To the Missionaries of the Great Texas Houston Mission,
It is exciting to see the fruits of increased unity within the mission. As we are all striving to find more consistently in order to have two baptisms by the end of the year, we are seeing a significant surge in baptismal dates. It is remarkable to see that as we share a purpose/vision and an understanding of what is required to achieve it, miracles happen. This will always be the case no matter the organization of which you are a part. Unity is essential in marriages, families, wards/branches, workplaces, sports, etc if we are going to accomplish our objectives.
We reiterate our challenge to you to be sure you are getting at least 6 days of ITLs. We need to allow our efforts to find define us and our discipleship. The promises the Savior makes to His disciples is that the "seekers will find." We are seeing that here. Let's hold one another accountable to be sure we qualify for the blessings the Lord promises to the faithful.
We trust you had uplifting zone meetings and that you came away feeling like you are part of a team that is focused and committed to the Lord and to each other. As you know, we role played a way of how to effectively read with an investigator. We worried that because we chose 1 Ne 8 and because you have already role played that, maybe our focus and concentration wasn't where it needed to be to really understand the principles we wanted to teach. Instead, it seemed as though we reverted to what we have always done and may have missed the point.
Elders and Sisters, we are not reading with them to explain to them a story about someone else. We are reading with them to "put them in the story" which is to do as Nephi did when he says "I did read unto them that which was written...; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." Interestingly, he says that he read the scriptures with his people to, "more fully PERSUADE them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer" (1 Ne 19:23). We must do likewise.
With this in mind, we request that each of you read together as companions the tips described on pages 110-111 in PMG about how to help investigators read and understand. Note: reading with investigators should happen throughout our teaching experience with them, NOT just after the first lesson.
Consider the following principles of reading the scriptures with an investigator:
1. Stop frequently. If we read too much without a break to keep us together, we lose them.
2. Stay together. This means as you stop, discuss what you read to ensure understanding and be sure they are reading along.
3. Put the investigator in the story. Make sure you are not explaining someone else's experience, but rather you are reading someone else's experience because it relates so well to what the investigator is going through.
We promise you that as we read The Book of Mormon more effectively, those we teach will begin to feel the spiritual power associated with that book and the chances of them experiencing a "mighty change of heart" will increase dramatically.
Love,
President and Sister Mortensen
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| Bear Creek Zone |
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| College Station West Zone |
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| College Station East Zone |
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| Cypress Zone |
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| Houston North English Zone |
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| Houston North Spanish Zone |
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| Houston West North Zone |
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| Houston West South Zone |
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| Katy Zone |
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| Klein Zone |
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| Spring Zone |
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| The Woodlands Zone |
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| Mission Leadership Council |
We attended Zone Meeting in the Cypress Zone last Friday. We loved being in that great zone and learning from each other. Here are some pictures taken that day.
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| Role playing |
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| Cypress Zone |
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| Senior Missionary Conference at the Chappells (not pictured: the beautiful Sis. Chappell) |
