6 January 2014 Happy New Year!

  Yes, we watched Muppet Christmas Carol at our mission conference. Pres Baker's message was about Christmas in the trenches of WWI and how on Christmas eve the Germans held a sign out of the trench saying, "You no shoot, we no shoot." On Christmas, the enemies of a few days ago, were sharing their Christmas traditional treats, caroling, and spending time together. He recounted the power of The Savior and how it mended two enemy nations who were previously destroying each other.

  Good to know that things are going good back home. Hope that family gets baptized. Pray for them. J.and L. are the couple we're teaching. They came to Church again. Sounds like the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit would be cool.

The following is what I emailed Pres. Baker when he asked, "How did the 3rd hour meeting go? What resources did you use?"

""It helps that our Bishop is so young, having his mission in Utah fresh in his mind. Elder Aitken has a DVD with segments of The Work of Salvation broadcast so we showed those; the one of the bishop in Schefield England and the Ward mission leader one. 

We then read in Preach my Gospel where "The ideal situation is when members invite others to be taught and are present for the teaching. When members do this, more people are baptized and remain active in the Church." We then talked about setting a ward mission plan and involving the members so it became their plan, not just ward councils.

 Bishop then told of an account where a sister in the ward called every sister in the ward to let them know milk was on sale at Wal-mart. He then asked how sad it was that we can't do that with our friends with the Gospel. Elder Aitken then mentions fear. No one would say, "You want me to save money on milk? How dare you, I'm offended, we're not friends anymore." Then, "How dare you invite me to have a happier family! I can't believe you would ask me to have a more peaceful life. How dare you share your happy church with me." The analogy made sense to the members that then made comments like, "That makes sense." and, "Well how do we do this as members?"

 President, we had members of the ward showing the faith to ask us to set the goal of twenty baptisms this year. We then shared the statistic that 1 of 5,000 people found  tracting get baptized. 1 of 3 found by a member gets baptized.That plus 100+ referrals that The Lord God Omnipotent, Maker of Heaven and Earth, told you that they are ready to talk to the missionaries blew their minds. It was terrific. The Spirit was so strong.

 I then asked how many of them in class were converts. 2/3rds raised their hands. I asked them to look around. "This is a missionary ward! Do you not see that? It's natural for you." I still thank The Lord for this ward, times may be tough and slow, but it is the best I've had on my Mission. It makes me wonder how The Lord feels with our progress. Is He asking, "Progress faster, can't you see yourself grow?" I wish like Elder Anderson, we would not only catch "The Wave", but surf it and use it.
The Lord is in all of it.   My question is --How can one not see this?

 You as well have a wonderful week President. ""

Have a great week ya'll

Love, Elder Meyerink