Snippets for Relief Society 2014 :) Use search term Joseph Fielding Smith to view more for this week or for other weeks.
I'm going totally maverick with this lesson today. Every year we have a lesson on missionary work and it's a dear topic. But I've also written quite a bit for it already, for each of the last two years when this same lesson topic came up.
The section below includes resources and links to different ways of how we can do missionary work.
******
This President Snow quote which follows makes my eyes water. It is one of the most humble, simple reasons I've ever heard for why any of us should be interested in missionary work - and yet it shakes the roots of my soul.
"We dedicate our lives which we hold as not dear to us, in order that the world may understand that there is a God in the eternal worlds; in order that they may understand that God has something to do at the present time with the affairs of the children of men. The world is passing into feelings and opinions of infidelity. Even among the Christian portions of the human family, thousands and tens of thousands, though they are not willing to confess it because of being unpopular, do not believe that God has anything to do with the children of men. We have to stand forth and make sacrifices in order that that belief and knowledge may come to the children of men."
The bolded statement is absolutely true in our time today. There are committees and forums of prominent pastors and scholars of modern Christian thought who strongly believe God is fairly unreachable, disinterested and impersonal to us today. For all the saved-by-Jesus praising and fervent attackers of others' religions that they are - in general, they do not embrace the notion of a highly personal connection with God.
The idea of personal revelation, or any kind of modern revelation and having a testimony is quite foreign to them. It is one of the darkest tragedies of our time. Many a missionary can tell multiple stories of people's interest and faith being woken up, when they had them kneel and say a direct, personable, non-recited prayer to Heavenly Father for the first time. Despite whatever Christian religion they have been their whole lives. I've seen this phenomenon myself both on my mission and just recently as a ward missionary.
How close would you feel to Heavenly Father if personal revelation, personal prayer, companionship of the Holy Ghost and having a testimony were not part of your religious understanding?
Are not some of the sweetest gospel moments we have very personal ones graced by our companionship with the Holy Ghost? How much hope would there be without these moments of joy and comfort?
Despite our willingness to share whatever we can with others, we are faced with opposition and negative opinions of our faith. Often the stories people tell about us are not even true - just urban legends which persist. Others are embellished or exaggerated or out-of-balance (i.e. singular experiences which do not accurately reflect the Church, its teachings or the majority of LDS members as a whole).
Lorenzo described the same thing in his day:
"There are things about a mission which are not altogether agreeable to our young Elders. They realize that they have to sacrifice the pleasures of home, and they understand that they are going among people who will not always feel gratified at what they have to say to them..."
This can be really scary for a lot of us. The fear of not knowing what to say or not expressing it well enough in the moment keeps us from saying so much more. The following link is one of my favorite quick resources for whatever hard-to-answer question we may come across. (It is probably good to remind the sisters that it's ok to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out and get back to you.")
A lot of current, popular questions appear about the middle of the following page.
Mormonism 101: FAQ
There are so many different ways to be involved in missionary work today. With all the new missionaries sent out and countries and missions being opened, Salt Lake has told us they need all of our support.
One way to help, as we have been asked by President Monson himself in the last General Conference, is to donate to the General Mission Fund if we can. This helps fund all these new missions and missionaries. There is even a line item right on the tithing slip to donate a few extra dollars when we pay our tithing.
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On top of that, LDS.org now has a Service Mission page with interesting opportunities to serve behind the scenes which fits every time schedule. From only a few hours a month to 32 hours a week. The list of service missions available is varied and interesting. They need just about every skill you can think of and a lot of the work can be done from home. I'm a CSM myself (Church Service Missionary) and I work on the LDS.org response team for about 10 hours each week. It is very interesting, involved work. One of the best decisions I ever made! Here is the name tag I wear to church:
LDS Service Missions Page
******
Now for the best part. Maybe they timed this lesson with Elder Bednar's latest broadcast on purpose? If you haven't seen this video yet - this is the BEST prep for this month's missionary lesson EVER. It will fill you with ideas for your lesson and for your personal life. As in...I can hardly sit still when I watch this!. Actually, I was there at the Marriott Center when Elder Bednar spoke last month. It was so powerful it was overwhelming.
The link below is to the short version and there is a link on the page to the full version. I recommend both. You may even want to use a segment of the video for your class.
FLOOD THE EARTH WITH GOODNESS
If you can get your sisters visualizing themselves sharing the gospel - with some of these newest ideas - you have done an awesome service.
Good luck with this!
