08 Sep 10 - 15 Sep 10

12:12 PM

One more week until I'll be singing 24 by Switchfoot. Then I'll only have about 6 more months left til I can come home. I can already see all the parties that I'm going to be throwing. Just like old times. But until then, I'm stuck on a mission in the wonderful land of Salt Lake City. Sigh...

Things are really slow for me here. If it weren't for Elder Mitchell, I'd go crazy. I cover two stakes/sixteen wards. One stake refuses to do any missionary work at all and then blames us because there is no work. The other stake is pretty good. We can still use a lot more work though since we can't tract out here. Everyone is either Active, Less Active, or Anti.

So I was talking with a Ward Mission Leader yesterday about the work in his ward. He's got two missionaries split up between sixteen wards so there's very little work going on right now. But, if every member fellowshipped just one person whether they be less active or nonmember, the work would increase a hundred times over. So much so that we would actually have no time to work in the other wards (unless it's in our dead time which consists of all morning and all afternoon).

What does fellowshipping consist of? Well, all it really involves is being a friend and encouraging their friend that the gospel will help their life. People are scared to do missionary work because in their minds there are only two things: 1. Be all gung ho and call everyone out to repentance and commit them to be baptized, or 2. Don't do anything at all and just leave it for someone else to do. People are lazy so they'll generally go with the second choice. Then there are the crazy ones who choose number one and drive people away from the church. All we need to do is tell people that God loves them and he asks them to follow Him.

When a missionary invites someone to go to church, we don't do it on the premonition [premise]that we're going to totally ignore them. We'll sit with them and explain what's going on and walk them through things. One reason people don't come to church is because everyone ignores them and they feel unwanted. Would you like to feel like that? When a missionary invites someone to pray, they'll pray first to show them how it's done and then help them to say their own prayer. One reason people don't pray is because they hear all these elaborate prayers to God and feel inadequate to talk to God with their basic understanding. With anything, we need help. God does not help those who help themselves.

Back home, I helped out as much as I could because for some odd reason or another, others needed my help. How many lives did I touch with my acts of kindness and my selflessness? No say. Course I had my problems, but that was always put on the back burner when it came to others. Shouldn't we do the same with those who fell away or those who don't need the Gospel? Don't they need help even more so than us? If it's a true principle that when we put God first, everything else falls into place, then shouldn't we let God take care of our problems and instead focus on helping people without God in their lives?

I know this church is true. I hope I've shown that by my words and deeds. Trust and Faith. Place those two things in God and we'll never be led astray or fall from the path that we've been placed on. Remember, the first and great commandmant is Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Later ya'll
Elder Garcia