Letter #19

Elder Pearson presented this graph at MLC. A study was done of missionaries that showed that the effort/diligence of the missionary and the missionary’s attitude/attributes move them toward greater faith. There is a place for each missionary where their frontier of faith begins but before their personal frontier they face barriers that stop them from reaching their frontier of faith, breaking through and finding miracles. We wondered how the Leaders would present this in Zone meeting this week. This assignment was given to the STLs (Sister Training Leaders). They did an amazing job! They had everyone go outside where they had drawn the graph on the patio and they used the missionaries as participants on the graph. They put three missionaries inside the graph and then had a “Holy Ghost” and a “Satan” join them as they faced their barriers. Some of the barriers were, “Its hot outside”, “All of your appointments cancelled”, and “Your companion is upset about some news from home”. As the three missionaries faced their barriers our sweet Elder Galbreath (the missionary/gentleman from Georgia) told them calmly that “Frostys are only 99 cents at Wendy’s and they needed a little break.” “Everyone had cancelled on them anyway, they could go home and “chill” for a bit”, “In fact, today had been a bad day all together, if they went home, tomorrow would be better”. He was such a gentle Satan that it was hard to see any harm in what he suggested. Our poor Holy Ghost was having a terrible time sounding as reasonable as Elder Galbreath! It took our missionaries on the graph to voice out loud their own determination to get past the barrier and break through to the miracles to make it happen. It was a great way to present these ideas to the other missionaries. I was so impressed. I learned more from them than I did from the presentation at MLC. They went on to teach about the principle of alignment. All spiritual power is a function of alignment with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Being in alignment qualifies us to receive their power. Faith is a principle of power and alignment. I had been looking forward to seeing how they would “pass on” the training they received. It was the first time we had been invited to listen in at MLC. I don’t think we will ever get over being amazed with these young missionaries. As you watch them in the mission field you realize how under-utilized they are when they come home. They are so used to being in charge, to studying, to testifying but when they go home they “retire”. Elder Pearson told them in strong terms that there needs to be a generation of Leaders in the Church that would be ready to stand against the world before the Savior comes again. They need a “Vision of Who They Are”. I learned that Satan doesn’t need to be loud or unreasonable to lead you astray. Those gentle whisperings that turn me aside from the right are not the Holy Ghost. We have listened to many talks lately that repeat that we need to learn what the promptings of the Holy Ghost feel like to us, individually, so that we can recognize them and follow. It was a fun and powerful training.

We are at the end of our list. We have a few people that refuse to be found and we haven’t had success with any of our other tools either.  BUT, we are at the end of our list! It has taken 4 ½ months but we are at the end of the list! We receive about 10 names a week that are new move-ins that we will continue to visit and we still have some clean-up and re-visits to do but we are at the end of our list! Our new move-in list rarely is someone that has recently moved in. We found one lady that has probably lived in her house for 30 years but the Church somehow found a P.O. box address and we tracked her down on Facebook to Reno and followed up by finding her real address with U.S. Search. Our detective skills are amazing. : ) She was surprised when we showed up but was kind. We have moved out an average of 100 records a month. I guess the official number right now is 533. I want to make a list now of the nice and the naughty ones that are left and have a visit with Santa Claus before Christmas this year. There are definitely some of them that should get a lump of coal in their stockings. We heard at MLC that one Senior Missionary calculated that it takes 32 visits before people’s hearts are softened. I asked Elder Hardman if that included the countless times we knock on the door before we find them home. Only 31 visits/person left to go!

We went to visit a less active Sister that recently moved in. We had a nice visit and I told her I needed to go because I had a R.S. dinner to go to and would she like to come? She grabbed her purse and off we went. She talked with everyone and was fun to have along. She did tell me that if church were like R.S. activities she would always come. : )

So where are you on the graph? Are you stuck behind a barrier or pushing forward toward a miracle? If you are hearing a soft, Southern voice in your head telling you to give up or give in, DON’T LISTEN!

The Gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

p.s. To let you know that Elder Galbreath really is an amazing missionary and not like Satan at all we have included a picture of something Elder Galbreath pointed out to us. This is at a downtown motel. It is our laugh for the week. In case you can’t tell, it is a filled-in swimming pool, now read the sign that is posted.