#ShareGoodness
I'm going totally maverick with this lesson today. Every year we have a lesson on missionary work and it's a dear topic. But I've also written quite a bit for it already, for each of the last two years when this same lesson topic came up.
After reading the lesson I decided to share some useful, never-old, practical suggestions from last year.
The section below includes resources and links to different ways of how we can do missionary work.
******
This President Snow quote which follows makes my eyes water. It is one of the most humble, simple reasons I've ever heard for why any of us should be interested in missionary work - and yet it shakes the roots of my soul.
"We dedicate our lives which we hold as not dear to us, in order that the world may understand that there is a God in the eternal worlds; in order that they may understand that God has something to do at the present time with the affairs of the children of men. The world is passing into feelings and opinions of infidelity. Even among the Christian portions of the human family, thousands and tens of thousands, though they are not willing to confess it because of being unpopular, do not believe that God has anything to do with the children of men. We have to stand forth and make sacrifices in order that that belief and knowledge may come to the children of men."
The bolded statement is absolutely true in our time today. There are committees and forums of prominent pastors and scholars of modern Christian thought who strongly believe God is fairly unreachable, disinterested and impersonal to us today. For all the saved-by-Jesus praising and fervent attackers of others' religions that they are - in general, they do not embrace the notion of a highly personal connection with God.
The idea of personal revelation, or any kind of modern revelation and having a testimony is quite foreign to them. It is one of the darkest tragedies of our time. Many a missionary can tell multiple stories of people's interest and faith being woken up, when they had them kneel and say a direct, personable, non-recited prayer to Heavenly Father for the first time. Despite whatever Christian religion they have been their whole lives. I've seen this phenomenon myself both on my mission and just recently as a ward missionary.
How close would you feel to Heavenly Father if personal revelation, personal prayer, companionship of the Holy Ghost and having a testimony were not part of your religious understanding?
Are not some of the sweetest gospel moments we have very personal ones graced by our companionship with the Holy Ghost? How much hope would there be without these moments of joy and comfort?
Despite our willingness to share whatever we can with others, we are faced with opposition and negative opinions of our faith. Often the stories people tell about us are not even true - just urban legends which persist. Others are embellished or exaggerated or out-of-balance (i.e. singular experiences which do not accurately reflect the Church, its teachings or the majority of LDS members as a whole).
Lorenzo described the same thing in his day:
"There are things about a mission which are not altogether agreeable to our young Elders. They realize that they have to sacrifice the pleasures of home, and they understand that they are going among people who will not always feel gratified at what they have to say to them..."
This can be really scary for a lot of us. The fear of not knowing what to say or not expressing it well enough in the moment keeps us from saying so much more. The following link is one of my favorite quick resources for whatever hard-to-answer question we may come across. (It is probably good to remind the sisters that it's ok to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out and get back to you.")
A lot of current, popular questions appear about the middle of the following page.
Mormonism 101: FAQ
There are so many different ways to be involved in missionary work today. With all the new missionaries sent out and countries and missions being opened, Salt Lake has told us they need all of our support.
One way to help, as we have been asked by President Monson himself in the last General Conference, is to donate to the General Mission Fund if we can. This helps fund all these new missions and missionaries. There is even a line item right on the tithing slip to donate a few extra dollars when we pay our tithing.
On top of that, LDS.org now has a Service Mission page with interesting opportunities to serve behind the scenes which fits every time schedule. From only a few hours a month to 32 hours a week. The list of service missions available is varied and interesting. They need just about every skill you can think of and a lot of the work can be done from home. I'm a CSM myself (Church Service Missionary) and I work on the LDS.org response team for about 10 hours each week. It is very interesting, involved work. One of the best decisions I ever made! Here is the name tag I wear to church:
 |
| Update - I just got released today. It's been an awesome ride. |
******
Now for the best part. Maybe they timed this lesson with Elder Bednar's latest broadcast on purpose? If you haven't seen this video yet - this is the BEST prep for this month's missionary lesson EVER. It will fill you with ideas for your lesson and for your personal life. As in...I can hardly sit still when I watch this!. Actually, I was there at the Marriott Center when Elder Bednar spoke last month. It was so powerful it was overwhelming.
The link below is to the short version and there is a link on the page to the full version. I recommend both. You may even want to use a segment of the video for your class.
FLOOD THE EARTH WITH GOODNESS
If you can get your sisters visualizing themselves sharing the gospel - with some of these newest ideas - you have done an awesome service.
Good luck with this!