Missionary Work Part 2 - Online missionary work Gospel Principles Lesson

A couple more thoughts on missionary work:

Preaching through the web

Since I'm writing a blog on the scriptures and my experiences at church, it's pretty likely that I believe in this topic. However, I didn't believe in this in the past. I used to think that if members did things on the internet it would be more likely that they would think that their internet efforts were all that they needed to do, and that would be enough. Then they wouldn't proactively think about talking to people about the church.

I now think that if you're thinking about missionary work enough to do things on the internet involving the church, you're probably thinking about the church more often, and are therefore more likely to do missionary work in all parts of your life.

A great place for missionary work on the internet is actually mormon.org. My brother who returned home from his mission last month reinforced this by sharing the following story:

They had been teaching a lady in one of their areas who was married to a less-active Mormon and was a strong Baptist most of her life. She had a tough time believing in some of the fundamental doctrines of the church that did not coincide with what she learned as a Baptist. However, she was slowly progressing. One day, she started the lesson by saying, "I'm 97% sure that the church is true." What! That's some very fast progress. What happened? She replied, "I went onto mormon.org and found myself. There was a girl there who was raised Baptist and explained how she came to be converted. In particular she explained how she overcame the obstacle of not believing the Book of Mormon. It really helped me understand the need to pray about the Book of Mormon in a sincere manner. I did it for the first time (even though she had told the elders in the past that she was praying about the Book of Mormon), and I believe it's a true book."

She was baptized a few weeks later.

Everyone put yourself on mormon.org. It's not too hard to do. I really see the value in investigators being able to find someone like them. And, obviously converts from other churches have a powerful story to tell that can help converts from those same churches. (In fact, in my internet searches I've found that there are "ex-Mormon now Catholic websites, but the sheer number of our converts from all churches and walks of life would easily overwhelm those stories, but it's important to have a great database of all convert stories so that people aren't left to only have the negative stories that do exist on the internet). However, I think everyone has some unique things in their backgrounds and have unique conversion stories and unique testimony development, that each individual can help someone else with their conversion story. For instance, my wife and I have had very different testimony processes. But, I don't think either of our testimonies is weaker than the other. Also, I could see someone interested in learning about the church from a person who played community college basketball, or was from the same small hometown, or speaks Spanish, or worked at a strategy consulting firm, or grew up on a dairy farm, or lived in Central America, or has two kids, or lives in the Bay Area, or works at a startup in internet technology. Each of those is true about me, and my wife has many other characteristics that make her testimony unique and her story interesting to someone who finds similarities in backgrounds.

So, please post your profile to mormon.org and consider other ways you can fill the internet with light.

Here's a great video in which Dave Neeleman, a prominent church member (founder of Jet Blue) explains the value of internet missionary work.

http://vimeo.com/7648556

Missionary Work Part 1 - Gospel Principles

I'm teaching the lesson on Missionary Work this week in Elders Quorum, and I'm excited about it. This is a topic I have thought about in the recent past in part due to my brother's mission, but mostly due to my Ward Mission Leader calling in my previous ward.

I don't have too much time, but here's a few things I learned from the manual today and some thoughts I have.

One section focused on the technological advances that help make missionary work and the rest of the work of the Lord possible. Joseph F. Smith has a somewhat bold quote saying that the reason for all technology advances is the restoration of the gospel. While that may seem extreme to some, he also makes the point that he doesn't believe it's due to men being smarter now than in the past. I agree with that. There's got to be a compelling reason why technology is advancing, and "people are just smarter now" doesn't seem like a strong argument.

One thing that's cool is that in 1988 the church released a computer program that had the scriptures on them. That's pretty remarkable. The church is very progressive in terms of technology. Not many people had computers in 1988 and the church already had a program to help them learn the gospel better.

A few good quotes from the announcement article:

From Elder Packer: If the Saints understand the scriptures, the doctrines taught in the Church will be purer and surer. Gospel perspective will grow. Testimonies will increase. There will be greater devotion and dedication to the Lord.

Elder Nelson: We are blessed to be living in such an exciting gospel dispensation. God is inspiring the minds of great people to create inventions that further the work of the Lord in ways this world has never known. I recall the statement by Joseph Fielding Smith:

Elder Packer: There is no better way to make sense out of life than to gain a knowledge of gospel doctrines. When we understand those doctrines, we have cause to rejoice and we do rejoice, even celebrate.

Elder Nelson: I, too, have a strong testimony of the divinity of the scriptures. I pray that the Lord will grant us entrance into them and that, when we enter therein, we will know that we stand on holy ground.

I love the last Elder Nelson quote. It best expresses why I feel different when I read the scriptures. They are divine.

More tomorrow :)

More Senior Couples now able to serve missions

President Monson made a call for more senior couple missionaries at the last conference. Here's his remarks:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/as-we-meet-together-again?lang=eng

And now to you mature brothers and sisters: we need many, many more senior couples. To the faithful couples now serving or who have served in the past, we thank you for your faith and devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You serve willingly and well and accomplish great good.

