger at us and telling us that Joseph Smith was a liar and a false prophet and that he was in hell right now and that we were going to hell as well. And that he read the Book of Mormon and that it was "nauseating." Sister Grant and I just listened and then bore our testimonies that we knew what we knew through the power of the Holy Ghost. We commented that he was very emotional about what he was saying. And he seemed to realize how crazy he had gotten and turned back into his chill accepting self and told us before we left that we had the light of Christ in our eyes and that we were doing a wonderful thing as missionaries. Well, that was my first time someone told me I was going to hell--I feel like I'm a real missionary now! ;) But in all seriousness the Spirit leaves when people yell. And the Spirit testifies of truth and I felt it leave when he started to yell at us and declare Joseph Smith was a false prophet.
The next day we were going tracting again, on that same street and we met a wonderful man who bore his testimony of prayer and relying on Heavenly Father. He shared that three days before his grandfather died he had said, "There are other sacred texts and we just need the right man who is guided by the Lord" to bring them out. And we were able to share with him that the right man had been chosen of the Lord and we got to share about the Book of Mormon with him. It was a wonderful experience where we both were "edified and rejoiced together." He strengthened our testimonies and we were able to share and add to what he knows and believes.
I love having the privilege to learn and grow and be taught by the Spirit.
Love,
Sister Jenson
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