May 19, 2014

Elder Low's report:

A while back I read about Ammon and the sons of Mosiah, which I reviewed a little bit this week. What I looked at was particularly was a pattern I noticed between both Ammon's teaching approach with king Lamoni and that of the sons of Mosiah when they later teach his father. They are very similar; both groups demonstrate humility and instead of announcing themselves as great teachers, they proclaim themselves as servants. Then they move on to teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ which both king Lamoni and his father act upon immediately, having come to understand the role of these missionaries in their lives, and trusting in them. Forgive me for reading between the lines, but it seems to me that this was not a coincidence. Ammon had found great success among the Lamanites by using this technique, and I feel like he shared the secret to his success with his friends when he rescued them. Then they must have done something very difficult, having seen little success so far they were humble enough to accept the advice of their friend and because of it, thousands of people were baptized and converted, and as it says in the scriptures "never fell away."

This week we were having a lot of heartache with our investigators as they were not keeping their commitments. We kept giving they more, kept trying with them, kept sharing doctrine, but again and again they just were not keeping commitments. As we were nearing the end of the week the zone leaders went on a fire exchange with us. After Elder N and I knocked doors he gave me some advice about how I dealt with the people. He said "one thing that has helped him is whenever he knocks a door or talks to someone he makes sure that he does everything he can; talking to them the simplest and boldest he can, to save their soul," and challenged me to be more bold with my investigators. I'm not going to lie it was a tough cookie to swallow, but I knew it would help. Later that day I called an investigator up to see if he'd come to church. He said he had planned to watch a football game with his friends that day and couldn't come. remembering the advice I told him, "Dave, if you do not come to church this Sunday you cannot get baptized the next, and you won't feel the peace that we know you are looking for." Suddenly understanding the doctrine he agreed to come, stating, "if that's what it takes then I'll do it."

I know as we are humble enough to consider the teachings and advice given to us by our leaders and those we care about, including the Lord, we will see blessings, watching ourselves change, and we come closer and closer unto Christ.

Elder Low