A few weeks back I let Jed know that I was being released in our ward as a Nursery worker (teaching / playing / snacking with kids 18 months to 3 yrs old each Sunday). I was released because I was being called to be the Assistant Ward Mission Leader. So I went ahead and asked my son for advice. He said, "...Advice:
Have regular correlation [ward missionaries and full-time missionaries to discussing the Elder's teaching needs] meetings. They help so much.
Go out and help the missionaries teach, they need members to help them. I have a different perspective of that now that I'm out here, and I went a couple of times with them, but I should have gone more.
Have the missionaries over for dinner. It doesn't have to be anything special, but it just lets them know that you're aware of them.
Another word of advice, there's a lot of good missionaries, but get to know them first.
Give the missionaries service opportunities. Out here, we don't get ANY, and I want to do service!
Those are some of my words of advice for you. I know that as missionaries, we kinda forget that other people have lives, so they'll probably call you at the most inopportune times, but some of our greatest lessons have been with members." I will see what I can do on these good tidbits.
He told his mom that it is a pretty small world. "...We have a stake high counselor who has a grandson on a mission, and when I told him where I was from, he was like, "oh, my grandson went on exchanges in Eagle Mountain the other day!" So you probably had an English lad from where I'm serving walking by the house where you all live, while I'm here, walking past his house where his family lives. It's crazy how small of a world it is!...". Another way it is a small world is that we told him about one of the members of our ward (a little girl) that was badly burned by a boiling pot of water she accidentally pulled down on herself. He said, "...I will pray for [them]. That's really scary...". I love how he can participate with us in this effort while serving the Lord in England.
Jed's Brother is preparing to go on a mission soon also. He was attending a meeting to prepare him and learned that it is important to ask the right questions. Elder Murri agree's with that and gave us a challenge: "Asking the right questions makes a difference! It's amazing how the right question can change a conversation. I've seen that happen! Practice teaching with questions during FHE [Family Home Evening - where we take a night and spend time as a family doing activities and talking about the gospel] or something, and you'll see the difference that it makes.". I guess Jed has had an opportunity to hone that skill as he describes Kings Lynn this way, "...King's Lynn is a really small town, and so a lot of the people here have already seen missionaries or have heard about the church, so we have to come up with creative ways to find. We took a guitar out the other day, and I played, and Elder Hesen sang, so we might try that some more, we took a whiteboard out and did pictionary finding, we've done card finding, all sorts of stuff. We have to be creative up here...".
Ultimately there are sweet rewards to your efforts, even if you are not there to see them as he shares, "...Two of the people that we were teaching in Enfield before I left were baptised yesterday, and that was so cool to see those pictures! They've done so well!"
It is good to hear he is doing his best ... and becoming fully immersed in the British society - notice his spelling of baptized (or if in England - baptised). :)
Have regular correlation [ward missionaries and full-time missionaries to discussing the Elder's teaching needs] meetings. They help so much.
Go out and help the missionaries teach, they need members to help them. I have a different perspective of that now that I'm out here, and I went a couple of times with them, but I should have gone more.
Have the missionaries over for dinner. It doesn't have to be anything special, but it just lets them know that you're aware of them.
Another word of advice, there's a lot of good missionaries, but get to know them first.
Give the missionaries service opportunities. Out here, we don't get ANY, and I want to do service!
Those are some of my words of advice for you. I know that as missionaries, we kinda forget that other people have lives, so they'll probably call you at the most inopportune times, but some of our greatest lessons have been with members." I will see what I can do on these good tidbits.
He told his mom that it is a pretty small world. "...We have a stake high counselor who has a grandson on a mission, and when I told him where I was from, he was like, "oh, my grandson went on exchanges in Eagle Mountain the other day!" So you probably had an English lad from where I'm serving walking by the house where you all live, while I'm here, walking past his house where his family lives. It's crazy how small of a world it is!...". Another way it is a small world is that we told him about one of the members of our ward (a little girl) that was badly burned by a boiling pot of water she accidentally pulled down on herself. He said, "...I will pray for [them]. That's really scary...". I love how he can participate with us in this effort while serving the Lord in England.
Jed's Brother is preparing to go on a mission soon also. He was attending a meeting to prepare him and learned that it is important to ask the right questions. Elder Murri agree's with that and gave us a challenge: "Asking the right questions makes a difference! It's amazing how the right question can change a conversation. I've seen that happen! Practice teaching with questions during FHE [Family Home Evening - where we take a night and spend time as a family doing activities and talking about the gospel] or something, and you'll see the difference that it makes.". I guess Jed has had an opportunity to hone that skill as he describes Kings Lynn this way, "...King's Lynn is a really small town, and so a lot of the people here have already seen missionaries or have heard about the church, so we have to come up with creative ways to find. We took a guitar out the other day, and I played, and Elder Hesen sang, so we might try that some more, we took a whiteboard out and did pictionary finding, we've done card finding, all sorts of stuff. We have to be creative up here...".
Ultimately there are sweet rewards to your efforts, even if you are not there to see them as he shares, "...Two of the people that we were teaching in Enfield before I left were baptised yesterday, and that was so cool to see those pictures! They've done so well!"
It is good to hear he is doing his best ... and becoming fully immersed in the British society - notice his spelling of baptized (or if in England - baptised). :)