The Laoag and on to Nauvoo and then on to Martin's Cove Blog: March 5, 2016

Mom and I took our first load to our new home this morning. We had just finished our walk and decided to get ready for our site assignments and use the remaining time to take some clothes and various items that we won't need in the next two days over to our new house. I still have not had time to take pictures!.... Sorry! But this will be a great move we think. After our shifts in the sites today, we went back over and hung some pictures. The full effort to move will take place Monday afternoon and we will be in the new home for our first night there Monday evening.

Our morning devotional and our morning prayers were uplifting and inspiring. Our morning walk was refreshing and invigorating. And we both had separate assignments at the sites today. Mom was at the Lyon Drug Store and I was at the Blacksmith shop. We both had several visitors and kept busy most of the day. In fact, Levi had his blanket finished today while mom was working at the Lyon Drug!

We closed out our day by attending the Nauvoo Stake Conference adult session. I was grateful for the opportunity to attend this meeting. Talks were given on the Sabbath Day observance, which appears to be a major theme and thrust for the leaders of the Church. Missionary work was also discussed, and I was able to pick up some new ideas!

President David O. McKay coined the phrase, "every member a missionary". It seems that the Lord has mandated that we are all responsible to share the Gospel. However, in our evening prayers as a family, how many times have we prayed for the missionaries something like this; "help the missionaries to find the honest in heart who are ready to receive the Gospel". And then how many full time missionaries have petitioned the Lord with prayers something like this' "please help the members to find the honest in heart who are ready to receive the Gospel"???

Both groups are praying that the other group do the work of finding! Someone has got to step it up and it needs to be all of us! An example was given in the Scriptures in perhaps one of the most quoted verses in the Book of Mormon. In Moroni Chapter 10 verse 4 we read;

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

In this verse we usually understand that when someone reads the Book of Mormon, if they pray about it, they will be converted. However, there are three key points in this verse that need our attention; "ask with a sincere heart", "with real intent", (what does that mean?), and "having faith in Christ". In this verse, isn't it appropriate to follow the counsel of Moroni and incorporate this prayer into "finding" investigators? Perhaps using this verse as a means to prepare ourselves to sharing the Gospel with others, "after" we have received the Gospel ourselves? Makes a lot of sense to me and I need to change my approach just a little!

And for those of us who feel we are not good missionaries, maybe this will take some pressure off of our shoulders; studies have shown that it takes seven (7) contacts with members of the Church, before someone excepts the precious truths of the Gospel! So, as member missionaries, as we try to share the Gospel with someone and we feel "rejected", who's to say that we weren't their #4 or #5 contact? Of course we all want to be that golden 7th contact, but that's not going to always happen!! We just need to open our mouths and share what we know to be true, as the opportunities that we have prayed for each morning and each night present themselves, and let us fall within that 1 to 7 range anywhere we are needed!!...

I hope those thoughts help you as you consider every member a missionary.... It has sure helped me! By the way, there was a beautiful sunrise this morning... take a look;