To those of you who are not yet to the season of life when you might serve a couples mission, I urge you to prepare now for the day when you and your spouse might do so. As your circumstances allow, as you are eligible for retirement, and as your health permits, make yourselves available to leave home and give full-time missionary service. There are few times in your lives when you will enjoy the sweet spirit and satisfaction that come from giving full-time service together in the work of the Master.

Considering those words, the following announcement isn't surprising, but is definitely welcome:

http://lds.org/church/news/changes-in-senior-missionary-rules?lang=eng

Two potential barriers to serving a mission are 1) the length of the time commitment, and 2) the cost. The church is addressing both of these with the new policies. Couple missionaries can now serve 6, 12, 18, or 23 month missions. In the past, if you were serving in a foreign country, missions were at least 18 months. Now, as long as the couple pays transportation to and from the foreign country, the mission can be as short as 6 months. In addition, there's a cap on housing costs. Couples now will never pay more than $1400 US for rent/utilities. If couples are from outside these regions: United States, Canada, western Europe, Japan, and Australia they will be expected to pay only up to their ability to pay and never more than $1400. If from those regions, they are asked to pay up to $1400.

I look forward to going on missions with Jamie. I'm excited that more couples will be able to go as a result of this change. In addition, more couples will be able to serve wherever most needed rather than where they are able to afford.

Have a great day.

Priesthood Blessings - How do we know what to say?

Today one of the counselors in our EQ presidency gave a terrific message. He gave an outstanding lesson 4 months ago, so when I saw him get up today, I knew it would also be good. I made sure to stay close enough to listen even though Daniel was walking all over the place, like always (lately).

He said that his 16-year-old son asked him, "Dad, how do you know what to say in a blessing?" a few weeks ago which led to some thought and the decision to teach the lesson on this topic.

It was a great lesson. He borrowed a lot from Elders Oaks' talk given in the April 2010 conference on healing the sick. http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/healing-the-sick?lang=eng

Elder Oaks mentions 5 components to a blessing, all of which are important:

There are five parts to the use of priesthood authority to bless the sick: (1) the anointing, (2) the sealing of the anointing, (3) faith, (4) the words of the blessing, and (5) the will of the Lord.

A few thoughts that came out of the lesson:

1) a reason for the oil is it represents the blessings of the Lord being poured out on us

2) the sealing is to help the anointing accomplish what it is supposed to accomplish; it is not really connected to the words of the blessing

3) the faith of the person being blessed is the critical component in the blessing; for this reason it normally makes sense for the person being blessed to ask for the blessing; if they believe in the Savior and ability to heal, they will always be healed (assuming the will of the Lord is fine with the blessing)

4) the words are not as important as the faith of the person or the will of the Lord; the part of the lesson that stuck out to me most was the teacher saying, "the Lord will not constrain the love or desires of the person giving the blessing by keeping him from saying what he wants to/feels to". I thought that was a very nice way of explaining why sometimes the things we say will not happen.

5) the Lord's will will affect the outcome of the blessing. Some things asked for won't happen because they're not the Lord's will. I'm appreciative that God knows best and will intervene when he knows he should.

I appreciated our lesson today. Very helpful.

Blessings of the Temple

D.C. 109 has the dedicatory prayer offered at the Kirtland Temple. It's very instructive about the reasons to attend the temple. I just made notes on what I thought were the main 33 messages in those verses. I'm bolding those that list blessings for attending the temple or things that the temple can do to help people. The point is, it's worth it to get there:

1) Recognizes the Lord's involvement in all lives and his commandment to build temple

2) ask Lord to accept the temple

3) Repeat purpose of temple - to help people learn through study and faith and be a house of prayer, fasting, faith, learning, glory, order, God

4) send thy glory on this people

5) people feel God's power and recognize temple's God's house

6) people taught words of widom and seek learning by study and faith

7) grow up in thee and receive fulness of Holy Ghost

8) prepared to obtain every needful thing

9) house become house of order, prayer, learning, faith, etc.

10) no unclean thing come into the house

11) when people transgress speedily repent and return and be restored to blessings

12) servants armed with power and assistance of God and angels

13) ready to bear truth of Gospel

14) no weapon formed against them shall prosper

15) no combination of wickedness shall prevail over them

16) confound those who fight against church and make their works ineffective

17) servants suffer from bearing record of God and gospel

18) deliver from yoke of persecution

19) forgive transgressions of the people

20) seal the anointings done

21) bless with gift of tongues and filled with glory

22) give servants a testimony of the covenant

23) remember the persecuted Saints

24) help the mob repent or destroy them

25) have mercy on all nations, and our nation's rulers, and establish the constitution

26) remember all people

27) help other stakes grow

28) help children of Jacob be gathered/redeemed from this hour; Judah return, and other lineage of Jacob repent

29) remember Joseph Smith

30) remember his family

31) remember the presidents of the church and their families

32) remember all the church and their families that the church may become great and fill the earth

33) help church be pure and ready for the Second Coming to be caught up to meet the Savior

Here's a few of my thoughts:

If you want to be assured that you'll repent quickly after transgressing, be a temple attender.

