Elder D. Todd Christofferson (Apr. '20): "Sharing the Message of the Restoration and the Resurrection"

A NOTE:
Maintaining this blog at this time might be one of the most optimistic things I have done in recent memory :), although I am sure we will eventually be meeting together again for church.  I just have no idea when that will be.  Still, I want to continue this blog even in these times as an expression of hope.  In the meantime, I have begun a separate blog that focuses on sharing ideas to explore the messages of general conference in our homes.  That blog can be found here. 

Lessons on missionary work can be difficult. Often they end up feeling like a guilt trip or some sort of step-by-step process we are to follow to magically bring all of our neighbors to the waters of Baptism.  In my experience, those lessons were only marginally helpful and they often imply messages that are rather un-Christ-like.  This activity is designed to focus on the need to simply love those around us as Christ would, i.e. for their own sakes and not simply in the hopes that they will be baptized. 

The Activity:

1. Ask the class members to talk with a neghbor about how it feels when we try to do missionary work and those we invite are not interested.  Come back together and discuss some of the class members' thoughts as a whole group.
2. Read par. 22 ("Perhaps it goes . . . love remains constant").
3. Discuss lessons learned from this quote.
4. Read the story of Uncle Jonathon (par. 12-15:  "Years ago, our . . . to be baptized").
5. Ask the class members to silently ponder who they could make a greater effort to love as the Ho Ching family loved Jonathon.
6. Ask them to identify one thing they can do to strengthen your relationship with this person, e.g. send a text, pray for greater love, go visit them (according to local health guidelines, of course), etc.
7. Have them make a note of their plan in their phones and set an alarm to remind them to do it.

Using the Activity:

Ultimately, if we want our class members to gain a testimony of something, they must do it.  So, this activity is focused on reducing the anxiety some people feel about needing to invite people to attend church, read the Book of Mormon, or meet with the missionaries and on focusing all of our attention on simply loving those around us.  Then, to take action to love in more Christ-like ways those around us.  

For this last step, it may even be appropriate to ask them to take out their phones right there and reach out to someone in their contact list with a short text expressing concern and interest.  A few months back we had stake conference and our visiting general authority asked us to do something like this in our meeting.  The results were widespread and were tremendously positive.  I don't know anyone who was baptized as a result of those texts (that activity was not focused on missionary work, just on loving as Christ did), but many were comforted and uplifted.  

Finally, I have a great testimony of love being the key to missionary work.  We lived for a time in a small town in the rural Midwest.  The missionary work was slow in the area until we got a new branch president (there were a lot of factors, but this seemed to be the catalyst for everything else) and he preached love.  We just focused on loving everyone who was there with us.  We didn't worry about who was smoking or struggling with whatever problems (spiritual, economic, or otherwise), we just befriended everyone.  Soon, we were leading the mission in baptisms and sacrament attendance grew from about 40 to consistently over 100.  Within a few years, the branch became a ward.  I am convinced the key was simply that we loved the heck out of people.

In any case, I hope that this activity is useful as is or with slight modification.  God bless.