June 27, 2011

Dear Family,

A great week with Elder Dehnike. He’s a super fun guy and likes to talk a lot and we get along great. This week has been quite fun. A couple highlights. José got called to be a ward missionary!!! He’s so awesome! He went home teaching for the first time this week and afterward told us: "It seems to me like as a home teacher a 15-minute visit once a month doesn’t come even close to what these people need. The church also needs more strong leadership to help the weak inactives to progress." I was pretty much wowed. We happily explained him that he had caught the right vision of home teaching, that you are taking charge over the well being of the people and that you are being their ministering angel. This week we’re going to tell him that we need him to help us find strong leadership to teach. He’s such a stud. It’s gonna be hard to leave him. We’ve really formed a great friendship.

Other fun thing! You remember how we had done a fireside about sharing the gospel with friends? Well we did, about a month ago, and a whopping 7 people came. The bishop had a great idea, though, for us to teach the same thing but in Mutual and in RS, so we did. As we prepared it for each specific occasion, it turned out better and more refined, and the one we taught to YM/YW this week was really good. We taught that there are 4 basic steps:

1 Live the Gospel. Be an example (1 Tim. 4:12). Let your light so shine!

2 Pray for opportunities to share (Matt 7:7). When the opportunities come...

3 Answer gospel questions with simple, direct responses, full of testimony. Share your personal experience and blessings you have received.

and none of this is worth anything unless you...

4 Invite! They can come to church, activities, firesides, conference, mutual, visit the church website, read the Book of Mormon, read pamphlets, come to a Family Home Evening, come to a dinner with the missionaries, meet with the missionaries, etc.. There are tons of things you can invite your friends to do, and you’ll never know unless you invite them. In Preach My Gospel it teaches a cool commitment pattern: Invite, Promise, Testify. e.g. "Our family is having a FHE this Monday and we’d love for you to come to see how it is. You’ll see how much family unity it brings and you’ll feel a really special spirit. Doing FHE has really helped my family to grow together and teach my children to live righteously. So will you come?" Easy, no? And you don’t even have to use the words invite, promise, or testify to do it.

So yeah, it was fun. Use it and send me your success stories so I can share them with the members here.

I’d like to finish up sharing my love for the Gospel. Six years ago I gained a whole new perspective on things. I really know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and that by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel our families can be together forever. Obedience brings protection, security, and happiness. Ether 12:4. I know that when I am obedient, not only do I have an anchor in this life, but the hope to live with my family after this life. Remember Carrie!

I love you all!!!!

-Elder Jonathan Spencer