If you want to know that the church is God's church and the temple is truly God's house, be a temple attender.

If you want to be prepared for the "needful things" that life may throw your way, be they difficult or easy, be a temple attender.

If you want to be a great learner, be a temple attender.

If you want a testimony of the covenant of the Lord to be with his people and love his children, be a temple attender.

If you want to grow in spirituality and have the Holy Ghost as a companion, be a temple attender.

If you want to be a powerful missionary, be a temple attender.

If you want help to overcome wickedness or to be assured that you won't falter when great temptation comes your way, be a temple attender.

If you want to be ready for the Second Coming, be a temple attender.

I saw all of the above promises in those verses in D.C. 109. I have not attended the temple since moving to this area, but we have a plan in place to attend regularly starting next week, and I am excited about it.

Enjoy the temple. As President Monson said, it's worth every effort to make it to the temple.

God is mindful of us - tithing

In this life we walk by faith and it takes eyes that are willing to see and ears that are willing to hear in order to recognize the Gospel and God in our lives. (Matthew 13)

I believe that what happened to me yesterday is an example of God being mindful of me. We just returned from vacation and didn't have any food. I didn't bring any food to work as a result, which I usually do. I certainly could have bought something for lunch, but instead, I was invited to go out to lunch with an engineering candidate. I've never been invited to a lunch specifically for an engineering candidate before yesterday. Perhaps it's a coincidence, but this specific instance happened for me at LEK often as well. 2 times I didn't have food, and those two times someone invited me to eat with them and/or paid for the food.

Our apartment is another example. Jamie did some searching online, but it's helpful to actually see places before committing. We ended up only going to 3 places as we drove around to different apartments without appointments. We liked the third one enough to commit to it. Now that I've seen other apartments and know how much other people pay, I realize that we got a very good deal. If we'd seen 15 apartments we probably would have chosen this one, but we didn't have time to see 15. I really appreciate the blessing we received to end up in a very good place when we had limited time to see apartments. I also see this as the Lord being mindful of us. I assume that our payment of tithing is helpful in this regard.

God is mindful of us. I truly believe that and have been taken care of in small ways many times. It's partially because I've seen his involvement in small things that I also am convinced he is involved in the larger issues in our lives because if he cares enough that I get food for lunch, then he cares enough to watch over my family.

How to come to decisions

Coming to the correct decisions in life is difficult, and involving the Lord is important. Over the past couple years I believe I have learned some things about how to do this. Obviously, the leaders of the church make a lot of decisions about how to help the church progress.

D.C. 107 gives a couple of guides about how the 12 and First Presidency make decisions.

27And every decision made by either of these quorums must be by the ^aunanimous voice of the same; that is, every member in each quorum must be agreed to its decisions, in order to make their decisions of the same power or validity one with the other—

28A majority may form a quorum when circumstances render it impossible to be otherwise—

29Unless this is the case, their decisions are not entitled to the same blessings which the decisions of a quorum of three presidents were anciently, who were ordained after the order of Melchizedek, and were ^arighteous and holy men.

30The decisions of these quorums, or either of them, are to be made in all ^arighteousness, in holiness, and lowliness of heart, meekness and ^blong suffering, and in ^cfaith, and ^dvirtue, and knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity;

31Because the promise is, if these things abound in them they shall not be ^aunfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord.

A unanimous decision is important in order for the decision to be "blessed". I am not sure if the blessing comes because if there is unanimity it is a good decision or because God honors the decisions made by his chosen leaders, but either way, if they make a unanimous decision it appears that it's a good one.

In addition, there are certain key attributes to have when making decisions:

are to be made in all ^arighteousness, in holiness, and lowliness of heart, meekness and ^blong suffering, and in ^cfaith, and ^dvirtue, and knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity;

31Because the promise is, if these things abound in them they shall not be ^aunfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord.

Contrast these verses with the perception many have that a leader must show no weakness and needs to make tough decisions in an aggressive manner. The Lord suggests that living correctly so that you have the Spirit giving knowledge will help a person make wise decisions.

I appreciate these verses. The idea that the decisions of the church leaders are blessed also implies that there are not specific decisions that have to be made (or pre-destined decisions that are critical for the church to move forward). Instead, they do their best and if they are living well and come to unanimous decisions, their decisions will be good ones/will be blessed. This is comforting to me in my own life. If the church leaders don't have to make perfect decisions at the perfect time, I can be confident that I too can do my best and if I make the best decisions I can that the Lord will bless those.

Have a great day.