March 30, 2010

Hey Y'all,
Well, this week was interesting. I still am with my new temporary companion---this Wednesday we should know what will happen for the rest of the transfer. This week, as of Saturday, I have officially knocked on every single door in this area. Now, whenever I see a door I don't remember knocking on, we knock on it...it doesn't happen often.

This past two weeks have been some of the more trying ones of my mission. My Ward seems to be less focused on missionary work than would be preferred. It is really hard to find a new investigator by tracting---the odds are something like one in a thousand. On top of that my new comp managed to offend more than a few members already, without meaning to do so. One thing I have realized about the Gospel and missionary work is, you can never motivate someone, especially members, with guilt. It does not work. All motivation is and should be done with love which will inspire desire. That's how the church as a whole is run. People impose enough guilt on themselves---they don't need any one else helping them along. What they need is love and encouragement and even support. This is what I wish my new comp could envision with me because at the moment we are teaching members and asking them for referrals which are some of the hardest lessons I've taught yet. Basically, the moral is, if your members are frustrated with you, then they won't trust you with a referral...all of this combines to result in my last two weeks of a fire of refinement.

This Sunday was a little exciting. One of the speakers didn't make it so the Bishop called me and my comp up to share our testimonies. I totally saw it coming. So when I got up there I had no clue what to talk about and as I gazed over the families, I realized families would be a proper topic so I spoke of families, the Gospel, and its effect on them. I spoke of how in Luke it talks of the "Kingdom of God is within us." If you think of it plainly, the Gospel simply brings out the best in us...that is the purpose of it. I told them how I had written a letter to myself in the MTC to open at one year out and how I never thought I would actually ever read it again---how I never really envisioned myself serving a mission and how I suppose ten years from now I will look back and say again that I never saw myself getting there, holding this calling, with this wife and this family. That is what the Gospel does. I then asked them to look at the families they associate with and share with me the vision of what the gospel could do with their families---to put those families in the picture frame of the Gospel. That is the best way I know how to ask for a referral and, what do you know, but the Lord made it possible for me to ask the whole ward at once! Tender Mercies rock!!

Well I Love Y'all,

Elder Schroeder
Reported by Mom