Our mission President generated a finding by faith program to replace what missionaries had been doing for the past years.. knocking doors. It prioritizes activities and gives guidance on how to most efficiently handle situations involving members, less active members, non members, investigators, recent converts and so on with an emphasis on finding new families to teach. unfortunately it's not being implemented very effectively throughout the mission.
I did an exchange on Wednesday with Elder Olsen. We stayed in my area, south side San Antonio, and we both had about 2 and a half weeks of experience. Elder Ware took my car (I'm actually not authorized to drive cars yet) so we biked all day. I really like the bikes. When I sit in a car all day I can't talk to all the people that I pass by, but on a bike I can talk to everyone. Way more effective. But it also takes a long time to get from appointment to appointment.
Anyway, Elder Olsen and I sat down and began to plan out our day. Then five minutes later we were still staring at empty planners. Elder Olsen and I and our lack of general mission know-how made us very reliant on the guidance of the spirit: which is the founding principle of finding by faith. The result was direct guidance toward 6 families who were all receptive of our message. Three of those families are now progressing and some of those first lessons were all in Spanish. I was really happy about it.
On the way to one appointment I drove by a house and thought, "Let's talk to that family."
I drove on, but after a minute or so I decided we'd better turn back and we ended up finding a great family.
Really quick again, a returning less active asked me, "Why does it have to be hard? I don't want it to be hard." He was referring to the process of becoming like a little child and following Christ. it struck me as odd and I thought of scriptures like Ether 12:6. I did some more reading and I was led to first Nephi and the Lehi's vision. He described a concourse of people all making their way to the tree of life. These people had all kept their first estate. They commenced toward the path leading to the tree but then a dark mist surrounded them. The mist is interpreted to be the temptations of the devil. First peter chapter 1 verse 6 the Greek translation for temptation is affliction and trials. If this applies, then people get lost on their way to Eternal Life by temptations of all sorts and hardship that is prominent in this world.
When we as missionaries teach the analogy of Christ's Gospel as a gate that leads to a path which ultimately ends at the Celestial Kingdom. Baptism is the gate and the path is having faith, repenting and persevering to the end. What we don't always talk about and I realized that we should is that there's a rod of Iron all along the path leading to the Kingdom of God. The rod of Iron is that Word of God - his commandments. Ultimately, our being blinded by the mist of darkness in this world forces us to cling firmly to the word of God and to hold tight as we walk with the only thing that gives us direction a vast and blinded world.
I've got a rope between myself and the Bar and I'm walking around this vast world grabbing people by the hand and pulling them back to the rod, so they can have that solid support which gives them direction and purpose. A last thought is that the only way we can know if we're moving the right way is if we can feel it. They vast world is filled of dark mist, temptation, affliction and trial, but if we feel grounded in obedience, if we are compelled to do good, if we feel god's love then we know we are moving in the right direction. Nothing we can see will change that. We can't see God's Kingdom and our walking there, but we can feel it.
Feel that Iron Rod, and cling to it as you walk to the Mansions on High!
I love you!!!
Elder Tyler Meidell
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