An Eye Opening Experience

I would like to thank the volunteers from the Cedar Hills 1st ward that came as "investigators" to class. Bro. Hooker is out of town and I am so grateful to them for their help and extremely valuable suggestions. The class was not expecting this and did not shrink at the opportunity even though it was not easy.  

Here is Derek Martin and Justin Alldridge teaching Bro. Henderson (Who has been called to serve with his wife to the Atlanta Georgia Mission).  They learned that they needed to first discover what his basic understanding was before they started to teach him. For example, does he believe in God or Jesus Christ?  Great lessons to learn now in our "Safe" environment!  This was a hard thing and I am so proud of them both for being willing to try!

Here are two darling sisters.  Kaylie Kofford and Ashley Nicholes.  They were very scared to try and teach, but said they knew they needed to try anyway!  That's the missionary spirit!!  The Lord will reward their willingness.  And they did better than they thought.  They are teaching Sister Henderson.  She was a convert at age 20 and explained that the members are the ones that really made all the difference in her conversion.  A very important lesson to remember- to always involve the members in your lessons.

These 3 fine prospective elders- Javen Morris, Quincy Breur and Mckay Willie are teaching Bro. Shawn Madsen.  Their first excellent question was "How do you start a conversation with someone?" From that inspired question- and thank you for asking because that's the most important step to learning, we learned from Bro. Madsen that you have to first just get to know the person before you can start to teach them.  Ask questions like, tell me a little bit about yourself? what do you like to do? Also, look around the room if you are in their home and comment on the things you see and ask quesitons about them.  For example, if you see a fishing pole, ask if they like to fish and get to know them first. Now you are teaching people not lessons!

Here we have Ethan Durocher, Kamryn Eslinger and Alejandro Diaz.  They are teaching Bro. Daniel Zappala.  He is a convert also and asked some great questions to these young men.  One was "How do you know you have been forgiven?", also "What is modern revelation? and how do you know its not just your mind telling you?"  Yep!  We had our eyes opened!  But Bro. Zappala explained that you will never know all the answers to the questions you will be asked, but you can always bring the spirit and that is the most powerful teacher by far!  Trust the spirit.

Bro. Nick Ivins is being taught by Adam Packer, Caroline Stewart and Makelle Jenkins.  Yes we know this would never happen on a mission, but it works for now :-)  This group discovered that you need to speak from the heart, from personal experiences and bear testimony of why you know what you are teaching is true. 

I think I learned more from this experience than anyone.  Thank you parents for sending your sons and daughters and letting them teach us and each other!  Hopefully our eyes were opened today and we can take time to learn more and understand what we need to work on.

Invitation for next week:

1.  Study how to introduce the Book of Mormon and how to pray from the pamphlet. You can also refer to the colored handout you received earlier. Try teaching it in your FHE.  Let your family participate and make suggestions.

2.  Read PMG page 38-40 to help with this.

3.  Read the letter we handed out in class and discuss it with your parents.  Come with suggestions about how you can overcome the challenges mentioned in the letter. I will email a copy of it to you.